November 24, 2021 • 43 mins
Host Andrea Kremer takes us back to 1996 when NFL Films' Steve Sabol interviewed Quarterback Brett Favre in Mississippi. The conversation starts with a warning from Brett to watch out for snakes along the dock of Rotten Bayou. Brett recalls growing up and playing for his Dad before heading to Southern Miss, where he was involved in a serious car accident before the start of his Senior season. Now in the NFL and coming off his first MVP season, Brett tells Steve about his tough relationships with head coaches Jerry Glanville and Mike Holmgren. Steve discusses Brett's Super Bowl dreams before asking him a few questions that you'll have to hear to believe.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
I'm Pro Football Hall of Fame journalist Andrea Kramer, and
welcome to NFL Films Tales from the Vault. This is
a weekly podcast where you'll get to hear raw, unedited
conversations that have never been heard before in their entirety
between the legendary Steve Sable and some of the greatest
players and coaches in NFL history. This show it's like
(00:27):
a time capsule. It takes you back to a specific
period in a player or coaches career. Now. Steve interviewed
hundreds of the game's most important figures in his five
decades as head of NFL Films, and as you'll hear,
he would ask them anything. So today we head to Mississippi,
(00:49):
where Steve met up with a then twenty six year
old Brett Farve. On July one, Steve Sable traveled to kill,
(01:11):
Mississippi current population two thousand three nine to interview Brett
Farve for the first time. At this point in his career,
Farv had just completed his fourth season in Green Bay.
He was coming off the first of three consecutive m
VP awards, yet he still hadn't won the Super Bowl.
(01:32):
He was young, electric, and personified fun, both as a
person and in his playing style. Everyone wanted to get
to know him. That's so hard to imagine now, knowing
everything we do about Brett. I mean, he basically grew
up so much in the public eye, with his private
life on display for everyone. We learned about his painkiller addiction,
(01:57):
his wife Dianne's breast cancer, and our hearts broke when
we learned about the death of his beloved father, Irv,
and we cheered for Brett when he had the game
of his life that night against the Raiders. When Steve
went to visit Brett in his hometown, he really wanted
to get to know Mississippi Brett, where he came from,
(02:17):
his roots, his family. All of Farve's Vidio single sees
just fascinated Steve, and he needed to immerse himself in
Brett's world to fully grasp it. Now, before we dig
into the vault, you've gotta let me set the scene
for you. So picture Steve Sables sitting alongside Brett Farve
on a duck with a muddy body of water behind them,
(02:40):
both wearing shorts and white polo shirts. Now, don't forget
this is home to Brett Farve, but certainly not for
Steve Sable doesn't have snakes? Here's something here? When they
have snakes here? Full of where we're sitting there snakes?
What kind of snakes? Mockas those things are poisonous, it
(03:02):
won't hurt you too bad. Do you ever get bit
by one of them? No? But my younger brother's friend's
daughter got bit last week here by snake. Now, but
some way around here? So where are we we're if
if I was gonna say, where are we located? What's
the name of the place where we're in Hancock County,
which is the county right next to Louisiana on the
bottom left hand corner of Mississippi. And this is called
(03:23):
Rotten Value, which is um like a little So we're
sitting on the dock of the bay by rotten byou. Yeah,
what did you get that name? I'm afraid dance. I'm
not exactly sure. I guess a lot of dirty diapers
and trash. Is that's all in here? I don't know?
But your dad says, you fish here? Yeah? What do
you catch? Catch? Bass? Perch, catfish? Do you know how
(03:47):
to cook it? Sure? So you can skin it and
everything and cook it up. Yeah? It's good alligators cars,
So there's there's alligators in here too. You're down south, Steve,
Uh listen, No, I know this is so backwoods. I
turned on the TV last night and they got Beverly
Hillbillys on PBS, So I know, I know I'm backwoods
(04:10):
back here absolutely, But you know, everybody here press got
a funny way of talking, like this is kill kill right, kill,
but it's spelled k I l en. Now in your
name too is pronounced far, but it's spelled f A
V R. How what is that is? That? Is that
like a just a peculiarity of this area where I think,
(04:32):
so there are some fars down here who spelled their
name f A r V. My grandfather on my dad's eyes,
full blooded Indian. You know, I don't know if that
has anything to do with it. And then my mother's
side is is kind of a French occasion a little bit.
Uh So they told me that that her dad ran
a tavern here. His name was Benny French. Sure did
(04:53):
for years, and Hurricane Camille had wiped it out and
redid it and eventually sold it off to my uncle. Now,
the road we drove up to on it's all, it's
an all dirt road to this house. And what happens
when it rains, I mean, how the hell do you
get in here? Well, you just don't wash your car
for a while because it does get tough. I can
remember and growing up that most of the roads around
(05:14):
here we're all dirt, and trying to get to school
in a rainy day was almost impossible. So they would
cancel certain days of school because of Like up north,
you know, if it snows, Uh, they'll council school if
it's bad enough. We're down here. If if it rains
bad enough that the roads of flooded and it's dirt
and you can forget it. So we always prayed for rain.
The road here is named the Irwin Irvan Farrord, right,
(05:37):
but it doesn't it's not spelled right. Well they spell
at F A r V. So how come nobody you know,
if you have a road named off do you you
think that your dad would have gone out there and
at least corrected the spelling. Well, you know what, we've
had had the sign either stolen or shot at. So
many times shot at a mailbox. We used to go
down and uh grab mail, and the mailbox would either
(05:58):
be bent or I'd be gone. Sometimes we opened up
and they'd be firecrackers that have been popped in it.
You know that there's a lot of people around here
who are proud of the things I've done. Shoot at
your mailbox. That's the way of showing that they're proud of. Well,
there are some who are there there that's that's a uh,
that's a rarity. Um. But the for the most part,
(06:19):
the people here are very proud and and uh uh
kind of stick up for me and and your family
has been in this area your whole life, right, I
mean for like thirty years and I was born and
raised right here. Really, now, the people down here, you've
got a lot of funny expressions that used Now. I
remember we mike here for a game and you're warming
up and you pick up the ball and you're going like, yes,
(06:40):
you see this ball is slicker than owl ship. Now,
how did you know how slick that is? Well, you
just gotta grow up, and you know, and and and
this type of environment, you know, uh uh, you know,
I've been in New Jersey and seeing where you hang
out and and to me, that's you know, my mother
last night told me, well, if if Steve and these
(07:01):
guys are coming down, we gotta make sure we have
them something that they can relate to to eat. And
I said, what hey, when I go to New Jersey,
I don't ask for crawfish at Toufe, I said, I
eat what they have. UM. So it's it's kind of
like the area. You know, you go and you kind
of just gonna have a cheese steak for all the guys.
I doubt it very seriously, red beans and rices on Monday. Um.
But yeah, we do have a lot of expressions and um.
(07:22):
You grow up in the country, you hear all those
things and then you start putting them together, and then
you come off with if if I was gonna say
somebody is really stupid, what would be an expression that
you used down here? You know, I heard your dad
say something earlier we're talking. He says, this guy was
dumber the bag of hammers. YEA, are dumber in the
bag of rocks? You know, I think, uh, um, heck,
(07:46):
there's so many, you know, but I've I've kind of
been a waste for so long. And I think when
I first got to Green Bay, Mike Homber and said, look,
I can't understand this guy. So I started working on
on my English a little bit, and so am I saying,
so he could relate to me. But we've kind of
met in the middle a little bit. Your mom said
she sent him a book a Mississippi expression, Yeah she did.
