AUSTIN, Texas — From a person who grew up following professional athletes who spent the majority of their careers with the same team, I admit it was weird seeing Brett Favre play for the New York Jets last season.
But it wasn't weird, weird.
Maybe that was because the Jets rarely played on television. Maybe it was because they fizzled in the second half of the season and missed the playoffs, thanks in part to Favre's body breaking down over the course of 16 games.
But it still didn't bother me. Not like Monday night bothered me.
Favre playing against the Patriots, Dolphins and Bills twice a year is one thing. Leading his team to a big win over the Green Bay Packers is quite another.
Now it makes sense. Favre had never played against the Pack, so his one-year stint with the Jets was, shocking as it sounds, understated. Not until I saw the gunslingin' greybeard shredding his former franchise for 271 yards and three touchdowns on MNF — where were you, John Madden? — did it occur that some things just should not happen.
Favre spanking the Packers was a piercing blow for sports sentimentalists who miss the days when a guy spent his entire career with the same team. The Bradshaw-Staubach days are long gone, but before he retired, Favre was one of those franchise faces you assumed would never play with anyone else.
Favre was the Packers. He was football's version of Cal Ripken: an iron man who went wire to wire in one uniform, for one city.
But when money, ego, and wishy-washiness met head on, things happened. Things like Favre switching ZIP codes in consecutive seasons.
Even if 15.5 million households tuned in to watch him play a near perfect football game in a contest that actually matched its week-long hype in the fourth quarter, the sports romantic in me wished he were still a Lambeau leaper or, better yet, a retired Lambeau leaper.
Not that I was pulling for Favre, because I wasn't. My living room was filled with enough random yells to get me entered into a Tourette's tournament. Where's the pass rush?! Get after that old man! Why is your defensive end dropping back in coverage, McCarthy? He could knit a sweater with all that time to throw!
All the while, I was thinking, "Favre still has plenty left in the tank. Why couldn't they work this thing out?"
Now to go back over all the drama that occurred — with a tearful Brett retiring, then unretiring, then retiring, then coming back to play for the Jets, then tearfully retiring again, then coming back to play for the Vikings — would be the height of redundancy. But it was unsettling to see a career Packer carve up the storied franchise that helped make him a star.
He's not the first legend to end his career on foreign turf. Did you really think Joe Montana would end up in that brutal Kansas City Chiefs red after leading the 49ers to four Super Bowls? They even showed a clip Monday of Montana beating his old team. Hey, there's Joe Cool hitting J.J. Birden with a conversion pass to put the Chefs up by three. Montana to Birden. Just rolls off the lips, doesn't it?
What about Dallas' Emmitt Smith going from breaking the all-time rushing record to playing for the lowly Arizona Cardinals? Even fellow Super Bowl MVP Franco Harris was dispatched to the Seattle Seahawks after things went south in Pittsburgh.
Take a glance at today's league and the two players I would hate to see change teams are also quarterbacks. Peyton Manning should have a horseshoe branded on his backside and Tom Brady's exit from New England would be as Patriotic as Benedict Arnold.
As for Favre, he has a real chance to lead the Vikings to a Super Bowl if his soon-to-be-40-year-old body holds up. The Packers have moved on, with future star Aaron Rodgers leading their offense.
I hope you saw the past and present come together after the game, as Favre shook hands with his successor. From a distance, it wasn't the warmest moment.
Their look seemed to be saying what I was thinking:
This feels weird.
Cedric Golden writes for the Austin American-Statesman. E-mail: cgolden(at)statesman.com.