Brett Favre: Up Close and Personal (Pt. 1 of 5)

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Leguizamo does America beginning Sunday, April 16th at 10 p.m. Eastern on MSNBC and streaming on Peacock. And we continue here with our American stories and Brett Favre telling his story. And now let's continue with the story of Brett Favre. When we wrap up and I'm gluten-free, so I make gluten-free bread, a couple other things, almond milk or some yogurt or something, and it's like $100. And every time I check out, I go, how in the world did my mom and dad make it? You know, I know it was a little cheaper back then, but still. So anyway, I grew up playing baseball and football. Just my older brother did the same.

My younger brother did the same. My older brother had a scholarship to Mississippi State as a quarterback. He played a year. He transferred back to JUCO.

They ran the wish ball and he's a little scrawny white kid. He said, you know, I need to go somewhere else. And he ended up playing two years at JUCO, went to Delta State on a scholarship, went through spring practice, was a starting quarterback, came home, said I've had enough.

I just don't want to play anymore. And he came to Southern Miss and enrolled as just a student, which was my freshman year. So we were there at the same time.

My younger brother, he played at Southern Miss as well, actually played defensive back. And growing up down, there was always something going on. You know, when people, when I tell them, it was when I was still drinking, which I quit drinking in 98, if you would have asked me in 97, do you ever think you'll stop drinking? I'd have said, no, that's just the way we were raised.

And part of it was true, but I mean, you can get trouble anywhere, but the temptation to just go boil, you know, a pot of crawfish and drink a bunch of beer and not come home until three in the morning is always there. And saying that, we moved from the coast up here. My wife, she went to school here. My wife, we grew up together. She was a year ahead of me, but I knew her ever since. First grade.

In fact, I don't know if that was a door or what, but she may be coming in. But yeah, so we've known each other. She played basketball. She played softball. She was a really good athlete. And when we started dating, I was in the ninth grade and we would throw the baseball together. And she couldn't catch the football like if I threw it, but she could catch the baseball. And I thought it was pretty cool because we could throw back and forth and I could heat it up. She could catch it.

I was like, this is pretty cool. She went to Pearl River Junior College, played basketball. And then later came Southern Miss. We have two daughters and we have three grandsons. Nine, five, and two. Our oldest daughter is 31.

She got a law degree from Loyola. Doesn't use it. It is normal.

I was hoping to break that. Our youngest is a junior playing volleyball at Southern Miss. She quit indoor. She's just doing beach, which is a lot more fun to watch.

It really is. We hate it that she quit indoor, but I hate to because my dad was a coach and I coached two years myself. So a lot of times people want to blame the coach, but 10 girls quit the indoor team.

The woman doesn't coach. She sits over there and she's like miserable. Never would like, let's work on this today. My daughter is unlike me and unlike Deanna. She needs someone to tell her, I need you best.

Give me 15 minutes after practice and let's work on this. She needs someone to talk to her that way and encourage her. The more someone didn't talk to me, the more I dug my heels in and I'll show them. She's not like that. My childhood, if I wasn't playing baseball, I was playing football.

That's all. The only two I played. I was actually a better baseball player than I was a football player. I went to Southern Miss. Baseball, they don't really give partial scholarships. They don't give full scholarships. Fortunately, I got a full scholarship. The only offer I got was to Southern Miss and I was going to play both.

In fact, I really thought if you were to say, which one do you think you have a better shot at playing professional? I'd have said baseball by far. We never threw it in high school. We ran the wishbone. I can throw it further and harder than anyone, but that's all I knew. Even though I was pretty confident in my ability, I didn't foresee coming here and starting as a true freshman.

More luck than anything. A couple of guys got hurt. A couple of guys played bad. They had moved one of the guys to a receiver.

Lo and behold, I was next in line. I could have screwed it up. Very easily could have screwed it up because I didn't know the plays. It's funny because I came in against Tulane in the second game of my true freshman year. We were down 17-3.

We were looking awful. I was nervous. I was a little bit unsure. I knew I could play, but putting everything together, calling the play.

That was back when they signaled in. I hadn't been on the team very long. I wasn't getting all the reps. I wasn't getting any reps. All the guys in the huddle were five-year seniors.

It's funny. We ended up coming back and winning broken plays. Maybe I called it wrong.

Maybe I took the wrong drop, whatever, and just made something happen. When I fast-forwarded to Green Bay, it was the third game. We played Minnesota the first game. Overtime lost. It was a hell of a game. Michalski played great.

The next week, we'd go to Tampa. I think he stayed out. We went down two days at a time. He stayed out a couple of nights. He played like it.

He sucked. I ended up getting in the game. We were down 38-3. You can't really put much stock in that game. The next game, we played Cincinnati. That's the game. He gets hurt. I think it was second quarter. We're still in this game, much like the two-lane game. I knew after the Tampa game that Michalski would start again. I knew that this was my chance to either make it or break it.