(08:06):
And another one I heard you talked about. You were
saying it was a running back, and you said that
he is slower than the steam off horse maneuver. Now,
is there any what how about if you're talking about
somebody who's really fast, is there an expression that used
for that? You know? Oh God, I don't know. So
you put me on the spot right now. They have
to just kind of come spontaneous, all right. Well, I
(08:27):
just wondered if there was, if there's any other those
kind of expressions. You probably know more of what I've
said than I know. I know all your favorite songs too,
That's right, That's right. I gotta forget that you might
can out whoa Yeah, I love it. Can you believe
any pay I was here? I thought you hit harder
than that. Well, I could sure use a hot dog
with Chile. We can't catch your damn cold. I don't
(08:50):
even stretch anymore when I come out of here. You,
Thank God never farted. A few people were as entertaining
his Bread Farve. But I can say that about him
in real life too. And by the way, over the
time that I spent with them, far jokes and references
were commonplace, and occasionally, that's right, you'd get to witness
one in the flesh. Very special. Let let let's move
(09:11):
on here. He really had a mischievous streak. No one
pulled pranks like Bread five. One of the most devious
pranks that I can recall involved freezing teammates car door
shut in the winter. So picture this Farve would move
the unlocked cars to the far end of the team
parking lot in Green Bay. He would blast the air
conditioner and pour water on the door so they couldn't
(09:33):
get in. His packers teammates would have a long trek
through the windy parking lot to find their cars sealed
shut from the ice. Now, naturally, this kind of behavior,
if you will, dates back to his youth and would
occasionally put him in the crosshairs of his coach, who
just happened to be his father. All right, Now, when
(09:53):
you were a kid, did you get in trouble A lot?
I don't know. Compared to other kids. Probably uh yeah, yeah,
what yeah you were you did get in trouble, well, yeah,
if you want to call it trouble. Um, I was
pretty mischievous and and always I was telling my older
brother Ester, who went up to the old high school
and was throwing the football a little bit. And when
(10:16):
we were little would be at the same school and
as my dad was practicing after school that was a coach,
high school football coach, we would go sneak into the
cafeterian steal milk. The milk, yeah, just because we could
do it, you know, just to steal it or get
you're drinking. We would drink it. You know, we're still
two or three cartons and it was ten cents of carton,
you know when we drank the milk. And then we'd
go over and then why my dad was practicing, we'd
(10:38):
sneak in the locker room, would still gator ate or
we still have jocks and socks and all this stuff
because we wanted to be like the growing ups. Um,
so we'd have this stuff and we'd have in our
drawers here and then you know, on Sundays after pro
football games, we put them on and go out and play.
Now when you were watching when you were a kid
growing up, were you a big pro football fan? Um,
we only get your favorite player. Probably aren't, Manny. We
(11:01):
grew up, as you can tell, in an area, but
we only got three channels, so it was ABC, NBC,
and CBS, and the only game we could get was
a Saint And uh, those are the years the Saints
were winning like one game at the most. At the most,
you know, a lot of brown paper bags were sold
in this area. Uh, but you know, it was fun
watching them and every year you just knew that they
(11:22):
were going in the Super Bowl that year and they
went two or three games. But it was but it
was a lot of fun, and um, Archie was a
great player. Unfortunately, you get to play with a great team. Now,
your dad was a football coach and he's nicknamed the Hammer. Yeah,
that one of numerous nicknames. But was he tough to
play for? Yeah? No, Um, I tell people I was
(11:44):
very fortunate to get a chance to play for him because, um,
I got a little extra you know when other guys
went home after practice and didn't talk football until the
next afternoon, and we talked on the ride home. When
we woke up at more in the morning, um, at
supper at night, before we went to bed. We were
always talking football and for me, uh, you know, for
some kids maybe that's too much, but for me, I
(12:04):
enjoyed it. And there were times during practice and during
games where we kind of butted heads a little bit,
like me and Mike do. Now the quarterback coach, that's this.
You know, the quarterback tends to think he knows everything
and the head coach tends to think he knows everything.
So so there is some conflict there. But I think
in the long run, if if you're able to work
it out and then you can use it two your advantage. Now,
(12:26):
when you went to high school here, were you a
quarterback or a linebacker, running back or what quarterback? Played
strong safety and punted and kicked and um, they're just
about everything. Did you get a scholarship to college Southern Mississippi?
I was? I think two days before the signing date
college signing date. UM, our offensive line coach at Southern
(12:49):
Miss gave me a call and said the guy that
they had wanted backed out and went to school in
Florida that now they had an opening for me. Do
I did I want to take it, And I said sure,
because I was going to a junior college here and
and um, South Mississippi, So I was, I was in
that room, and you got so many trophies and stuff,
and then you think that you would have been more
recruited than that that you know, you had had a
(13:09):
couple of these big schools after unless the caliber football
here isn't that good. I mean, how come all those
You've got a whole trophy case of well m vps
and stuff. Uh, the caliber football in South Mississippi is
very good, but we're a smaller school. You've got teams
like pascagogle where Terrell Buckley and Shane Matthews. What's the
(13:32):
name of that schooling Pascagoula, huh, which is ah, it's
probably a fifteen hundred uh student high school where we
were like three fifty. And then there's Gulf Board High
School that put out basketball players like Chris Jackson. Chris Jackson,
but you were like all league and you must have
been where I was, but it was still surprisingly you
wouldn't get a you know, an offer from from Alabama
(13:54):
a bunch of letters. No, it's just just a bunch
of letters, you know, Pole letters and said, you know,
this is great. But when it came time to offering scholarships,
I guess they said, look, um, you know your dad
didn't throw the ball very much on your high school team.
I think my senior year through for four n yards. Um,
So we don't know if you can throw or not.
You know you got a strong arm, but whether or
not you can you know you can do it on
(14:15):
a college level, we don't know, um, And I can
see where they were coming from, but you know, we
won and the bottom line was winning. And I don't
think dad really cared whether. You know, we threw in
one and we ran in one. What was your favorite
subject in school? Math? Really? Yeah? That was that? That
was the subject you look forward to going to I
(14:36):
look forward to. Um, I never looked forward to going
to school period, but since I had to go, math
was it was the one hour I could get through
pretty easy. Now, your mom tells me that you never studied,
you never brought home books, but you just must. But
you always had good grades. How did you do that? Well?
I always felt like when I left school that now
it was time to you know, to play. Yeah, so
(14:59):
I said, heck, I'll do all my homework at school.
I'll study at school. We must have paid attention in class,
and I paid attention. I went ten years of of
grade school without missing a day of school. Um, so
you never missed a day of school. What happens when
it rained, and the and the and the road got money,
your school was canceled? Okay, then I would miss. But
but if if school was going on, then I went.
(15:20):
And your mom seems to me to be the real athlete,
because you have two brothers that are good athletes, and
your mom is you know, she must because I think
all good athletes get it from their mother's side as
opposed to their father's. Well, you know, I think both
of them would like to bargain for that, uh, for
that that statement, but and I think a little bit
(15:44):
of both. My mother was a basketball player back when
they played. Uh. I think it was six man basketball
or something. Um, she's not that old, but my goodness,
six man basketball. And then my dad, of course, he
likes to think that, he likes to boast around town
that I got my armed from him. Uh. He was
a pitcher in college at Southern Mississippi and and also
played football. But it was as kind of unusual that
(16:06):
he played receiver and all three of his sons played quarterback.
Now what about your your grandma? She has she has
an interesting past. Two meet me mall mem Yeah, now
she knew al capone. Memhi is up here on the
(16:27):
dock here. Yeah, she's listening. Um she yeah, I don't
know too many people she doesn't know, um, but she
You're right, she has a very unique past and president.
Is that right? Mem? I didn't hear that. He said
you have a very unique past and present. That's funny.
(16:49):
To go back for a second. Do you remember your
first experience is playing football as a kid? Sure that?
Oh yeah, I can remember the first game I ever
played in, just like it was yesterday. What happened? Well,
the first of all, it was a as we called jamboree.
It was three games and one day. I was a
fifth grader, and you play like a quarter against one team,
(17:10):
a quarter against another team, and then a half against
the third team. And I had my uniform on and
and uh it was funny because my dad's I gotta
get a hair cut first. Your dad told you you
had to get a hair No, he had to get
a hair cut. And he was taking me to the game.
