Philly paper rips Favre hard

[JeeberD]

And this has to do with football how???
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Dad's memory isn't doing him any Favre

After Brett Favre's dad, "Big Irv," died last month, even Eagles fans felt sorry for the Green Bay Packers' star quarterback.

For about three minutes.

Then we found out the Birds would be playing the Packers in the second round of the NFC playoffs.

And now, Birds fans are bad-mouthing Favre, big time.

On talk radio, they mocked his dad's ascension to heaven.

On the Internet, they're laughing at the idea that, as one TV sportscaster proclaimed, "There's an angel on the shoulders of the Packers."

The trash talk at the Eagles' official fan site only ceased when the Web site moderator threatened to ban anyone who joked about Big Irv.

There is no pity in Philly for "Saint" Brett.

Family tree
FATHER:

Irvin Favre. As a high school football coach, he helped Southern Miss violate NCAA rules to recruit his son.

WIFE: Deanna. He got her pregnant when he was 18, and she was 19. Married her seven years later.

BROTHER: Scott. Killed a family friend when he drove his car into a railroad crossing and got hit by a train. Jailed for DUI.

SISTER: Brandi. A Mississippi beauty queen, arrested for shoplifting.

Model citizen

In 1992, Favre was arrested after a barroom brawl in Hattiesburg, Miss., that began when he was arguing with the future Mrs. Favre. A bystander tried to intervene, and soon Favre was wrestling him to the floor. Favre was charged with drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and profanity.

Pillhead

Favre was a substance abuser in the mid-1990s. In 1996, he announced he was addicted to Vicodin, a prescription pain-killer.

The NFL sent him to the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kan., to dry out. Favre now says he's sober.

Mentor

"The biggest problem wasn't getting the pills down, it was keeping them down. I'd go into the bathroom, take a big slug of water, and try swallowing a handful of pills. Most of the time, I'd just throw them right back up and they'd land on the floor. No big deal. I'd just pick the pills out of the vomit, rinse them off, and try again."

- From "Vicodin, Rehab and Beer. Hey, It Won Me a Super Bowl," an excerpt from Favre's 1998 autobiography, "Favre: For The Record," published in Esquire magazine

Caring father figure

During his Vicodin addiction, Favre went into a seizure in front of his 7-year-old daughter. While watching her dad convulsing, the child screamed, "Is my daddy going to die? Is my daddy going to die?"

A reformed man

Favre was sprung from rehab after lying to his counselors. In his autobiography, he brags:

"Finally, I told them what they wanted to hear: that I was a drug addict and I needed help. Sure enough, a week later they said, 'We think you're ready to leave.'

"...Then I walked out the door and was like, 'Screw you.' "

Dork

He's a clubhouse prankster who's been known to put Heet ointment in players' jockstraps and shaving cream in their helmets. Once, he doused his own roommate with a bucket of ice water while he was on a commode.

If he wasn't making $10 million a year, somebody would've already pushed him off a tall building.

Hollywood star

In his best-known screen role, "There's Something About Mary," he somehow manages to lose Cameron Diaz to Ben Stiller. In the lesser-known "Reggie's Prayer," Favre plays a janitor in an all-star cast that includes M.C. Hammer, Reggie White, Mike Holmgren and Pat Morita.

A gentleman

Favre likes to fart. A lot. He told Playboy:

"If I'm on a golf outing with [Dan] Marino and [Jim] Kelly and they're getting ready to hit, I'll rip a big fart. They say, 'That's awful!' But why? Everybody does it. Just because you're a professional athlete or a politician doesn't mean you stop taking dumps and scratching your ass. Of course, there's a time and place for humor like that. I don't go to corporate events, where everyone is in a suit and tie, and start cutting farts. Not loud ones, anyway."

Wuss

Brett is scared of the dark. He sleeps with a light on.

[The_herd]

Classless.

[Havok]

Someone needs to accidently/intentionally drop a nuke on philly. I grew up next to D.C. and i've been to philly quite a few times. Its gotta be the biggest craphole in all the universe. Plus they're fans are the biggest assholes ever..... god a hate philly.

[Groundhog]

I can't believe that got published.

"After Brett Favre's dad, "Big Irv," died last month, even Eagles fans felt sorry for the Green Bay Packers' star quarterback.

