Waco may be a haven for fans of the Dallas Cowboys, but try telling that to the NFL diehards who came together Saturday at a new Waco fitness center.
“No work today. It’s raining,” Minerva Chavez said one day last week. “We haven’t been able to work for almost three weeks, and we’re playing catch-up.”
To these folks, the Green Bay Packers are truly “America’s Team.” And Brett Favre? Well, he may as well be president.
Favre met many of his adoring Central Texas constituents at Saturday’s pre-grand opening of Young Champions, a new fitness franchise for kids in which he is a partner. From pigskin-toting toddlers to giddy-as-schoolchildren retirees, they came to pay homage to their hero, many wearing green-and-gold Favre jerseys on their backs and foam blocks of cheddar on their heads.
“I know we’re in Dallas Cowboys country,” said Favre during a brief address to the crowd, prompting a round of raucous booing from the cheeseheads.
In a later gathering with the media, Favre said he is never shocked by the sheer volume of Green Bay fans, for he has come to understand the true reaches of Packer Nation.
“I can’t believe there’s anyone left in Wisconsin,” he said, chuckling. “I’ve gone to a lot of places, I’ve gone to the Pro Bowl, and there were just as many Packer fans in Hawaii. I’ve been to Mexico, and there were just as many Packer fans in Mexico, for whatever reason. I think part of it is because Green Bay has such great tradition, and I think that’s why they’re able to compete in a market that has roughly 100,000 people and a waiting list of 40 years to get a season ticket.
“When kids are born in Green Bay or Wisconsin, right away, it’s the Green Bay Packers. I’m honored to be a part of that. There’s no place like it.”
Favre appreciates the passion of Packers’ fans, because he shares their devotion. His love of football is why his gaze is firmly fixated on the future and a 17th NFL season rather than reflecting on a Hall of Fame career that has seen him accumulate 57,500 yards, 414 touchdown passes and a Super Bowl championship ring.
Not looking back
“If I sit down and start dwelling on what I did in the past, it’s time to retire,” he said. “I let other people do that. I’m well aware of what I’ve done in Green Bay and what I’ve been a part of, and I’m extremely proud. I’m still playing, and even if it’s a year, or if it’s two years, I want to make the most of it and be a part of something else. I don’t want to keep hanging onto the past, and right now, that’s what I hear (that I’m doing) from a lot of people.
“Boy, that Super Bowl was great, but I want to chase it next year or the next two years and let the past speak for itself. It’s been a great career up to this point. I’d like to make it a little better.”
One man who had a front-row seat for a large portion of Favre’s career is Brett’s good friend Kent Johnston, a former strength and conditioning coach for the Packers and the founder and co-owner of Young Champions.
Johnston said Favre’s dedication is one reason he sought out the quarterback’s financial support when he first began researching and developing the idea of a children’s fitness center back in 1999.
“I’ve held him down while they’ve put joints back in place at halftime, and he goes back in and plays,” Johnston said. “The game means something to him. That’s a throwback. If we don’t think it is, that’s naive. Pro sports is not like that anymore. We’ve got the genuine article here.”
Johnston, who has also worked with the University of Alabama and the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, called Favre “the most competitive athlete I’ve ever been around,” and had no shortage of illustrations to support that claim.
“I have this mental image, and Brett will remember this,” Johnston said. “Of course, he’s been knocked around a few times, but we were playing Tampa Bay one year and I think Tony Dungy had just become the coach. They had a real good defensive end — I don’t even remember his name — and I remember Brett scrambled out of the pocket and just got cold-cocked ...”
“Cold-cocked?” Favre interrupted. “That’s one you don’t hear much anymore.”
“As soon as he hits the ground it was like he was on a trampoline,” Johnston continued. “As soon as he hit the ground he got back in this defensive lineman’s face and told him it was a good shot. I remember our whole sideline was watching that and it was like the hair on the back of your head stood up.”
Still plugging away
Favre recalled both the play and the hitter — Reagan Upshaw — and credited his quick recovery to “dumb will” and what he called his best asset as an athlete, his mental toughness.
“I could have laid down on that field and I think everyone in the building would have said, ‘He ain’t getting up,’ including the guy who hit me,” Favre said. “But as soon as he hit me and I hit that ground, that’s the first thing I thought: ‘No one expects me to get up, but I’m getting up right now.’”
The mental element of sports and fitness is something that will be taught at Young Champions, Favre said. The quarterback will serve as the company’s spokesman and leave most of the business decisions up to Johnston and others, “at least until I retire,” he said.
And when will that be? Not until his passion floats away like a fade pass.
“Physically, I feel OK,” Favre said. “For me and my dilemma in trying to decide whether I wanted to come back or not, as much as I want to break it down and weigh this and weigh that, weigh the good and weigh the bad, it ultimately came down to one thing — that I still love to play. Do I love to practice? Not all the time. Do I love to prepare myself in the off-season the way I know I need to? Not all the time, but up to this point, I’ve been able to do it.”
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