He wasn't my coach, and if he would have been,
my coach would have been there an hour before. So
we're go and get it. I go sit in the
(17:32):
barber shop with full uniform on, and he went to
wait for him to get his crew cut, you know.
And I didn't have a watch on, but I knew
that the game was supposed to start about eleven o'clock
and it was about ten thirty and we were about
thirty minutes away. So I'm getting all nervous. You know,
I'm nervous enough that I gotta play a game because
I've never played him on before. And uh, here is
(17:54):
my dad's falling asleep into barber chair trying to get
a hair cut. So finally he gets done, he says, oh,
on warre about it, son, we'll get there. So we
pull up and our old pickup truck that had an
extension wire held to the passenger door to keep it
from from flying open, you know, it wouldn't even lock anymore. Um,
So I jumped out. I run out on the field
and they had already started playing. I was a split in,
(18:17):
um and I wasn't quarterback, and they put me in
like the first play I think I was in. It
was the first or second play. The guy through one
to me. I jumped up and caught it and I
came down on top of the ball and knocking the
wind out of you. And if you've ever had to win,
knock out of you and thank you dal time. Oh yeah,
you know, I'm I'm you know, I'm crying now because
I'm late. Now I'm really crying because now I think
(18:38):
I'm dying because I can't breathe. And uh and I
jumped up. After I started crying. Everyone came out to
see if I was okay. You know, they picked you
up about your pants and the you know, the whole deal.
Cheerleaders are looking and I said, I don't want to
play his position anymore. I said, can I play quarterback?
And so they put me in a quarterback when we
were running the wishbone? And I think I ran three
(19:00):
touchdowns in that day and the last one I ran
in I got the guy. You know we had you
had your fruit looms on, no, no, you know, fifth
grade and then you pull your pants over and you
had those snapping pads just snapped in hip button the
other side pad and they the guy tackled me as
I went and ends on and just pulled him right
down and all sitting there him underwear and end zone.
(19:20):
So yeah, it was a unique end Zoe celebration. It was.
I can't do that anymore though. Now, when you were
you were grown up and you were living in this house,
you had all three your brothers lived in the same room,
right right, But did you all sleep in the same bed.
That must have been at No. I had a little
single bed. My older and younger brothers slept together. Now
in the king's size bed. How did you get the
(19:43):
single mean, if you think you're older brother just got that,
how did you break that? My My two brothers like
to snuggle, as they call it. I was never a
big snuggler, so I said, look, you guys can snuggle
in the big bed. I'll take the single bed. Now
the three guys too. What about all the laundry and
stuff you guys must ended up picking up, you know,
wearing each other's clothes and stuff that you have, like
(20:04):
name tags like for your guys, We'll say I would
always mark my stuff, and Scott and Jeff had never
marked there as they didn't care when you marked it.
Would you write Brett on the On the back of that,
I'd usually write BF on it, um and and Scott
and Jeff wouldn't do it. But occasionally I say, I'm
walking around the house with BF on their underwear? Are
their T shirt? Or our shoes? Because me and Scott's
(20:25):
always worn the same pair of shoes, and uh, you know,
I would get very angry because we'd all go, somebody
else is wearing your under packs. Well it's now I'm
pretty used to it because I've I've I've bought about
forty pair of underwear and that way I can would
you wear the jockeys or the or the trunks? I
kind of got that you don't have to show it.
I kind of got the half deal, you know, the
half underwear half boxers. What are they called the halfway
(20:48):
joe boxers or something like that. I don't even know. Well,
I can't say. I've always wanted to know if Brett
Farve was a boxers or briefs kind of guy. But
you gotta love that Steve had such a curious mind,
even though I must admit I am still cracking up
that he asked a grown man about his underpants when
we come back, We'll hear about Brett's college and pro experiences,
(21:11):
and I promise you no more underwear talk. I'm not
sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Welcome back to NFL Films Tales from the Vault. Brett
Farve's toughness has always been legendary. His determination to never
miss a game ultimately lead to three hundred and twenty
(21:32):
one consecutive starts, including the playoffs, the most in league history.
But for those that don't know that streak and his
toughness are even more impressive when you learn about his
near death experience prior to his senior year in college.
It's been written about, but hearing it from the mouth
of Brett Farve is chilling. When you went to college
(21:54):
and then you had that automobile accident, how did that happen? Uh?
Basically you probably drove right past it because it's only
about seven tenths of a mile from where we're sitting
right now. That sounds like a horrible accident. Well it was.
I'm very fortunate, but also um, very unfortunate. Um that
was at a time once again, back when the road
(22:17):
now it's been redone and at one time it was
real gravel and and uh like loose dirt, and I
was coming home. I was actually coming here, and it's
a sharp curve and went around the curve. Probably was
going faster than I should have been, but you know,
I've done that a million times and caught the uh
like the shoulder of the of the dirt you can
(22:38):
see coming down this road if you you know, if
you lose it, if you're done, and just lost control
and try to pull it back on the road. When
I did and went off the other side, I flipped
three times and hit a pine tree. The car flipped
in the air three it went down to anim those
die hard crashes. The fall guy look like the fall guy,
except I came away with a few more injuries then
(23:00):
then he would. Uh. But it was July fourteenth of
and was going into what I had hoped to be,
you know, like a Heisman Trophy senior season, whether or
Southern right, uh, you know, a small school. We had
a good schedule, playing Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, those type of schools,
and and was hoping that that would propel me into
(23:23):
the NFL. So we had a good chance. Um, I
came away with thirty inch of intestines being removed, fractured
vertebrae in my back, uh, numerous cuts and bruises and
and other things. Um, but ended up playing on our
second game September eight. How many weeks after the accident?
Was that? Well, I had the surgery August State to
(23:45):
remove the intestines, and then you played four weeks later
against Alabama? Did the doctor say it was okay? You know,
they told me I needed to sit out the whole
year and you and you played four weeks four weeks
later because you know, they said, well, why don't you
just take a red shirt year because I hadn't shut yet,
and just sit out and come back the following year. Uh,
you know ready, and there's probably better than you have
(24:07):
ever had been. And I said, well, you know, this
is supposed to be my year, and I think if
I can come back and prove to everyone that if
I can play after everything that's happened, and I can
play any any time. And they said, well, it won't
be done. I mean, you're just in too bad of
shape and I've lost thirty five pounds. UM. So I
proved them wrong and came back and played. We played
(24:27):
Alabama that day and beat him. Then he went onto
the NFL, and you get drafted by the Falcons Jerry
Glandville as a coach. Now, I know Jerry Glandville and
I know you pretty well, and you think that that'd
be a good combination, you know, and it wasn't. What happened.
How come that didn't work well? The way I look
at it, the old saying opposite of tracks, Yeah, that's true.
(24:50):
Me and Mike Holmgan are totally but we get along
very well. Me and Jerry were too much like you know,
Atlanta wasn't big enough for the two of us. And
and obviously he had a lot more power than I had.
So I was gone and he stayed. Um. You know,
he wants you describe your lifestyle when you were in
Atlanta then when you were just Oh it was free spirited,
(25:11):
you know, having fun, going out every night. I had
friends from high school who lived there. Uh, my brother
was living with me. Um. I was twenty years old.
Half the season. Um had all this money and a
lot of time, and we just we went and played
golf every day, and we went out at night. And
Um I showed up from meetings and did everything I
(25:32):
was asked to do. But there was no interest there,
you know, I didn't from well, had no interest from
him and none from me. I mean, and I was
never really given a chance other than playing a little
bit preseason. And then they brought him Billy Joe Tolliver
and I was never told why he was. He was
put in the second string and I was made third
without you know ever uh, you know, a battle for it, um.
(25:53):
But I think that's the best thing that ever happened
to me. He was getting a chance to play for Atlanta.
