Why I Love Brett Favre

My favorite athlete of all time retired this past week. He didn't exactly go out on top, but he very much went out on top of his game. Take away the freak show in New England and Favre would have easily won the MVP this past season. It would have been his fourth. That would have been more MVP awards than all other players combined*. I don't know how many touchdowns he threw, but I know it was the most (and yes, I know that is also true of interceptions). I also know he threw for the equivalent distance of circling the Earth nine times and a round trip to Saturn*. But those aren't the reasons he was my favorite. These are the reasons he was my favorite...

5) He freakin loved to play football. He was out there having a blast, cutting up with teammates, coaches, opponents, refs, anyone that would listen. I think he was really good at realizing that he got paid a lot of money to play a game, a game that he was really good at. It seemed that he never took that for granted.

4) He was tough. I think he started like 1,232 games in a row*. This wasn't injury-free mind you. In 2003 he had a broken thumb on his right hand and still tied for the lead in touchdown passes. One might argue that he played through blindness in the 2006 season... and I couldn't argue that.

3) Monday Night Football Games featuring Favre were a holiday for myself and Bubba Bullock. The last one I remember celebrating ended with him throwing for a 125* yard touhdown on the first play of overtime to win the game. His finest was his performance the day after his father passed away, throwing for 399 and 4 touchdowns, the stuff legends are made of. Honorable mention for his part in Antonio Freeman's incredible sliding on his belly rolling over on his back grabbing the ball and winning the game play. And I know Madden probably got on your nerves with his man-crush on Favre, but Madden just got on my nerves anyway, and since I love Favre the man-crush never really bothered me.

2) He was great. He had great play-making ability. Making plays by scrambling, scraping, throwing off a defender, head-butting a defender, convincing a defender they didn't want to tackle him, underhanding a pass, drop kicking a pass, whatever it took. He had a great arm. They say he's broken five players' hands*. He could throw the deep ball as well as anyone. He could thread a needle with the best of them too. I don't kid myself and think that he's the best quarterback of all time, that's just not the case. I do believe he belongs somewhere in the top ten, but maybe not even the top five. I'm not saying he's the best, just my favorite and mainly for my number one reason...

1) He played the quarterback position exactly like I would. I would have an extremely hard time just throwing the ball away and would probably throw as many interceptions as he did. I too would go long about every third play because going long is awesome, and results in a touchdown so much more than a screen. I would also scramble around and try some crazy flip pass to my running back in the flat. The only thing is, I would never be as good at any of that as he was. Nobody will ever play as crazy, as against the mold as Brett Favre and be nearly as successful as he was.

*Facts not checked

My Favorite Movie Moments

Once again I've been inspired by a fellow blogger to make a list. What follows is a list of my five favorite movie moments. It would be far more accurate to say this is simply a list of movie moments that I really like. I didn't spend nearly enough time considering all the great moments in all the great movies I've seen. That would have taken a couple days solid and you people just don't pay me enough for that. Anyway, here goes, in no particular order...

1. Mr. Orange unloads a clip into Mr. Blonde (Reservoir Dogs)

After slicing the cop's face to pieces and even cutting off his ear Mr. Blonde was about to set the cop ablaze. Watching this all go down you're filled with anger and hatred, disgust and sadness, but not so much that you're not enjoying "Stuck in the Middle with You" playing in the background. And suddenly Mr. Orange wakes up and fires away until his gun goes click, and then even makes it go click a couple more times just for good measure. Nice.

2. "My friends, you bow to no one" (The Return of the King)

So basically the Hobbits just saved the world and they're trying to pay their respects to the new king Aragorn. He instead turns the table and bows to them, along with everyone there, which includes like 14 different races of men. You kind of need to really understand Middle Earth to know how cool that was. Take my word for it, it was cool.

3. Sheriff throws his coffee mug at Lebowski's face (The Big Lebowski)

He threw his mug, that he was drinking out of, with stuff in it, at his face. Hilarious.

