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Monday, January 25, 2010

I Can Admit It

Looks like Lony got his wish.

I was incredibly ambivalent last year when Favre was in New York. It didn’t bother me, and it didn’t instill any emotions whatsoever. However, put Favre in my front yard wearing purple, and I was forced to feel something. My feeling amounted to raging disgust, and an even greater hatred for the Vikings than I already had. I know, I know, I didn’t even think that was possible. Living in the heart of Vikings’ territory means I had a front row seat to the Savior Bandwagon being gassed, loaded, and peeling out of the station. It made me gag and choke on the awful fumes.

I’ll never even remotely come close to rooting for the Vikings, but I didn’t hate Favre, disgust is different than hate. (Disgust aside, I was impressed by the fact that he kept getting back up after being beaten like a piƱata all evening.) So yeah, watching the game, I was cheering against the Vikings and that includes #4. I couldn’t have written a better ending to this than the one that played out yesterday. The Vikings lost, and Favre was a pretty big part of that. I enjoyed the irony of it playing out eerily similar to how it played out for the Packers in 2007. I was happy, very happy, and then something happened that totally rocked my foundation of disgust. I realized I couldn’t enjoy the Vikings’ loss without admitting this…

Inner monologue:

“No, Franklin, you can’t do it.”
“I have to! I need to get it off my chest!”
“You will lose your credibility and bring scorn upon the House of Hillside.”
“What credibility?!?”
“….good point. Have at.”

Okay, so here it is, you want an admission? I’ll give you an admission: I had a momentary lapse of disgust. I felt…empathy. After that 16 year-old kicker hit the winning field goal, the camera went to Favre on the sideline with a blank look on his face…and I felt bad for him. Then he looked on the verge of tears when he was talking to Drew Brees, and I was sympthetic. No matter how you felt about him over the course of the season, I bet that you did too. For some reason, Favre elicits emotions that others don’t or wouldn’t, and you know what? That’s cool.

But you know what else happened? My eyes refocused, I saw the jersey he was wearing, and I returned to feelings of…no, not disgust this time, but to ambivalence.

So, here’s to future ambivalence towards #4.

5 comments:

  1. It reminded me of my first time hunting. I was so excited to shoot something. Then when I got close and saw the dying deer up close, I just felt really, really, really bad.

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  2. Don't be fooled by the big old country boy crocodile tears. Tood bad the SAG's were the night before the game. Favre would have won the top acting award, hands down.

    The man is and always was a PR spin machine carefully orchestrated to come off as a good old boy just having fun. But no, Sir. This is just another snippet of wiley manipulation.

    I don't buy it...I was fooled once in the original tearful retiremnet speech made nationally. You remrmber the one...the one where he said he'd never play for any other team but the Green Bay Packers.

    As the old saying goes, fool me once - shame on you. Fool me twice - shame on me.

    Not going to happen. I am disgusted every time the crocodile tears start to fall.

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  3. Sir,
    You shock me. It's bad enough to talk about emotions during football season but to admit to purple sympathies?
    My advice: Delete Raspberry Beret from your workout playlist. Now go and delete it from your library(I know it will be gone for good. That's the point).
    Think of all the Ole and Lena jokes you know. Say them out loud one last time and never think of them again. When was the last time you felt hatred for an orange C? Too much purple around you. (You are too close to the Dome to know you have a problem). Next get, and work, your way through a case of Pabst (a 30-pack of Schmitty's will work too, and it makes good financial sense). Repeat as needed.
    There, now if I've done my job you should be devoid of any emotions but hate and vengeance.

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