For about three minutes."

Can you get much lower than that? It's just a bloody sport.

[Cringer]

And he will still go down as one of the greats, go figure.

[vtbub]

Disgusting

[jeff061]

So are all Philly fans for all sports jerks or just the loud ones? They never cease to amaze me. You can be rabid without being cruel, just listen to Red Sox sports radio.

[TLK]

Oh my.... This seems like something out of the WWE..... I never thought I'd say this... Go Green Bay....

[Havok]

theres this old guy who's had season tickets to the every Redskins game since like 1970 or something like that. He's a old skinny black guy who dresses in a all alburn Indian outfit with a white and gold feathers in his hat. He's probally one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet in your life. He sometimes even flys to Dallas for the Redskins vs. Dallas game and stands on the sidelines.

Since philly is only like 2 1/2 hours from D.C. he would also go to the Philly game each season also. Like 10 years ago he went up to philly to watch the game and the Redskins whipped philly's ass. So like 3 fans beat the hell out of him and put him in the hospital for awhile.

They actually beat up a 60+ year old man just because they're football team lost..... sad... very sad

[Huckleberry]

Over the top. Obviously they went about it in the completely wrong way, but there's nothing wrong with pointing out that these guys that are pumped up as heroes are in fact nothing more than regular people with athletic talent. And, in many cases, they're actually worse people than you or I.

[jeff061]

Handpick the worse moments in anyones life ever and they'll look bad. I'm sure there are just as many admirable things Favre has done off the field no one knows about.

[JeeberD]

And why bring up some of the mistakes that his family memebers have made in life? That has nothing to do with Favre himself...

[Groundhog]

I just e-mailed this to the author of that article, not that he'll give a damn: "Nice article. You officially brought sports journalism to a new low, and dragged the city of Philadelphia down with you."

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

I can't believe that got published.

"After Brett Favre's dad, "Big Irv," died last month, even Eagles fans felt sorry for the Green Bay Packers' star quarterback.

For about three minutes."

Can you get much lower than that? It's just a bloody sport.

As I was reading the article, it seemed to be commentary on the state of Philly's fans, and I was wondering what the big deal was. The I got to the family tree and the rest of the article. Wow.

[SirFozzie]

and the Eagles are getting a first class ass-beating. I really hope the writer of that piece of trash has to ask Farve about a 45-0 win

[jeff061]

I did some google searches on this guy, seems he bashes any and every team/city/player the eagles play. Just an idiot.

[Eaglesfan27]

This guy is an idiot who is not representative of many of the Philadelphia fans who are respectable. Just our vocal minority gives us a bad name

[EagleFan]

Yeah, that guy's a freaking idiot. He's sure as hell not doing the real Philly fans any favors. He's just adding to the bogus sterotype that cirulates around the country about Philly fans.

[Scoobz0202]

Crap.. was hoping they would lose cause of this dumbass Plus, I like the Pack better, too

[Qwikshot]

First off, not all Philly fans are like that. The Daily News is a toiletbowl of a newspaper rag, and its only priority is to sell papers, thus nothing brings greater sales than controversy.

Let's not forget that there are incidents at other parks/fields every year, but it seems that only when its in Philadelphia is it news.

Remember the Oakland/Denver game, Monday night, when fans and Raiders players battled it out?

How bout in Chicago when two fans attacked the 1st base coach?

How bout the bullpen fight at Fenway?

How bout the shooting death after the San Fran/L.A. Dodgers game?

Do I think the article was terrible?, yes
Do I think the writer and the editor should be fired? yes
Do I think that it is a reflection of all Philadelphia fans?, no.

Only in Philadelphia is the topic broached about throwing snowballs at Santa Claus, they never tell you he was drunk and acting like a buffoon, and the fact that it happen I believe 20 years ago is never added.

[BishopMVP]

They should modify the old adage about politicians - 90% of Philly fans give the other 10% a bad name

Originally Posted by Qwikshot

How bout the bullpen fight at Fenway?

I think they're putting Garcia(? the RF) and possibly Nelson on trial soon for attacking the bullpen attendant. It certainly wasn't fans coming down from out of the stands.

