Thanks, Brett, for a Game well-played

I was among those not surprised by Brett Favre's retirement from NFL Football as the Green Bay Packer's premier quarterback and one of the penultimate players of the game. Mississippi is not only loaded with talented and influential individuals in every realm (music, athletics, politics, acting, etc.), they also have an abundance of common sense.

The Mississippi Gulf Coast, from which Brett hailed (Kiln), has a resilience not seen by many, especially those who claim to be N'Awlinians. Us Hurricane Katrina victims, among those in the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States, with "No thanks to George Bush & Co.," were among those as resilient, if not more. It's no surprise, either, that Brett started 275 consecutive games, with or without injury, fate, and all else awaiting him some of those game days. Brett, as good as he was at football, was almost as good as all the hits put out by B.B. King, the movies acted in by Morgan Freeman, the multitude of hit novels by John Grisham, the shows and endowments produced by Oprah Winfrey, just to name a few. The list really does go on and on for the kind, if not humble and most genteel folks from Mississippi.

Brett, thank you for reliving the 'kid' in all of us as a great representative of our state. We Mississippians are, all, still kids at heart, marveling in the new wonders we continue to discover each day and in the love we share with our neighbors and our families. With his down-to-earth, true-to-home (Mississippi) charms, Brett brought forth and kept in front of the world what it means to be a real person, faults (we call 'em warts), charms, and all.

Thanks, Brett Favre, one kind and decent man. May your retirement be the best years of your life as you golf, swim, bar-b-que, play sandlot football, and whatever else your mind dares and your body enables! Thanks for giving us a great several chapters in our lives as well as living dreams many of us would never get to live, but did in you.

God bless you and yours.