When Jerry Glanville that that bread forv was unteachable, that
you had a bunch of teachers here that read it
and sent a letter to him saying that you were
really a good student, and that wasn't you know, that
wasn't the right way to describe you. Absolutely, I had
about five or six teachers who who wrote letters. Um.
(26:15):
I had elementary teachers, junior high teachers, and high school
teachers who wrote to him, um and and basically set
him straight. All right. Going to going now we're to
Green Bay. How would you describe your relationship with with Mike, Well,
it was it started off very rocky and difficult because
the worst. We were so different and the way I
(26:38):
look at it, and I could be wrong. You say
you're really different. I mean, describe you and describe Mike.
How why you say that you're that different. Well, I'm
from here. I'm from South Mississippi. Mike from San Francisco.
And most people in the United States, maybe not most people,
but have been to San Francisco before, they've been to
South Mississippi. Um, and then if they came to South Mississippi,
(26:59):
they'd see a big dear rus. I mean everything here
is so slow and no one gets in a hurry.
There's no traffic. I never saw a taxi cab until
left high school. Um. We basically eat Cajun food around here.
It's either fried shrimp or red beans and rice, or
poe boys or shrimp creole, something like that. You know,
we have his diners. So you just talk about Friday,
(27:21):
you know, you guys, that's right. You guys jump out
of a cab, grab a Philly beef and cheese steak,
and then you jump back into cab and you go off.
You know, here, we just take our time. We right
into town, eat a nice poe boy, and you drink
your barks root beer. Um and and that's basically your day. Um.
And people here talk real slow, and they have their
own unique sayings. Um And and that's kind of how
(27:42):
they deal with things. I mean, just real slow. And
then here's Mike who is basically used to a fast
lifestyle in San Francisco and coaching at b y U
went in Super Bowls coaching Joe Montana, you know, the
best quarterback to ever play the game than Steve Young, um,
who may be the second best to ever play. And
then to uh to go to Green Bay, which obviously
(28:02):
was a big change for him. Um. And then have
bred Fave come in, who was just totally unpolished and
to try you know, I'm sure that's the biggest job
he's had yet, was to try to make me into
a great quarterback. And he's done a hell of it.
What did he try to do? What did he focused
on in the beginning? Well, I think it at first
(28:24):
he maybe took it a little fast, you know, And
and because he was so used to to everything being
perfect and winning games and win the Super Bowls that
he thought he could come right in and do that.
But what about you, I mean that you obviously we're
a good student in school. I mean, you could pick
things up. You'd think that that you'd be a quick study.
Well I was, but you know, I had to the
third game of the season. I had to play UM
(28:46):
and this is an offense that I'm still learning UM
and it's it's been four years UM. And we basically
when we went in and we tried to do everything
at once, and I say we Mike and the offensive
coaches trying to say, okay, here it is, here's a
hundred fifty past place we're going into this game with.
And I thought, guy, this is the way it's supposed
to be. This is gonna be very difficult. Well, eventually,
(29:10):
over a couple of years now we're going with seventy five.
We've actually backed off and we said let's learn these
first and then going to these. And in the first
couple of months there it was not like that. And
my head was swimming and I said, God, maybe I'm
just an idiot. Come to find out that that every
guy that's everyone went through this offense has has had
that problem. But every guy's every went through this offense
(29:31):
had a chance to wait. Montana didn't start in his
first year. Steve Young definitely didn't start in his first year,
but I had to start in our third game, um,
and and my head was swimming. I was learning on
the run, and that's that's the most diffic It was
a game against the Bengals, and we won that with
you know, we we got I'm sure you've seen that shot.
We got that great shot of you in yeah, oh yeah,
I've seen it a million times. And I played horrible
(29:54):
up until that last drive. I was fumbling and I
had dropped interceptions everything. And then U at the end
of the game might cause some basic plays and he
kept repeating them and it worked, and then gradually we
started working in and things that we could do as
a team. Well, are you the kind of quarterback that
likes it when a play breaks down and then you've
got to be on your own resources to make it work. Well,
(30:15):
I don't want to say I like it, but but
if that happens, I feel very comfortable in doing it. Um.
I'd love to be able to drop back, have a
perfect pocket read for three or four seconds make a throw,
but that's not gonna happen. So I've always prided myself
on on no One before I go into a game
that there's gonna be times where a guy breaks free.
You know, as great as our offensive line is, somebody's
(30:36):
gonna break free the guys across somewhere pretty good. So
what do you do next? You know, I don't look
at it as okay, I'm going to this game. Everything's
gonna be perfect. If I get rushed, I'll just throw
it away. You make most of your big plays when
you leave the pocket. Now, you don't have to be
modest on this one. You think you have a strong arm, yeah,
I do. You know, I've worked ever since I was
a little kid. I've worked on throwing it as far
(30:59):
as anyone else that's that's hard, as far which enabled
me to throw. You know, in the sixth grade, if
I could throw fifty yards, that man, I could throw
thirty pretty hard. And then it just gradually got You know,
I don't work when I when I try to make
my arms strong, I don't take thirty yard passes and
just throw as hard as I can. I go by
seventy yards and try to throw it seventy yards seventy
(31:19):
yards and just throw it as many times as I
can tell my arm is about to fall off. Do
you ever have the criticism thrown at you that you
throw the ball too hard at one point, but but
not anymore. I always know I could throw a touch ball.
But touch balls you explain that? What do you mean?
You know everybody you throw a football, any person in
(31:40):
the world, and when I throw it back to you,
they probably throw it hard. But but a touch passes
when a guy's twenty ten um yards away and you're
able to just lob it in their perfect throwing a
dart sort of no, No, a dart is more of
a you know, it's like that, right, Darts is probably
a big game right here. It that said that, you're
(32:00):
probably pretty good at that, not really, because I like
to drill it, you know, and then you can't pull
the dart side of the board. But a touch passes.
It is hard to do. You know, if a guy's
running away from you and there's a guy guarding him,
but he's two yards behind him, obviously, can't drill it
because you'll hit the defender. But you got a better
touch It in like a rainbow, and it is a
hard pass to make. But I feel that that I
(32:22):
can throw it as well as anyone. But uh, someone
sees me throw one as hard as I possibly can.
They that kids got no touch, you know, so, but
you've got an interesting motion because you really like come
right over the top like that is. That's something that
came naturally to you. It just came natural. Um. And god,
you know, I'm lucky that that it did, because it's
one of the best things that's ever happened to me.
(32:43):
It was my release because it's a quick release. It's
short and it's snappy, but also you know, there's a
lot of velocity behind it. Now, playing quarterback, do you
think it's better to have a strong arm or to
be able to make quick decisions? I think quick decisions
out because almost every play is a quick decision. You know,
if you if you have a strong arm but you're
(33:04):
two seconds late, you can forget it. You know, nowadays
the guys are so good. You know, some of your
best athletes at cornerbacks nowadays, and you know these guys
are getting better and better each year, and having a
strong arm just doesn't cut it anymore. You have to
have a lot of timing, um, And like you said,
quick decisions, Um, you got to know before your guy
(33:25):
and the defender knows where you're going. But that's having
a strong his arm. As you do, that can work
against you can because you can get overconfident. Just figure
I think guy's open and you can force it. Right.
It's kind of like baseball. You take a picture, you
can throw nine five. He has no junk, you know.
He can't throw a good curveball, not a good change up.
But he throws the ball so hard he thinks he
overpower every guy steps to the plate. So he just
(33:47):
drills a fastball and then eventually some guy's gonna knock
it out the park. Now, if we're gonna look at
all the interceptions that you're thrown in the last three years,
what do you think would be the cause of most
of them? Either you made a bad read, your receiver
made a bad read, or maybe you decided to force
the ball in. This might be the first plane ever
to fly over kill Mississippi, right, I couldn't be. Could be.