4. Screaming into the infinite abyss (Garden State)

Largeman is feeling the affects of not taking his medication, feelings and emotions. They've just visited with people that really savored love and adventure and all these great things that were so much bigger than themselves; all these things that Largeman has been completely numb to most of his life. He's finally waking up and acts on an urge and climbs atop some broken down earth mover and screams at the top of his lungs into the bottomless cavern. But it's when he's joined by his friends that really gets me. Drenched in rain, wearing trashbags, screaming into a hole, with Simon and Garfunkel playing loudly. Beautiful.

5. Jack Black sings Let's Get it On (High Fidelity)

Completely unexpected. And really freakin good. I don't really like night clubs, and I sure don't like dancing, but everytime I watch that I have the urge to be there, dancing.

So there's that. Agree or disagree?

Help Me Out

So I've spent the last couple hours listening to U2 and that always reminds me of how awesome music is. if you haven't discovered launch.com go check it out. You can view most any music video. Ok, I don't know if that's true, but they had like 50 videos for U2. That's good enough for me to say they have most any music video.

I consider myself to be a huge fan of music, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm pretty much an amateur. My IPod is like 4% full (it's important to note though that it's an 80 gigger and I don't steal music). I still enjoy my guilty pleasures: Linkin Park and Blink 182. I know that's pretty much a sin to you music connoisseurs, but I can't help it. I listen to the greats and I still enjoy the cheap pop rock stuff. I share your hated for Nickelback if that helps. But let's not kid ourselves, Kelly Clarkson is good.

Just within the past couple years I've come to know and love the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. I did this with the help of two experts on the bands, Josh Corman and Daniel Leffel, respectively. They suggested what albums I should purchase first as an introduction to the band; albums that did a good job representing the music of the bands and albums that were good enough to make me want more.

Now, through the power of the blog, I've developed the desire to hear more Bob Dylan. I'm pretty sure all I know of him is Rainy Day Women from the Forrest Gump soundtrack (although I'm sure there are other hits out here I know). So the point of the blog is this: what are one, two, or three albums that would be good introductory albums for me to purchase/ask for for my birthday? I don't do greatest hits, they usually just lead to buying the original albums, let's cut out the middle man. Since I think there are only about two of you that read this, I charge you with finding the answer to my question. Thanks in advance for your words of wisdom.

Pitchers and Catchers Report Today

Dusty Baker officially takes the reigns of my Cincinnati Reds today as catchers and pitchers report to training camp today down in Sarasota. In case you hadn't heard, I love the Reds, love 'em more than any sports team aside from the UK basketball team. Since this has been one of the most disappointing/frustrating/painful basketball seasons of my life, I'm looking forward to the baseball season more than ever.

I've been a fan since I was a kid. Back when they were good, back when Chris Sabo was cool and Barry Larkin was alive. Way back before the Yankees and the Red Sox were supporting terrorists and oil companies to fund their championships.

There's plenty to look forward to this year though. We're simply busting with young talent. Bailey, Votto, Keppinger, Hopper, Phillips... all great players that will bring me great joy, until the big spenders notice them, buy their soul and rob me of my happiness. Sure our new coach has been going downhill the last few years, but he was coaching the Cubs, nobody can blame him.

Alright, since blogs are most successful when they include controversial statements, questions to commentors, or lists, I'll end my first post with a list. These are my predictions for the 2008 Cincinnati Reds' Season:


- Bronson Arroyo will throw 3 no-hitters and have an album go platinum

- Ryan Freel will make up 3 of the top 10 web gems every night (on average)

- The Reds will sweep the Bosox at home in June

- The Reds will sweep the Yankees in the Bronx a week after that

- Homer Bailey will win the Cy Young award and wipe out all crime in the city of Cincinnati

- Adam Dunn will hit 90 homeruns and strike out only twice (by umpires with huge strike zones)

- Griffey won't get injured (probably the most absurd claim on the list)

- Having both been swept by the Reds, the Sox and the Yanks will work together to purchase the entire Reds organization, shut down Great American Ball Park and auction off the players to the highest bidders