There was a moment in the first wave of this week's Brett Favre
retirement coverage, before its repetitive nature began to remind me of
a Saturday Night Live skit,
that made me feel like a boy again. Turns out that one of the many
all-time football records the Green Bay Packers quarterback now owns is
most touchdown passes in a QB's final season, 28. Number three on that
list is Brian Sipe.

Whoa. There's a name that you don't hear outside of Cleveland too much these days.

Now, Favre’s career wasn’t about records, even though he has a ton. It was, as ESPN analyst Trey Wingo astutely reminded on Tuesday, about moments. And while Fave inspires in me nearly the cliché’d norm
of admiration, Dude will never come close to occupying the place in my
memory that that third-ranked quarterback does. Shit, Brian Sipe used
to make me cry.

The 1980 Cleveland Browns were known as the Kardiac Kids,
because the unexpected AFC Central — wow, that was a long time ago —
champions won so many of their games in the last minute en route to
taking their first division championship in nine seasons. (They lost a bunch at the end, too, but I don’t really want to talk about that.)

Brian Sipe was an amazing player — my second favorite ever after Greg Pruitt —
because
of backstory. After leading college football in touchdown passes as a
San Diego State senior, he was almost entirely overlooked by the NFL.
Small and thin with an unimpressive arm, Sipe lasted until the 13th
round to be chosen by Cleveland. Back then there was something called
the “taxi squad”
which allowed marginal players to hang around for development. And Sipe
sure needed it. He didn’t earn serious playing time until 1979.

With
the good looks of a surfer and a clear intellect, he was doing the Tom
Brady thing before Brady could throw a decent spiral. He outsmarted
defenses at a time when the NFL remained a brute sport. He was
absolutely dashing — a comeback kid in the movie star sense, a true
hero. He too, left the NFL impressively, joining Donald Trump's upstart
USFL before packing it in. He cashed a nice check and didn't atrophy in public. Nice closure, clean narrative.

And
that’s why folks love Favre: the story his play. Coming out of Southern
Mississippi University, he was rated the 17th best player. (Dan
McGwire, Mark’s less stellar younger brother, was chosen before him.)
While being a late first-round pick is nothing like lasting until the
13th round — the contemporary NFL draft only has seven rounds — Favre’s
series of personal dramas made him bigger than life. Beyond his dad’s
death there was his struggle with prescription drugs, his wife’s battle with cancer and the pure joi d'vive with which he played the game. These conflicts, along with his happening to star on the clear-cut People’s Franchise, have made Favre an all-time sports favorite.

Fans
wait generations for a Brian Sipe or a Brett Favre to come along. But
when they arrive, it’s worth the wait. An athlete with a tale to tell
can make you feel as can no other sort of performer.

Donnell Alexander is the MOLI View's contributing editor for Sports & Fitness. He posts Mondays and Thursdays.