It's very similar to two-lane. I went in with little to no reps. I played the week before, but different setting. We were not going to win that game the previous week.

This one, we had a chance to win. A lot of it would hinge on how I played, if not all of it. They blitzed me every snap, which was smart, except for the last drive.

They played very cautious. It allowed me to just play. I didn't have to worry about blitzes and all that stuff.

I could just play. I think after that game, my thought was it couldn't have gone any better, even though I knew there were a lot of things I had to clean up. I really felt like Michalski, to be honest with you, was not as hurt as he let on. That was my gut. He was playing bad.

The crowd was booing him. It was a way to get away from that and let me play. They found out that Don isn't so bad, because I was raw. He had to believe, just like most people, this guy can throw it hard and far, but he doesn't have a chance. Which would have been a good bet. But it didn't work out that way. It didn't work out that way.

No, it didn't work out that way. When we come back, we continue with Brett Favre, one of the NFL's greatest all-time quarterbacks, telling his story in his own words here on Our American Stories. What is Circle? First of all, it's a beautiful shape. It's consistent. A community.

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Happy streaming. Inspired by Ubisoft's famous video game series Assassin's Creed, the Echoes of History podcast offers a deep and fascinating dive into history. In this season's Assassin vs Templars, these two organizations have a rich history that takes its root in the medieval era and the time of the crusades within the Assassin's Creed universe. Hosted by Dan Snow and Matt Lewis from History Hit, each episode offers us a history of these two not-so-secret societies. New episodes weekly.

Listen to Echoes of History, Assassin's vs Templars on iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we return to our American stories and Brett Favre's story in his own words. Let's pick up where we left off with Green Bay's then backup quarterback Brett Favre getting the win after replacing an injured Don Mikowski in week three of the 1992 NFL season.

Here's Brett. And really kind of my career is kind of a reflection of that game. A lot of good, a lot of wins, but a lot of, you know, what are you doing?

But fortunately there was a lot more goods than there were bats. But yeah, you know, Aikman and I are big buddies and he said, you know, I guess it's Wally Pipp, does that name sound familiar? I've had more people bring that name up to me. Mikowski is Wally Pipp, got hurt, went out thinking I'll be back, they'll be wanting me back before you know it.

And 20 years later, he's still waiting. But I think, you know, like I tell people, one of the things I think that served me well early in my career was being naive. And I say that because the latter part of my career, say the last five, six years, I'd been around the block of more than half the team combined. But as a 15 year veteran or above, I knew what we were up against. I knew if this guy could play or this, or when a play was called, did it have a, I mean, they all have a chance, but, and I started thinking that way rather than being 22 and not giving a s***, to be honest with you.

Just bring them on. So not that the latter part of my career I didn't play well, but I spent more time worrying about things I couldn't control. But I, you know, I say that because in 20 years, most professional athletes don't play whatever it is for 20 years. You know, I went from barely shaving to gray hair, I mean, complete gray at 30. And the way I played and the life that I lived throughout the things that we talked about earlier, the adversity, you know, just different. But I was still playing the same game.

And how quickly it went. My first year I was in Atlanta and I went out to eat. I was just trying to find my way. No one cared who I was. I was just another guy. Much like I would have been, not so much a Green Bay because I was traded for a first round pick. So there was already kind of an air of, because traded for a first round pick is basically like being drafted in the first round. But in Atlanta, I was a second round pick. Lanville hated me for whatever reason.

I really don't know. The starting five offensive linemen were all 32 or above. And one of the tackles was a guy named Mike Ken. And he was one of the guys that went out to eat with us. And I remember him saying, how old are you? I said, I'm 21. He said, that was 18 years ago when I was 21.

And how fun those days were. And I said, how old are you? And I think 38, 39. Been playing 18 years. I was like, geez, that's old.

I didn't say that, but I was thinking that. And then fast forward, I would have guys, how many years is this for you? I'd say, this is year 19. And they're like, oh my God. I would go back to the flashback to the and I'm like, where did it go?

Which can be said the same in life. The older you get, I'll never forget sitting in my mom's lap as a kid. Couldn't tell you how old I was.

And we were talking about, I don't know if it was my birthday coming up or whatever. And she was in this recliner. And I was like, oh my God. And I was like, oh my God. And she was in this recliner.

We were kind of rocking. And I said, well, when's your birthday? She said, my birthday doesn't matter. And I said, all birthdays matter. She said, when you get my age, they come a lot quicker than you want.

And you could care less. And I thought to myself, no way. And she was right. She was right.

