After the 2007-08 NFL season, Brett Favre (Green Bay Packers, Jersey No. 4), one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game, is expected to retire. His career spans 17 years, from 1991 to 2008. A remarkable player, Brett Favre got his start in the NFL when legends and superstars played in the game.
He competed against, and even surpassed, some of the top quarterbacks of the day, including Steve Young, Troy Aikman, Jim Kelly, Dan Marino and John Elway. All of these players are retired and are members of the NFL Football Hall of Fame. But Brett’s years playing football trumped them all, allowing him to break many NFL records.
College and early NFL years
Brett Favre played college soccer at the University of Southern Mississippi. In his junior season, he led the Golden Eagles to defeating sixth-ranked Florida State. In the 1991 NFL draft, the Atlanta Falcons selected Brett Favre in the second round as the third overall quarterback selected. Dan McGwire was selected 16th in the first round by the Seattle Seahawks and Todd Marinovich was selected 24th in the first round by the Los Angeles Raiders.
Brett Favre only played a handful of games for Atlanta, then was traded to Green Bay for a first-round pick in 1992. He supported Don Majkowski (dubbed the Magic Man by the sports press) until Majkowski’s injury in Game 3 of the season. against the Cincinnati Bengals. By engineering a win from behind and Majkowski’s injury, Brett Favre earned the right to start Game 4 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Since then he has not resigned from that position.
Best quarterback overall?
One could definitely argue that Brett Farve is the best NFL quarterback of all time. He holds some of the most prestigious awards for his position:
* Most wins by a starting quarterback (NFL) in the regular season career: 159 (regular season record: 159-93)
* Most career passing touchdowns: 440
* Most career passing yards: 61,556
* Most career pass completions: 5,368
* Most career pass attempts: 8,747
* Most career interceptions thrown by a quarterback: 288
* Most career games with at least three touchdowns: 63
Additionally, he has led the Green Bay Packers to the Superbowl twice, beating the New England Patriots in Superbowl XXXI (1996) and losing to the Denver Broncos in Superbowl XXXII (1997). Perhaps in making the case for the best quarterback, probably the strongest of his cards is his longevity.
Brett Favre owns the most consecutive starts by an NFL quarterback. He hasn’t missed a game since he started with the Green Bay Packers in 1992, the fourth game of the season against the Pittsburgh Steelers. That was 253 regular-season games ago (not including the 20 or so playoff games).
