Brett Favre. This is the name that echoed through the T.V. screen every Monday Night Football game during my childhood into my teen years. I will never forget the late heave that he threw to Antonio Freeman to beat our Vikings that awful Monday night and the late game winning drives that seemed to always end with the Packers beating us once again. I should have grown up hating the man for the way he would seem to humiliate us every time we played him ,but thanks to my dad I learned to respect him. My dad taught me to appreciate how exciting he would make each play. I learned to appreciate how much he loved the game and how hard he worked for himself and his teammates.

Then the unspeakable happened. Brett Favre became a Viking. The man who beat us for years finally joined our side. Finally the Vikings had a Hall of Fame quarterback at the helm and life became great. We could finally sit down and enjoy the game. We didn't have to worry about Tavaris Jackson not being able to move the offense down the field. We didn't have to worry about Duante Culpepper fumbling the football. We didn't have to have our hopes rely on backup quarterbacks such as Gus Ferrote and Jeff George. We finally had a legend and last year we saw that legend give the Vikings something we hadn't seen since 98'. Magic. He became "The Real Minnesota Miracle Man" whether that was watching him throw a game winning touchdown pass to Greg Lewis against the 49ers or beating the Packers twice. We watched this legend lead us to the NFC Championship game and not since 98' were we finally able to feel like we actually had a shot to make it back to the big game. He brought that magic back to Minnesota. Last year wasn't a team that was led by a bunch of party boat punks. It was led by a warrior; a man that could carry a team into battle and win or lose you knew you were going to get his best. As for this year the battle scars finally got to deep ,but even though he wanted to quit; he couldn't tell the team no. He came back for his team and that is the stuff legends are made of. You can throw all the stats at me you want ,but it's his love for the game and his teammates that made him Brett Favre the legend. Sure he probably set us back a year or two by coming back again ,but at least we have the privilege of saying Brett Favre was our quarterback. Brett, you will always be a Viking and thank-you for showing us that magic again.