(34:10):
They may have heard that Steve Stables in town. They're
trying to get that. Could be, But you're right, they
don't fly around too often. But I'm go ahead continue
what we were talking. It's almost every interception I've ever
thrown has been forced, and that's no one to blame
it myself, and I can almost tell you the play
(34:31):
every time you know it's it's it's one of those
things like the minute you let it go, you say,
oh no, right, yeah. They're mostly all down the middle.
Very rarely do you see some of my balls being
picked off on the outside by a cornerback, like a
throw that's behind or late. Usually it's a it's a
throw that's been live through the middle. It's once again
at touch pass, which probably was an accurate past. But
(34:53):
you always hear you never hang the ball up in
the middle because there's always someone roaming around, you know what.
Uh um. John Brody used to play quarterback for the
forty Isnors used to call that pass a st Luke's
pass when it's hanging up over the middle, because whoever's
gonna catch it's gonna end up in the hospital because
you're gonna, you know, right, you gonna get your gut killed,
or you're gonna throw an interception unless you just it's
(35:13):
I mean, it's a perfect throw and it's on time,
and that's hard to do over the middle. Is that
the toughest pass for you to throw? It? Is? Um?
I like that pass because you know, it's it's it's
kind of the way I've I've grown up. I like
to do. You know when I was playing touch football
growing up, and we'd be out in the yard play
and there'd be ten guys wide open, but I always
saw the guy who was covered because that was the
hard one to do. And then when you completed, everyone go, WHOA,
(35:35):
that's pretty good. And that's kind of got me in
trouble today. Uh, you know, a guy looks kind of
wide open down the middle, but but I know it's
a tough pass. I'll try to make it, and I
just got to learn that throwing down the mill is
is probably the worst place to throw. Ultimately, Farv ended
up with a much more ignominious record than his consecutive
game streak most interceptions thrown in NFL history, with three
(36:00):
it in thirty six. So this reminds me of a
conversation I had with Bread just a few years ago.
We were talking about the quarterback he thinks most resembles
him in the game today, and it's Patrick Mahomes. Of course,
both Farv and Mahomes coached by Andy Reid. So Farve
had said to read it's got to be a looted
ease you're coaching. Patrick mahomes that it is me and
(36:22):
Read said no, so far says Andy, you're just being
too kind. He never throws interceptions. I mean, what fun
is that as a coach. Don't you want a little
stress every once in a while, As Farve said, he
gave Andy plenty. Well, when we come back, Steve hits
Bread with a couple of out of left field questions
(36:43):
that you have to hear to believe Bread. Farve has
always been a natural storyteller. In fact, over the years,
any time that we would sit with him in a
television production meeting or even in a casual setting, he
would start to spin a yarn, as he might say,
you know, he'd start talking about something and you'd wonder
(37:05):
how we've even gotten on this subject. And of course
oftentimes it would be some crazy story about his childhood.
So when you hear these next two stories, this was
not unusual for Brett. Now, your mom was showing me
around the house earlier. In a lot of these candles
around here, What what was that for all these different
like white candles. It looked like a voodoo kind of
(37:27):
shrine or something. Do you know what mind goodness, I
don't know, Well, your mom said something that that the psychic, well,
I had, yeah, not. I don't know if mom still
does that. But a couple of years ago, the psychic
told me, Um, it was right when I was still
in these twenty four interceptions type thing, and she said,
next year you're gonna have a great season. This is
going into my third year. She goes, but she gotta
(37:47):
light candles all week long. Oh, of course they're still here.
Of course people would ride by my house. I had
smoke come out of windows and chimneys and all this stuff.
But I told my mom about it, and uh, a
couple of other friends know about it. So everyone was
lighting candles. Sure enough through thirty three touchdowns and like
seventeen interceptions, and you know, we went to the playoffs,
(38:09):
won the first round. Well then she told me, uh,
mid season that year that this is not gonna be
your best year. That next year is gonna be even better,
the psychics said, And she said, just continue lighting candles
and believe and all the stuff that that you're gonna
do it, which I've always done, but I never let
candles before. So you know, I let some more candles,
and after a while I kind of quit doing a
(38:30):
little bit. I kind of got, you know, a little embarrassed.
Guys would come over and you know, like you know,
I had a hair um going. Uh. But sure enough
last year was the m v P season and um,
so maybe you know, mom and everyone else is still
doing it. I want to ask you a real serious question.
You look back at your life and there's time you
had that accident, and you've been at an operating table,
(38:52):
and you've had seizures and you've been near death. If
you had died and you hadn't had the opportunity to communicate,
to let your last words with somebody, what would you
regret not having told someone if you'd have died in
that car accident or on that when you had your
knee operated on? Is there something that you would have
(39:13):
regretted not communicating to someone then if you'd have died
right there. Um, I don't know. That's a tough question.
I know, I told you was a tough question. You
didn't tell me coming in you asked me something like that.
I don't know, Uh, you know, I've never thought about
it that way. Um, you know, I guess I just
want people to know, you know, how how hard it
is to two to play the sport I do, and
(39:37):
how hard it's taken me to get here, and that,
you know, I am a good person. And uh, a
lot of people that I went to high school with,
a lot of people that I grew up with around here,
you know, I don't see much anymore. And I think
they probably um would assume that you know, bread stuck
up and now that he makes money, you know, he's
too good for us and all that, you know, which
is totally false. You know, I think, if anything, people
(39:58):
have changed around me because they assume too much um,
you know, And I wish it wasn't that way. But
I bet a lot of celebrities and athletes could could
relate to that, because we're basically the same person, if anything,
a little more humble, a little more modest um and fortunate.
You know, I'm very fortunate because I grew up just
like everyone else around here. And I just want people
(40:19):
to know that, um and and and treat me as
such and not treat me any different. And I know
that that's hard for people to do, but um, you know,
if if anything, that one thing I've tried to do
is give back to two people, you know, whether it's
here in Mississippi, whether it's in Green Bay or United States.
In general, I tried to do a lot of things
for other people, family members, friends, um. And a lot
(40:42):
of that goes unnoticed. You know, a lot of the
negative things that we do as athletes and celebrities makes
the paper, and that's the big deal. And that's the
unfortunate thing about what we do. Why is it so
important to you to be so tough? To be able
throw up blood against the Steelers and keep playing play
on an ankle against the Bears you can hardly walk?
(41:03):
I mean, is that part of being a quarterback something
that you don't talk People don't talk about. We're talking
about how you make quick decisions, how to have a
strong arm, But what about the toughness that seems to
be so important that you to you? You know, I
don't think it's part of being a quarterback, although nowadays
there there are more tough quarterbacks, uh than several years back,
(41:24):
you know, when we could name a bunch. But it's
just part of my mentality and how I grew up
and I wasn't able to be hurt, um unless I
really was hurt. You know, you get the wind knocked
out of you. My dad's air screaming at me, get up,
you know we're playing. I played baseball for him in
summer league ball when I was eighteen and got hit,
you know, in the growing area in the mid section,
and it basically knocked me down the shortstop. And if
(41:46):
you ever been hit there, you know what it feels like.
My dad's screaming from the doug. I'll throw the damn ball.
So I had to throw it before I lay down
and started throwing up on a shortstop. I couldn't lay there,
you know like other guys. Um. And then eventually I
didn't want to. There was one point where I wanted
to get the attention. I wanted to lay down and
have everyone, uh look at you and wonder, God, is
(42:08):
he okay? When you got up there clap for you know,
Bradshaw could really do that. Oh yeah, he could play
it up bigger than anyone. But you know, I don't
like to do that. I mean, there was one point
where I did UM because I think my team needs
me too much and I want to be out there.
