A True Southern Gentleman

Photo courtesy of AP
Brett Favre,# 4 - he retired last week after 17 years and the game of football has lost one of it greatest. Brett Favre grew up much like I did in a little small town about 30 min from the MS Gulf Coast. I always admired and respected him because he never forget where he came from or as we say in the south "how he was raised". He always played the game with heart and soul. I will miss seeing him play each fall but football fans knew it was inevitable. I remember watching the playoff game with the Giants and they showed a shot of him in the tunnel before going on the field and it seemed that he had a bittersweet expression on his face as though he knew it was his last game.Oftentimes when I am at work and people will talk about men from the south Brett comes to mind. I always respected that he was a simple man who wasn't afraid of hard work and that even with all the money and fame he had he still liked nothing better than working on his farm in Mississippi and mowing his yard. I also admired him because after Hurricane Katrina which directly affected lots of people where he lived and grew up he and the Manning boys(Eli and Peyton) gave back a lot to these devastated communities that many outside of MS never heard of.

In the interview he gave upon his retirement with tears streaming down his face he gave these comments.

"All good things come to an end,” he said, pausing, trying to hold on to the moment, unable to complete the sentence. “I've given everything I possibly can give…to the game of football, and I don't think I've got anything left to give, and that's it. I know I can play, but I don't think I want to. And that's really what it comes down to.” “It was never about the money or fame or records, and I hear people talk about your accomplishments and things ... It was never my accomplishments, it was our accomplishments, the teammates that I've played with, and I can name so many. It was never about me, it was about everybody else.”

This is what made him a great football player and more importantly a Man.He is what a sports hero should be about.

In his words also is advice to all of us I think on the value of hard work and teamwork and always showing up to do the job at hand.

My job as a nurse is hard but it is about showing up too and last week I had one of those moments when I was glad to be a nurse and remembered why I chose the profession. I had a patient who only in her mid 50's had been told that she had only days to a few weeks to live and we talked about hospice and my experiences with my mom and dad and at the end of the conversation when we were both crying and I hugged her I knew that maybe I had made a difference that day. There are just some patients that stay with you and touch your soul in a special way and that was one. I hope that day I maybe made a difference.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while DARING GREATLY so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt