Every sport, no every team, has names and incidents they never want to be associated with. Colts fans will shudder at the name “Tracy Porter,” Chargers fans are not fans of the name “Ryan Leaf,” and 49ers fans have one name, one person they never want to speak of again. Even it hurts to write that name here: “Brett Favre.”
So you’re wondering why we’re talking about Brett Favre? Well, it’s because none other than 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo talked about the former Packers/Jets/Vikings quarterback. When asked about his different throwing angles and throwing moves (side arm, traditional throw, etc.) on Sunday, Garoppolo said this:
“Oh yeah, I work on it. It’s kind of fun to work on those weird throws. But, I always heard [former NFL QB] Brett Favre did it when he played and he had some of the craziest angles, arm throws that you’ll ever see. So, you never know. When you get into a game, bullets are flying and you never know how you have to throw it.”
The 49ers lost not one, not two, but three playoff games to the Favre-led Packers in the 90s (and one more in the 00s), resulting in my and many other 49ers fans’ bad childhoods. Two of which were the result of awful, awful officiating, which is why I’m none too sympathetic when everyone wants to bring up Jerry Rice’s fumble in the 1998 NFC Wild Card—you know the game where The Catch II happened shortly after the aforementioned fumble? We also remember a little game against the Minnesota Vikings that I’m not even going to link due to how painful it was, where Mike Singletary’s 49ers lost at the last minute (a game that basically killed their season mentally) due to a Favre Hail Mary.
So Garoppolo brought that name up. I don’t know about this one. What do you think? Is this another thing that needs corrected or can we have people talking about Favre again?
The wounds may have healed, but the scars have yet to fade away.