Before you know it, man, another one. I think I said this in my hall of fame speech. I talked about this. The only time in our life that I heard my dad say something, now of course it wasn't to me, but after football practice, it was my dad and three other coaches and they'd been together forever. So after football practice, everyone would leave and they would watch film and do whatever. I had to stick around. So I'd do whatever.

Sometimes just lay outside in the locker room. And as I said, then I say the same thing now. I don't know exactly how I played the week before. We didn't throw a whole lot, but I assume I didn't play very well.

We probably lost only because we didn't have a lot of time. I overheard him say, well, I can tell you one thing. My son will redeem himself.

He'll play much better. I can promise you that. And I was like, geez. And that was kind of, I like to write it off as that generation. And I'm assuming this. I don't know. But I assume he felt like if he gave compliments that I would let off the gas a little bit.

And maybe there's some truth to that. Not with me, but with a lot of kids. Because the way he coached me and the way he handled me would easily turn other kids off. Then and now. Like, screw it.

I won't even play. It happens all the time. And that's the way he was with me. But probably why I succeeded as far as athletics and my two brothers played. But they, I don't know.

I mean, I think they loved it, but I don't think they loved it like I did. You couldn't place any more expectations or any higher than I placed upon myself. So my dad would often say, you need to do this. You do that. I was already doing it. Even if I was doing it, he was going to tell me, you need to run more bleachers.

I was already running them. So rather than turn me off, it motivated me. It always motivated me. And I used that later in my career.

And it was a, it was a self-discipline thing. So like every year I'd come back for training camp. And there would always be a new quarterback in there, even if he wasn't drafted.

Maybe it's just been, I would talk myself in to believe in that they were trying to find the next guy to replace me. And so I would play every play in practice as if it was a Super Bowl. And I would think I would always joke around and goof off in practice. But I think if you would go back and ask any coach that I played for what I was like in practice, and they would say, well, he's a lot of fun, but I was competitive. Every throw mattered. Every, every play mattered.

I wanted to win every thing I did, every play, every practice. And, and that goes back to my dad in a twisted kind of way. And you're listening to Brett Favre and you're listening to him unfiltered, raw, about his life and moving from point to point in a beautiful way, the way we all do when we're talking to friends and family.

We don't do the big edited pieces here on our American stories. We like to get you what it will be like sitting down with Brett, because that's what we do. We sit down with folks.

We let them talk and we get ourselves out of the way. And my goodness, what he was saying about his dad reminded me of mine. He knew how to push my buttons.

He rarely said, I love you and was rarely saying encouraging words, but I didn't know many dads back in the day who did much of that. When we continue, more of Brett Favre's life story in his own words here on our American stories. Digital currency is helping to form the base layer for a new global commerce infrastructure and stable coins like USDC issued by Circle help to bring faster payments at internet scale.

From merchants at the point of sale to corporations that want to pay global sales, to corporations that want to pay global suppliers and even employees more efficiently. Visit circle.com slash podcast to learn more. Radio and room-filling sound. Learn more about Roku stream bar today at roku.com. Happy streaming. Inspired by Ubisoft's famous video game series, Assassin's Creed, the Echoes of History podcast offers a deep and fascinating dive into history. In this season's Assassin vs Templars, these two organizations have a rich history that takes its root in the medieval era and the time of the crusades within the Assassin's Creed universe. Hosted by Dan Snow and Matt Lewis from History Hit, each episode offers us a history of these two not so secret societies. New episodes weekly.

