Thank you to Brett Favre.

321 consecutive games.  The man didn't miss a day of work for 19 years.

19 years.  99% of the men who play professional sports, don't have careers that last 19 years, and none of them played in every damn game.

Every day, every game, he answered the bell.

Lou Gehrig's streak lasted from 1925 to 1939.

Cal Ripken's streak lasted from 1982 to 1998.

Brett Favre streak started in 1992 and lasted until 2010, the record for a quarterback, before Favre nearly tripled it, was 116 consecutive starts by Ron Jarworski 30 years ago.

 And as a story on Yahoo points out, both legendary # 4's streaks ended in Detroit.

Above is probably my most favorite photograph of all-times.

April 30, 1939, Detroit.  After the legendary Lou (bleeping) Gehrig asked the legendary skipper Joe McCarthy to take him out of the line-up, sitting in the dugout, watching his teammates warm-up, just gazing, taking it all in, knowing his streak, of 2,130 straight games, covering 15 years, is over. 

December 13, 2010, Detroit.  hmmmm...

So why the hate?

Just because Favre went back and forth the last few years, debating on weather or not to come back or retire?  What if, simply, the man wanted to play football?  Hasn't what he has accomplished allowed him some extra time to make a decision?

My good best baseball buddy, is a 9x Gold Glove winning catcher playing wood bat, ametuer hardball.  And after 20 years of catching, his knees and throwing shoulder is fucked up, and guess what?  It has happened a few times, where, he wasn't sure if he was going to play next year.  And come spring time, it is always time to play.

It is worse to not play.