Multiple sources are reporting that Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre has informed the team of his decision to retire after 17 seasons.

Though I’ve been highly critical of Favre’s reckless style of play toward the latter end of his career, Brett Favre is the first superstar quarterback of my youth to retire. I’ve seen the entire breadth of Favre’s career unfold before me and now to see it come to an end today is a little surreal for me. Sure, I was a football fan when Montana retired and ditto for Jim Kelly, Dan Marina and John Elway but I didn’t see their ascent from rookie to NFL legend. I remember Favre throwing touchdown passes to Robert Brooks, Antonio Freeman and Mark Chumura. I remember Favre running down the field in The Superdome with his helmet off after throwing his first touchdown pass against the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI. That moment will be forever be his legacy and will serve as a snapshot, indicative of how Favre played this game for 17 years.

But Favre was hardly Superman and as fans, we were reminded more than once that number 4 was mortal. In 1996, he entered rehab to treat an addiction to vicodin. In 2003, Brett’s father, Irvin, was died of a heart attack while behind the wheel in Kiln, Mississippi. The following day Brett played on Monday night football, threw for 399 yards and four touchdowns. In 2004, Favre lost his brother-in-law in an ATV accident and shortly thereafter learned that his wife, Deanna had breast cancer. The following year Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, destroying the home of Favre’s parents in Mississippi. Favre played every down in 2005. Never has there been a more tragic, at the same time more inspirational sports star than Brett Favre and the sports world will miss him dearly but is profoundly better having had him for almost 20 years.

I honesty sit here stunned. After having a resurgence and leading his team all the way to the NFC Championship, a game away from the Super Bowl, many, myself included, believed that he would be back given that most of a team that finished with the second best record in the NFC would return in 2008. Instead, Favre has decided, finally, to walk away and return to Kiln, Mississippi.

We wish him luck. God knows, he finally deserves some.

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