[corbes]

Originally Posted by jeff061

So are all Philly fans for all sports jerks or just the loud ones? They never cease to amaze me. You can be rabid without being cruel, just listen to Red Sox sports radio.

It's a small, albeit loud, minority.

The Daily News publishes tabloid fodder.

And on WIP, the sports talk radio station, the same 30 people call in all day long, giving the impression that everyone in Philly feels the way they do.

[JimboJ]

I am one of those hated Eagles fans, and I'll be the first to admit that I have always had a great deal of respect for Favre. And after that Monday night performance after his father died, I have more respect for him than ever.

And I'll be the first to admit that this writer went WAY over the line here.
I was personally offended by this story, but I am equally offended by someone suggesting that God has nothing better to do than influence football games.

I think the point that the writer was trying to make is this: If you're going to make this about more than football, and drag Favre's family into it, and start nominating Favre for sainthood, and suggesting that his recent performance is due to some sort of devine intervention on behalf of his departed father, then let's hear the whole story.

This writer wasn't the first one to bring Favre's family tragedy into this. He's just saying you can't have it both ways. Either leave his family out of it and just report on Favre's performance on the football field, or if you're going to drag his family into it, then lets hear the bad as well as the good.

We all know the media is famous for taking people with fame or power, and just digging and digging for the smallest scandal or skeleton in their closet. Ask Arnold Schwartzenegger, or anyone who has run for public office.

The sad part is that Favre is not running for anything, and he or his family didn't ask for any of this. The media built up this whole story angle, and this writer is merely pointing out the hypocrisy of it all. The bottom line is that future hall of fame quarterbacks have all the fame and money they could ever want, and in return for that, their personal lives become open to attack as well as praise.

The media have never been about ethics or morals, its about selling papers and getting ratings. The question is why are we so shocked by this?

[WSUCougar]

My wife is from Philly and I lived there for six years. The city and its inhabitants can be very...hmmmm...harsh, but there are great people there, too. The sports fans are rabid, both for and against. I have vivid memories of a Mets/Phillies game where the upper deck at Vet Stadium looked like a hooligan brawl.

All that being said, I think that the vocal minority plays up to the national reputation that Philly has for nasty fans. Let's see how over-the-top we can be. Idiots.

But let's keep this in perspective. A quick Net search would find offensive and out of line comments from virtually any sports city. It isn't exclusive to Philadelphia.

[Raiders Army]

You would never find Raiders Fans doing anything of this sort

[albionmoonlight]

Whenever Philadelphia fans do/say something like this (booing santa; cheering in joy when it looked like Michael Irvin was dead; picking a fight with my brother in law at a Saints game in the Superdome; throwing ice filled snowballs at Saints fans at a playoff game in Vets stadium a while back; beating up that old Redskins fan; making fun of a guys' dead father, etc.), I always hear that it is a vocal minority of fans who make the rest look bad. For the sake of discussion, I will believe you.

My question is, why does the majority not take control? If you don't like the way that this "minority" makes the city appear, then boycott the papers/radio stations that put out the offensive material. STOP the minority of fans from attacking fans of other teams (there are supposedly more of you than them, right?). Cheer louder at Santa than the boo birds. Pass a city ordinance banning beer at the staduim.

In other words, DO something to show the rest of you that you are not mostly bad fans.

[Qwikshot]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Whenever Philadelphia fans do/say something like this (booing santa; cheering in joy when it looked like Michael Irvin was dead; picking a fight with my brother in law at a Saints game in the Superdome; throwing ice filled snowballs at Saints fans at a playoff game in Vets stadium a while back; beating up that old Redskins fan; making fun of a guys' dead father, etc.), I always hear that it is a vocal minority of fans who make the rest look bad. For the sake of discussion, I will believe you.

My question is, why does the majority not take control? If you don't like the way that this "minority" makes the city appear, then boycott the papers/radio stations that put out the offensive material. STOP the minority of fans from attacking fans of other teams (there are supposedly more of you than them, right?). Cheer louder at Santa than the boo birds. Pass a city ordinance banning beer at the staduim.

In other words, DO something to show the rest of you that you are not mostly bad fans.