We talked to a lot of great players. I think
we just We're talking to Walter Payton and he was saying,
there's a little voice inside him. It says you gotta
(42:29):
do better, you gotta do better. I asked him at
Smith the same question about to do a little voice
inside of you, and he says, yeah, it's make it happen,
Make it happen. Do you have some little like a
conscience or like a little bit shoulder like, uh, Walter Payton,
you can do better. You know, as well as I
played last year, we didn't win the Super Bowl, so um,
(42:49):
there's some room for improve. Okay, that's it. A little
over six months after his interview with Steve, Brett won
his first and only Super Bowl, beating the Patriots in
New Orleans, about two hours from where this interview took place.
Over the years, FARV has done many an interview with
NFL films, but nothing will top Steve and Brett sitting
(43:13):
on the dock of the Rotten Bayou talking family and football. Now,
next week we'll hear from one of Brett's top rivals
in the nineties, another Hall of Fame quarterback the Cowboys,
Troy Aikman. Thanks for taking this trip with me into
the NFL films Vault. Hope you'll join us again next week.
I'm Andrea Kramer,
I'm Pro Football Hall of Fame journalist Andrea Kramer, and
welcome to NFL Films Tales from the Vault. This is
a weekly podcast where you'll get to hear raw, unedited
conversations that have never been heard before in their entirety
between the legendary Steve Sable and some of the greatest
players and coaches in NFL history. This show it's like
(00:27):
a time capsule. It takes you back to a specific
period in a player or coaches career. Now. Steve interviewed
hundreds of the game's most important figures in his five
decades as head of NFL Films, and as you'll hear,
he would ask them anything. So today we head to Mississippi,
(00:49):
where Steve met up with a then twenty six year
old Brett Farve. On July one, Steve Sable traveled to kill,
(01:11):
Mississippi current population two thousand three nine to interview Brett
Farve for the first time. At this point in his career,
Farv had just completed his fourth season in Green Bay.
He was coming off the first of three consecutive m
VP awards, yet he still hadn't won the Super Bowl.
(01:32):
He was young, electric, and personified fun, both as a
person and in his playing style. Everyone wanted to get
to know him. That's so hard to imagine now, knowing
everything we do about Brett. I mean, he basically grew
up so much in the public eye, with his private
life on display for everyone. We learned about his painkiller addiction,
(01:57):
his wife Dianne's breast cancer, and our hearts broke when
we learned about the death of his beloved father, Irv,
and we cheered for Brett when he had the game
of his life that night against the Raiders. When Steve
went to visit Brett in his hometown, he really wanted
to get to know Mississippi Brett, where he came from,
(02:17):
his roots, his family. All of Farve's Vidio single sees
just fascinated Steve, and he needed to immerse himself in
Brett's world to fully grasp it. Now, before we dig
into the vault, you've gotta let me set the scene
for you. So picture Steve Sables sitting alongside Brett Farve
on a duck with a muddy body of water behind them,
(02:40):
both wearing shorts and white polo shirts. Now, don't forget
this is home to Brett Farve, but certainly not for
Steve Sable doesn't have snakes? Here's something here? When they
have snakes here? Full of where we're sitting there snakes?
What kind of snakes? Mockas those things are poisonous, it
(03:02):
won't hurt you too bad. Do you ever get bit
by one of them? No? But my younger brother's friend's
daughter got bit last week here by snake. Now, but
some way around here? So where are we we're if
if I was gonna say, where are we located? What's
the name of the place where we're in Hancock County,
which is the county right next to Louisiana on the
bottom left hand corner of Mississippi. And this is called
(03:23):
Rotten Value, which is um like a little So we're
sitting on the dock of the bay by rotten byou. Yeah,
what did you get that name? I'm afraid dance. I'm
not exactly sure. I guess a lot of dirty diapers
and trash. Is that's all in here? I don't know?
But your dad says, you fish here? Yeah? What do
you catch? Catch? Bass? Perch, catfish? Do you know how
(03:47):
to cook it? Sure? So you can skin it and
everything and cook it up. Yeah? It's good alligators cars,
So there's there's alligators in here too. You're down south, Steve,
Uh listen, No, I know this is so backwoods. I
turned on the TV last night and they got Beverly
Hillbillys on PBS, So I know, I know I'm backwoods
(04:10):
back here absolutely, But you know, everybody here press got
a funny way of talking, like this is kill kill right, kill,
but it's spelled k I l en. Now in your
name too is pronounced far, but it's spelled f A
V R. How what is that is? That? Is that
like a just a peculiarity of this area where I think,
(04:32):
so there are some fars down here who spelled their
name f A r V. My grandfather on my dad's eyes,
full blooded Indian. You know, I don't know if that
has anything to do with it. And then my mother's
side is is kind of a French occasion a little bit.
Uh So they told me that that her dad ran
a tavern here. His name was Benny French. Sure did
(04:53):
for years, and Hurricane Camille had wiped it out and
redid it and eventually sold it off to my uncle. Now,
the road we drove up to on it's all, it's
an all dirt road to this house. And what happens
when it rains, I mean, how the hell do you
get in here? Well, you just don't wash your car
for a while because it does get tough. I can
remember and growing up that most of the roads around
(05:14):
here we're all dirt, and trying to get to school
in a rainy day was almost impossible. So they would
cancel certain days of school because of Like up north,
you know, if it snows, Uh, they'll council school if
it's bad enough. We're down here. If if it rains
bad enough that the roads of flooded and it's dirt
and you can forget it. So we always prayed for rain.
The road here is named the Irwin Irvan Farrord, right,
(05:37):
but it doesn't it's not spelled right. Well they spell
at F A r V. So how come nobody you know,
if you have a road named off do you you
think that your dad would have gone out there and
at least corrected the spelling. Well, you know what, we've
had had the sign either stolen or shot at. So
many times shot at a mailbox. We used to go
down and uh grab mail, and the mailbox would either
(05:58):
be bent or I'd be gone. Sometimes we opened up
and they'd be firecrackers that have been popped in it.
You know that there's a lot of people around here
who are proud of the things I've done. Shoot at
your mailbox. That's the way of showing that they're proud of. Well,
there are some who are there there that's that's a uh,
that's a rarity. Um. But the for the most part,
(06:19):
the people here are very proud and and uh uh
kind of stick up for me and and your family
has been in this area your whole life, right, I
mean for like thirty years and I was born and
raised right here. Really, now, the people down here, you've
got a lot of funny expressions that used Now. I
remember we mike here for a game and you're warming
up and you pick up the ball and you're going like, yes,
(06:40):
you see this ball is slicker than owl ship. Now,
how did you know how slick that is? Well, you
just gotta grow up, and you know, and and and
this type of environment, you know, uh uh, you know,
I've been in New Jersey and seeing where you hang
out and and to me, that's you know, my mother
last night told me, well, if if Steve and these
(07:01):
guys are coming down, we gotta make sure we have
them something that they can relate to to eat. And
I said, what hey, when I go to New Jersey,
I don't ask for crawfish at Toufe, I said, I
eat what they have. UM. So it's it's kind of
like the area. You know, you go and you kind
of just gonna have a cheese steak for all the guys.
I doubt it very seriously, red beans and rices on Monday. Um.
But yeah, we do have a lot of expressions and um.
(07:22):
You grow up in the country, you hear all those
things and then you start putting them together, and then
you come off with if if I was gonna say
somebody is really stupid, what would be an expression that
you used down here? You know, I heard your dad
say something earlier we're talking. He says, this guy was
dumber the bag of hammers. YEA, are dumber in the
bag of rocks? You know, I think, uh, um, heck,
(07:46):
there's so many, you know, but I've I've kind of
been a waste for so long. And I think when
I first got to Green Bay, Mike Homber and said, look,
I can't understand this guy. So I started working on
on my English a little bit, and so am I saying,
so he could relate to me. But we've kind of
met in the middle a little bit. Your mom said
she sent him a book a Mississippi expression, Yeah she did.