Listen to Echoes of History, Assassins vs Templars on iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts. And we continue with our American stories and Brett Favre's life story in his own words. Let's return to Brett. My daughter walked in here right now and we just the two of us I'd probably ask her if she worked out or she did something and she's like she used to have really and then my wife will say why are you gonna that's I'm a lot like my dad but rather than turn me off it it would piss me off but it would motivate me and drive me like I'll show you I'd do twice as much just for the hell of it and I think that that drive definitely wasn't statistics going into college that got me there it was really about by luck that I got a scholarship a couple of guys chose to go elsewhere the coach that recruited me wanted me bad felt like I could play but he he couldn't get convinced the head coach because there was no film like there was film but I want to see him throw but definitely once I got to to the pros I mean it was you I was not going to be denied but I was confident but I wouldn't say cocky and any some may have thought that but I you know Aaron comes across as cocky so very cocky and he is but I was more I'd put the work in I knew that I wasn't the tallest I wasn't the strongest although I thought I was wasn't the quickest but I was I was going to do whatever it took to to win a game and it didn't have to be throwing it could be running it could be blocking it can be tackling now that definitely goes back to high school because I played I played a non-glamorous quarterback position I handed it off all the time pitched it played defense punted oh yeah he said you let me coach and you play I'm being a lot really polite it was a lot harsher than that yeah our rides back in the little dodge d50 truck coming from practice home was there was never like I tell people this all the time I say it jokingly because I it would be funny like if we were driving home there's about a 15-minute drive if he were to say son how you doing in school I'd have passed out or if he said are you you making good grades are you making good grades and if I said yeah good I'm proud of you I would have my pants or how's it going with Deanna are you guys okay I jumped out of the truck that had been so it had been so awkward he was and Deanna knew my dad as well as I did because she took driver's ed under him and she she'll if she were here she would say I could see through the harshness but she probably could but she would also agree that everything he did was and how he said it or or spoke or related he would scare you so like if you were in here and he walked in he's gonna say something you're like holy who is that and that's how he talked to you it was always loud and even if he wasn't mad you just he came across that way he just didn't ever sit down and how's it going what the hell what that that's how it was so what's what's it like from going you know what I don't miss it at all I don't I thought I would I was I was really I was nervous about what the next phase of my life would be like because that's all I knew and I think part of me coming back a couple of those times was this if I leave it's over and I did really want to come back and play the last four years I just didn't love it as much but I still loved it enough to give it a shot so depending on what what time the off season you you got me I'd be like I had enough and then it got closer it's kind of like school growing up you know couldn't wait to get out of school and then by the end of summer you're like I'm kind of ready to go back that's kind of the way I was but when I finally did retire in the following season opening day I was outside doing something and Deanna sent me sent me a message said hey Minnesota's on and I thought to myself I'm gonna go ahead and check them out and I sat right where you were and I watched like two or three series got me something neat and then I walked outside went back doing what I was doing and I thought to myself I am so glad I'm not there and and the reasons would probably shock you the reasons that I was glad I wasn't there is because I didn't want to have to get on the flight fly all the way back from San Diego and get home late not to mention I don't even know if they won or lost but I just if I knew that every game was going to be a 21-0 route us win it would have made it easier to go back I just got tired of the stress so you know I wake up like that's caulk I've been caulking those expansion joints in the driveway for like a week Deanna's like what are you doing and I spent four hours today caulking and leaves blowing in it and I'm trying to pull the leaves out and just but I'm I'm I'm enjoying myself some days it's something breaks or something it's it's a pain in the but you know I got something that keeps me busy I enjoy we like this right now is volleyball season so this past weekend we're in Covington Louisiana for a tournament now we go to LSU for one this weekend and the following week we go to Gulf Shores and I mean we love it we don't miss a game we there's no reason for us to miss a game we're definitely involved grandkids will be let's see the middle ones playing baseball so he hadn't started playing yet he's took him to the batting cage last week so we're involved with them they live nearby yeah a couple miles away so we we see them pretty regular we just been moving them into a new house I said we me and Deanna's probably done most of the work the kids are obviously too young to to do anything but I tell Deanna so we got no one to blame ourselves but like you're and Alex my son and my son-in-law is a great guy and he's a great dad and he does he's like Mr. Mom he Brittany's kind of it's kind of like a role reversal they start crying they go to him but they can't do to chew gum and tie their shoes at the same time and moving them into a new house and the old house it was nice but they just go over there and like you couldn't see the kids the grass was so high you know and I'm like cut your grass we'll get s who ends up cutting the grass me because in fact if I wait it's not gonna get cut I'm hoping that they'll they'll do a better job but let me tell you my dad wasn't a perfect parent but we were working when we were kids and even when there wasn't one but I can't tell you how much firewood we we cut and we stacked and never used in south Mississippi how many times you use firewood I think he just did it for the hell of it man I can't tell you how many times I did that and he'd stack wood on me and I'd have to go carry it my three grandsons I try to get them to do that they'd look at me like I was stupid yep whose fault is that it's it's the parents fault yeah look every spanking I got was well worth it I deserved every one of them and probably the ones I didn't deserve I needed anyway and it didn't do me no harm but nowadays you can't even spank your own kids I called dhs on you oh yeah well I called dhs my dad would he's I you I'll you'll call dhs my when I'm done with you and you've been listening to Brett Favre in his own words and by the way this is just part one in our five-part series with Brett Brett Favre's story a great American story here on Our American Stories I'm Malcolm Gladwell I live way out in the country I drive everywhere and you know what scares me that feeling of finding myself stuck on the side of the road but now all of us can avoid that pain by getting our vehicle the part it needs before that breakdown oh no moment with ebay guaranteed fit and over 122 million parts and accessories you can make sure your ride stays running smoothly for the parts and accessories that fit your vehicle just look for the green check get the right parts the right fit and the right prices ebaymotors.com let's ride eligible items only exclusions apply all-inclusive vacations make life easy with endless eats bottomless drinks and never-ending fun so booking an all-inclusive vacation should be easy too right that's where Apple vacations comes in book your all-inclusive getaway with Apple vacations and receive exclusive perks at select resorts you'll find the best 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