The Santa thing was 20 years ago...I've been to the Linc during the Dallas game (if there is any bad blood it's this game), I didn't see one fight, we had a Dallas fan a few rows in front of up (I was row 9, just 9 rows from the field), and when Dallas had a big play, he stood up and pointed at all the Eagles fans, the worst thing they told him to do was to sit down...when the Eagles finally slaughtered the Cowboys, the worst thing done to him was people patting him on the back...and we had some drunks in our section.

The majority of Philly fans are good fans, the media focuses on the bad ones...the morons who booed McNabb's draft, the idiots who threw batteries at J.D. Drew (I believe this incidnet happened somewhere else, someone throwing cell phones at a player?).

The fact of the matter is, Philly fans are hungry for a win, this is a city prone to criticize its own players to the point of nearly running them out of town (see Scott Rolen).

You want us to boycott the radio stations, newspapers and etc...well the Daily News is a tabloid paper, the sports section is the only thing that sells, so naturally to increase sales they need to be controversal...you haven't heard of WIP, a toilet of a radio station, which is the only sportsradio talk station in Philly, led by attentionseekers like Anthony Cataldi (who led the booing of McNabb), and Howard Eskin ( a man who's head couldn't get any bigger), exacerabted by the fact they only let in on their calls those with a bone to pick with different sports players/teams..otherwise they'd have no ratings...

There are numerous instances of bad behavior but only at the Vet/Linc is it brought up continuously, which I like for one reason only, it intimidates the opposing teams, but does it happen more often than anywhere else...well I guess someone would have to do a study on it.

[corbes]

To be very honest about it, it "doesn't hurt" that opposing fans -- and players -- view Philly as a hostile city, in the same way it "didn't hurt" that the playing surface at the Vet was so unforgiving and terrible.

If other players are even a little bit hesitant to play here, it can only help us.

Now, we've run our own best players out of town (Schmidt, Barkley, Lindros, Cunningham, et al), and possibly sabotaged our own chances as a result. So I'm not saying it's a good thing, just maybe why it exists/persists.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Qwikshot

The majority of Philly fans are good fans, the media focuses on the bad ones...the morons who booed McNabb's draft, the idiots who threw batteries at J.D. Drew (I believe this incidnet happened somewhere else, someone throwing cell phones at a player?).

I, for one, was cheering the battery chuckers in that case. Then again, I'm an ass and wouldn't mind if Scott Boras and Donald Fehr (not that the latter had much to do with Drew, but just on principle) were left to "play" in Philly traffic.

SI

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by corbes

in the same way it "didn't hurt" that the playing surface at the Vet was so unforgiving and terrible.

The turf at the Vet probably shortened the career of everyone who played on it, and who do you think suffered more? The opposing players who came in once a year in football or a couple series in baseball or the Philly players who played half their games at the Vet?

[EagleFan]

As far as the question about why the majority doesn't counter-balance the minority. It does, but those things aren't nationally publicized like when they jump on the bad things.

I had a 12 game plan for the Flyers several years ago and was lucky enough to be at Mario Lemeux's first game back from cancer in a game where Pittsburgh came to town. The entire crowd gave him loud and long standing ovation when he came out. That kind of thing doesn't make the national media becaue it just doesn't sell as well.

There are just as many morons in other markets as there are in Philly. The problem is that WIP and the Daily News seem to cling to that like a badge of honor. With all that said, Philly is about the only town that has not had riots when they've been close to a championship. Look at the rioting in towns that have lost some championships in the past and that has not been displayed in Philly when the Flyers, Sixers of Phillies have lost. That alone should show that the fans are not as bad as stereotype that is perpetuated.

[corbes]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

The turf at the Vet probably shortened the career of everyone who played on it, and who do you think suffered more? The opposing players who came in once a year in football or a couple series in baseball or the Philly players who played half their games at the Vet?

That's what I mean. The thinking is, "This is such a hard place to come play." But it goes both ways.

The thinking is then, "We don't want anyone who isn't tough enough to play here."

Fine and all, but we chew up our own in the process.

I'm trying to take both sides of this issue, I guess. Having lived here all my life, I can't imagine Philadelphia any other way, and I'm not sure I would want it any other way. But I also don't think its necessarily the most productive atmosphere in the world.

There, I'm done not making sense now.