(08:06):
And another one I heard you talked about. You were
saying it was a running back, and you said that
he is slower than the steam off horse maneuver. Now,
is there any what how about if you're talking about
somebody who's really fast, is there an expression that used
for that? You know? Oh God, I don't know. So
you put me on the spot right now. They have
to just kind of come spontaneous, all right. Well, I
(08:27):
just wondered if there was, if there's any other those
kind of expressions. You probably know more of what I've
said than I know. I know all your favorite songs too,
That's right, That's right. I gotta forget that you might
can out whoa Yeah, I love it. Can you believe
any pay I was here? I thought you hit harder
than that. Well, I could sure use a hot dog
with Chile. We can't catch your damn cold. I don't
(08:50):
even stretch anymore when I come out of here. You,
Thank God never farted. A few people were as entertaining
his Bread Farve. But I can say that about him
in real life too. And by the way, over the
time that I spent with them, far jokes and references
were commonplace, and occasionally, that's right, you'd get to witness
one in the flesh. Very special. Let let let's move
(09:11):
on here. He really had a mischievous streak. No one
pulled pranks like Bread five. One of the most devious
pranks that I can recall involved freezing teammates car door
shut in the winter. So picture this Farve would move
the unlocked cars to the far end of the team
parking lot in Green Bay. He would blast the air
conditioner and pour water on the door so they couldn't
(09:33):
get in. His packers teammates would have a long trek
through the windy parking lot to find their cars sealed
shut from the ice. Now, naturally, this kind of behavior,
if you will, dates back to his youth and would
occasionally put him in the crosshairs of his coach, who
just happened to be his father. All right, Now, when
(09:53):
you were a kid, did you get in trouble A lot?
I don't know. Compared to other kids. Probably uh yeah, yeah,
what yeah you were you did get in trouble, well, yeah,
if you want to call it trouble. Um, I was
pretty mischievous and and always I was telling my older
brother Ester, who went up to the old high school
and was throwing the football a little bit. And when
(10:16):
we were little would be at the same school and
as my dad was practicing after school that was a coach,
high school football coach, we would go sneak into the
cafeterian steal milk. The milk, yeah, just because we could
do it, you know, just to steal it or get
you're drinking. We would drink it. You know, we're still
two or three cartons and it was ten cents of carton,
you know when we drank the milk. And then we'd
go over and then why my dad was practicing, we'd
(10:38):
sneak in the locker room, would still gator ate or
we still have jocks and socks and all this stuff
because we wanted to be like the growing ups. Um,
so we'd have this stuff and we'd have in our
drawers here and then you know, on Sundays after pro
football games, we put them on and go out and play.
Now when you were watching when you were a kid
growing up, were you a big pro football fan? Um,
we only get your favorite player. Probably aren't, Manny. We
(11:01):
grew up, as you can tell, in an area, but
we only got three channels, so it was ABC, NBC,
and CBS, and the only game we could get was
a Saint And uh, those are the years the Saints
were winning like one game at the most. At the most,
you know, a lot of brown paper bags were sold
in this area. Uh, but you know, it was fun
watching them and every year you just knew that they
(11:22):
were going in the Super Bowl that year and they
went two or three games. But it was but it
was a lot of fun, and um, Archie was a
great player. Unfortunately, you get to play with a great team. Now,
your dad was a football coach and he's nicknamed the Hammer. Yeah,
that one of numerous nicknames. But was he tough to
play for? Yeah? No, Um, I tell people I was
(11:44):
very fortunate to get a chance to play for him because, um,
I got a little extra you know when other guys
went home after practice and didn't talk football until the
next afternoon, and we talked on the ride home. When
we woke up at more in the morning, um, at
supper at night, before we went to bed. We were
always talking football and for me, uh, you know, for
some kids maybe that's too much, but for me, I
(12:04):
enjoyed it. And there were times during practice and during
games where we kind of butted heads a little bit,
like me and Mike do. Now the quarterback coach, that's this.
You know, the quarterback tends to think he knows everything
and the head coach tends to think he knows everything.
So so there is some conflict there. But I think
in the long run, if if you're able to work
it out and then you can use it two your advantage. Now,
(12:26):
when you went to high school here, were you a
quarterback or a linebacker, running back or what quarterback? Played
strong safety and punted and kicked and um, they're just
about everything. Did you get a scholarship to college Southern Mississippi?
I was? I think two days before the signing date
college signing date. UM, our offensive line coach at Southern
(12:49):
Miss gave me a call and said the guy that
they had wanted backed out and went to school in
Florida that now they had an opening for me. Do
I did I want to take it, And I said sure,
because I was going to a junior college here and
and um, South Mississippi, So I was, I was in
that room, and you got so many trophies and stuff,
and then you think that you would have been more
recruited than that that you know, you had had a
(13:09):
couple of these big schools after unless the caliber football
here isn't that good. I mean, how come all those
You've got a whole trophy case of well m vps
and stuff. Uh, the caliber football in South Mississippi is
very good, but we're a smaller school. You've got teams
like pascagogle where Terrell Buckley and Shane Matthews. What's the
(13:32):
name of that schooling Pascagoula, huh, which is ah, it's
probably a fifteen hundred uh student high school where we
were like three fifty. And then there's Gulf Board High
School that put out basketball players like Chris Jackson. Chris Jackson,
but you were like all league and you must have
been where I was, but it was still surprisingly you
wouldn't get a you know, an offer from from Alabama
(13:54):
a bunch of letters. No, it's just just a bunch
of letters, you know, Pole letters and said, you know,
this is great. But when it came time to offering scholarships,
I guess they said, look, um, you know your dad
didn't throw the ball very much on your high school team.
I think my senior year through for four n yards. Um,
So we don't know if you can throw or not.
You know you got a strong arm, but whether or
not you can you know you can do it on
(14:15):
a college level, we don't know, um, And I can
see where they were coming from, but you know, we
won and the bottom line was winning. And I don't
think dad really cared whether. You know, we threw in
one and we ran in one. What was your favorite
subject in school? Math? Really? Yeah? That was that? That
was the subject you look forward to going to I
(14:36):
look forward to. Um, I never looked forward to going
to school period, but since I had to go, math
was it was the one hour I could get through
pretty easy. Now, your mom tells me that you never studied,
you never brought home books, but you just must. But
you always had good grades. How did you do that? Well?
I always felt like when I left school that now
it was time to you know, to play. Yeah, so
(14:59):
I said, heck, I'll do all my homework at school.
I'll study at school. We must have paid attention in class,
and I paid attention. I went ten years of of
grade school without missing a day of school. Um, so
you never missed a day of school. What happens when
it rained, and the and the and the road got money,
your school was canceled? Okay, then I would miss. But
but if if school was going on, then I went.
(15:20):
And your mom seems to me to be the real athlete,
because you have two brothers that are good athletes, and
your mom is you know, she must because I think
all good athletes get it from their mother's side as
opposed to their father's. Well, you know, I think both
of them would like to bargain for that, uh, for
that that statement, but and I think a little bit
(15:44):
of both. My mother was a basketball player back when
they played. Uh. I think it was six man basketball
or something. Um, she's not that old, but my goodness,
six man basketball. And then my dad, of course, he
likes to think that, he likes to boast around town
that I got my armed from him. Uh. He was
a pitcher in college at Southern Mississippi and and also
played football. But it was as kind of unusual that
(16:06):
he played receiver and all three of his sons played quarterback.
Now what about your your grandma? She has she has
an interesting past. Two meet me mall mem Yeah, now
she knew al capone. Memhi is up here on the
(16:27):
dock here. Yeah, she's listening. Um she yeah, I don't
know too many people she doesn't know, um, but she
You're right, she has a very unique past and president.
Is that right? Mem? I didn't hear that. He said
you have a very unique past and present. That's funny.
(16:49):
To go back for a second. Do you remember your
first experience is playing football as a kid? Sure that?
Oh yeah, I can remember the first game I ever
played in, just like it was yesterday. What happened? Well,
the first of all, it was a as we called jamboree.
