Brett Favre: A Fitting Retirement Ceremony

The stage is set to finally celebrate the greatest Green Bay Packer in history.  Brett Favre is scheduled to walk out at halftime of the Thanksgiving Day game between the Packers and Bears for a ceremony to retire his number 4. 

This is how I envision the day going:

2^nd quarter. 4 seconds on the clock.  Bears at the 50. GB 17 – CHI 3.

Jay Cutler breaks the huddle and everyone knows by the formation a Hail Mary is coming. Cutler does have one of the better arms in the league, after all.  The ball is hiked and Cutler rolls out, takes a few steps, and launches the football about 52 yards into the end zone.  Alshon Jeffery waits as the ball comes down, he jumps and gets his hands around the ball, but is unable to pull it in and the half is over.  As the players jog towards the locker room they notice Cutler still on the ground writhing in pain.  The Bears QB had been leveled by Clay Matthews and is not getting up.  The cart comes out and Cutler is loaded on.  Half-time.

The crowd wonders what happened to Cutler with many checking their phones for updates.  The attention quickly turns back to the field as former Packer greats make their way towards the middle of Lambeau, near where Cutler was just lying in pain.  Names like Antonio Freeman, Donald Driver, and Dorsey Levens await their former teammate and the opportunity to unveil his newly retired jersey. 

Minutes go by and Favre still has not come out of the tunnel.  The announcer is trying to keep the fans upbeat as they anxiously wait for the old gunslinger to come running out one last time.  The former players start to sway back and forth as they awkwardly stand at midfield.  Only a few minutes remain before the game has to start back up.  Brett Favre is nowhere to be found.

The current players start to jog back out onto the field, curious as to what happened.  Some of the fans notice Jay Cutler walking in sweats and on a pair of crutches.  The excitement starts to come back as they realize the game should be an easy victory without the Bears starting QB.

The excitement begins to quiet as fans start noticing a Chicago player wearing the number 4 trotting onto the field.  The mysterious Bear turns around and grabs a football to begin warming up, making the name on his jersey finally visible.  Favre, it spells out.

The news starts to quickly spread throughout the stadium.  Brett Favre, waiting in the tunnel to come out for his retirement ceremony, was approached by the Bears and offered the chance to take over for the recently injured Cutler.  Favre, still unsure of his reason to retire, accepted the offer. 

The Green Bay personnel begin scrambling to bring down the newly hung green jersey with the number 4 on it.  At the same time, the Packer faithful start reigning down a mixture of boos and tears.  Many fans haven’t felt this betrayed since…well…Favre signed with the Vikings.

The Bears newly acquired quarterback walks onto the field and is ready to take on his former team.  Magic ensues.

Favre forever burns his bridge in Green Bay and reminds fans why it took so long to get him a retirement ceremony in the first place.  Final score GB 20 – CHI 31.

Oh, and the Jaguars win the Super Bowl a few months later.

The end.