Brett Favre on Humility, Aging, and Faith (Pt. 4 of 5)

On this episode of Our American Stories, much of what’s known about legendary NFL quarterback Brett Favre has been kept between the goal posts. So Greg Hengler sat down with Brett Favre in his Hattiesburg, Mississippi, home where Brett shared stories about humility, aging, and faith, in this fourth part of his five part series.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
In sixteen oh six, one hundred and five British colonists
sailed to America seeking gold and a trade route to

(00:33):
the Pacific. Only the leadership of Captain John Smith averted
doom with the first permanent English settlement in the New World.
Many people know John Smith as the man who was
saved by Pocahontas, but what you may not know is
that he had led a life full of adventure. Here
to tell the story is Julianna Rodgers, author of Captain

(00:56):
John Smith, American Hero. Let's take a listen.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
John Smith is known in history as being really important
part of the Jamestown settlement, becoming the first permanent English
settlement in America. So you would think his qualifications might be,
you know, he was from a wealthy family, he was
very well connected. He's tall, dark, handsome, charming, well spoken,

(01:24):
very diplomatic, and he's just about the opposite. You know,
he really was not those things. So John Smith was
born in fifteen eighty in England. He was the son
of a farmer and his father's name was George and
his mom's name was Alice, and he had a younger
brother and a younger sister, so they weren't wealthy, but

(01:47):
they weren't poor either. His father owned some land and
was the farmer on that land, but then also leased
some land from a local Lord Willoughby. And Lord Willoughby
was very fond of John's father. They had a good,
really relationship, so he allowed John to go to school
with his sons. And this was a you know, very
kind thing of Lord Willoughby to do. And John he

(02:09):
was a fine student, but I think he often daydreamed
of adventure. And he also was treated poorly by the
other students who were the sons of gentlemen. And in
that time in England, you know, it was a pretty
strict class society where if you are born into an
upper class family, you know, you are often the son

(02:31):
of a gentleman or a lord. And John was the
son of a farmer and they treated him poorly. They
treated him as such. Also at that time, Francis Drake
had returned to England and he was a hero. He
had circumnavigated the globe and brought back a lot of
gold for Queen Elizabeth the First and she united him.
So he became Sir Francis Drake, and John saw this

(02:55):
as an example. Sir Francis Drake was also the son
of a farmer, and so John saw this as this
person became a knight. He became Sir Francis Drake and
very famous and loved through his actions, not because he
was born into the right family. So once he was
finished with school, he actually had the opportunity to continue

(03:17):
with school, but he longed for adventure, so he became
a soldier and he went and fought in the Netherlands,
and he writes of that time in his journals. He
writes that he felt like he was finding against men
with very similar beliefs to his own, and so he
just his heart wasn't in it. So he returned home

(03:38):
to England and he's kind of lost, and he's only
about sixteen or seventeen at this point, but he doesn't
know what to do next. So it's around this time
that he meets a man named Theodore Palaeologue, and Theodore
was a direct descendant of Constantine the eleventh, who was
the last Greek emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. And
Theodore told him about the battles happening in Eastern Europe

(04:00):
called the Crusades, and he explained that the Turks were
trying to spread their Muslim religion across Europe. And John
was an English Protestant, so he felt like this was
a fight he could believe in. This is a fight
he could get behind and drive out the Turks from
spreading their religion across Europe. So he was captivated by

(04:23):
these stories and he was in this is what he
wanted to do next. He was going to go fight
in the Crusades and make a name for himself. He
didn't just rush off. He really took time to prepare
and he did that by studying with Theodore Paleologue and
learning horsemanship, things like riding your horse at full speed

(04:44):
while using various weapons very important obviously. During that time,
also he prepared by reading books like the Art of War.
He learned battle techniques and strategies. He wasn't just rushing
off this time. He took a full year to prepare
before he was ready to go and fight in the Crusades,
so he catches a ship to northern France, and on

(05:07):
the journey he meets four gentlemen who are really nice
and they get along very well as they're making the
trip to northern France, and they lock John in his
room and take all of his belongings. So these were
not kind, friendly gentlemen. These were thieves, and by the
time John got out of his room, they were long
gone with all of his belongings. And he has a

(05:28):
choice to make. He can head back home and try again,
or he can keep going. So he decides he's going
to walk across France. So John begins walking to southern France.
One day he meets a man and he's telling him
about where he's come from and where he's going, and
they hit it off. They become friends, and this man
is the account of Plower, and he's very impressed with what

(05:49):
John is trying to do, so he gives him enough
money for the rest of his journey. So now John
has enough funds. He makes it to the south of France.
He boards a ship that's headed for home, and almost
immediately after they set sail, a storm hits and the
boat is being tossed and turned, and it's quite scary

(06:09):
for everyone on board. Well, everyone else on board are
Roman Catholics except for John, who's an English Protestant, and
they think that God is punishing them because they allow
John on board the ship. So they take him and
throw him overboard, and eventually he's able to find a

(06:29):
small piece of land and he drags himself up and
eventually a ship comes and he flags him down and
he boards this ship, only to quickly realize this is
a pirate ship and he's got to talk himself out
of this situation. So he tells them again, this is
where I came from, this is where I'm going. Some
guys stole all my stuff, but the Count of Plow

(06:52):
gave me enough funds to get me where I need
to go. And the pirate captain stops him and says,
Count of Plower, that's my friend too. Any friend is
a friend of mine. We will take you where you
need to go. So they take John, but they also
plundered a few ships along the way, and John must
have helped because they gave him his share of the
booty when they dropped him off in Italy, and they

(07:14):
gave him five hundred gold coins.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
And you're listening to Juliana Rodgers tell the story of
Captain John Smith. More of the remarkable American heroes, story
and journey here on Our American Stories. Leehibibe here the
host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show,
we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country, stories

(07:40):
from our big cities and small towns. But we truly
can't do the show without you. Our stories are free
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