It was three games and one day. I was a
fifth grader, and you play like a quarter against one team,
(17:10):
a quarter against another team, and then a half against
the third team. And I had my uniform on and
and uh it was funny because my dad's I gotta
get a hair cut first. Your dad told you you
had to get a hair No, he had to get
a hair cut. And he was taking me to the game.
He wasn't my coach, and if he would have been,
my coach would have been there an hour before. So
we're go and get it. I go sit in the
(17:32):
barber shop with full uniform on, and he went to
wait for him to get his crew cut, you know.
And I didn't have a watch on, but I knew
that the game was supposed to start about eleven o'clock
and it was about ten thirty and we were about
thirty minutes away. So I'm getting all nervous. You know,
I'm nervous enough that I gotta play a game because
I've never played him on before. And uh, here is
(17:54):
my dad's falling asleep into barber chair trying to get
a hair cut. So finally he gets done, he says, oh,
on warre about it, son, we'll get there. So we
pull up and our old pickup truck that had an
extension wire held to the passenger door to keep it
from from flying open, you know, it wouldn't even lock anymore. Um,
So I jumped out. I run out on the field
and they had already started playing. I was a split in,
(18:17):
um and I wasn't quarterback, and they put me in
like the first play I think I was in. It
was the first or second play. The guy through one
to me. I jumped up and caught it and I
came down on top of the ball and knocking the
wind out of you. And if you've ever had to win,
knock out of you and thank you dal time. Oh yeah,
you know, I'm I'm you know, I'm crying now because
I'm late. Now I'm really crying because now I think
(18:38):
I'm dying because I can't breathe. And uh and I
jumped up. After I started crying. Everyone came out to
see if I was okay. You know, they picked you
up about your pants and the you know, the whole deal.
Cheerleaders are looking and I said, I don't want to
play his position anymore. I said, can I play quarterback?
And so they put me in a quarterback when we
were running the wishbone? And I think I ran three
(19:00):
touchdowns in that day and the last one I ran
in I got the guy. You know we had you
had your fruit looms on, no, no, you know, fifth
grade and then you pull your pants over and you
had those snapping pads just snapped in hip button the
other side pad and they the guy tackled me as
I went and ends on and just pulled him right
down and all sitting there him underwear and end zone.
(19:20):
So yeah, it was a unique end Zoe celebration. It was.
I can't do that anymore though. Now, when you were
you were grown up and you were living in this house,
you had all three your brothers lived in the same room,
right right, But did you all sleep in the same bed.
That must have been at No. I had a little
single bed. My older and younger brothers slept together. Now
in the king's size bed. How did you get the
(19:43):
single mean, if you think you're older brother just got that,
how did you break that? My My two brothers like
to snuggle, as they call it. I was never a
big snuggler, so I said, look, you guys can snuggle
in the big bed. I'll take the single bed. Now
the three guys too. What about all the laundry and
stuff you guys must ended up picking up, you know,
wearing each other's clothes and stuff that you have, like
(20:04):
name tags like for your guys, We'll say I would
always mark my stuff, and Scott and Jeff had never
marked there as they didn't care when you marked it.
Would you write Brett on the On the back of that,
I'd usually write BF on it, um and and Scott
and Jeff wouldn't do it. But occasionally I say, I'm
walking around the house with BF on their underwear? Are
their T shirt? Or our shoes? Because me and Scott's
(20:25):
always worn the same pair of shoes, and uh, you know,
I would get very angry because we'd all go, somebody
else is wearing your under packs. Well it's now I'm
pretty used to it because I've I've I've bought about
forty pair of underwear and that way I can would
you wear the jockeys or the or the trunks? I
kind of got that you don't have to show it.
I kind of got the half deal, you know, the
half underwear half boxers. What are they called the halfway
(20:48):
joe boxers or something like that. I don't even know. Well,
I can't say. I've always wanted to know if Brett
Farve was a boxers or briefs kind of guy. But
you gotta love that Steve had such a curious mind,
even though I must admit I am still cracking up
that he asked a grown man about his underpants when
we come back, We'll hear about Brett's college and pro experiences,
(21:11):
and I promise you no more underwear talk. I'm not
sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Welcome back to NFL Films Tales from the Vault. Brett
Farve's toughness has always been legendary. His determination to never
miss a game ultimately lead to three hundred and twenty
(21:32):
one consecutive starts, including the playoffs, the most in league history.
But for those that don't know that streak and his
toughness are even more impressive when you learn about his
near death experience prior to his senior year in college.
It's been written about, but hearing it from the mouth
of Brett Farve is chilling. When you went to college
(21:54):
and then you had that automobile accident, how did that happen? Uh?
Basically you probably drove right past it because it's only
about seven tenths of a mile from where we're sitting
right now. That sounds like a horrible accident. Well it was.
I'm very fortunate, but also um, very unfortunate. Um that
was at a time once again, back when the road
(22:17):
now it's been redone and at one time it was
real gravel and and uh like loose dirt, and I
was coming home. I was actually coming here, and it's
a sharp curve and went around the curve. Probably was
going faster than I should have been, but you know,
I've done that a million times and caught the uh
like the shoulder of the of the dirt you can
(22:38):
see coming down this road if you you know, if
you lose it, if you're done, and just lost control
and try to pull it back on the road. When
I did and went off the other side, I flipped
three times and hit a pine tree. The car flipped
in the air three it went down to anim those
die hard crashes. The fall guy look like the fall guy,
except I came away with a few more injuries then
(23:00):
then he would. Uh. But it was July fourteenth of
and was going into what I had hoped to be,
you know, like a Heisman Trophy senior season, whether or
Southern right, uh, you know, a small school. We had
a good schedule, playing Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, those type of schools,
and and was hoping that that would propel me into
(23:23):
the NFL. So we had a good chance. Um, I
came away with thirty inch of intestines being removed, fractured
vertebrae in my back, uh, numerous cuts and bruises and
and other things. Um, but ended up playing on our
second game September eight. How many weeks after the accident?
Was that? Well, I had the surgery August State to
(23:45):
remove the intestines, and then you played four weeks later
against Alabama? Did the doctor say it was okay? You know,
they told me I needed to sit out the whole
year and you and you played four weeks four weeks
later because you know, they said, well, why don't you
just take a red shirt year because I hadn't shut yet,
and just sit out and come back the following year. Uh,
you know ready, and there's probably better than you have
(24:07):
ever had been. And I said, well, you know, this
is supposed to be my year, and I think if
I can come back and prove to everyone that if
I can play after everything that's happened, and I can
play any any time. And they said, well, it won't
be done. I mean, you're just in too bad of
shape and I've lost thirty five pounds. UM. So I
proved them wrong and came back and played. We played
(24:27):
Alabama that day and beat him. Then he went onto
the NFL, and you get drafted by the Falcons Jerry
Glandville as a coach. Now, I know Jerry Glandville and
I know you pretty well, and you think that that'd
be a good combination, you know, and it wasn't. What happened.
How come that didn't work well? The way I look
at it, the old saying opposite of tracks, Yeah, that's true.
(24:50):
Me and Mike Holmgan are totally but we get along
very well. Me and Jerry were too much like you know,
Atlanta wasn't big enough for the two of us. And
and obviously he had a lot more power than I had.
So I was gone and he stayed. Um. You know,
he wants you describe your lifestyle when you were in
Atlanta then when you were just Oh it was free spirited,
(25:11):
you know, having fun, going out every night. I had
friends from high school who lived there. Uh, my brother
was living with me. Um. I was twenty years old.
Half the season. Um had all this money and a
lot of time, and we just we went and played
golf every day, and we went out at night. And
Um I showed up from meetings and did everything I
(25:32):
was asked to do. But there was no interest there,
you know, I didn't from well, had no interest from
him and none from me. I mean, and I was
never really given a chance other than playing a little
bit preseason. And then they brought him Billy Joe Tolliver
and I was never told why he was. He was
put in the second string and I was made third
without you know ever uh, you know, a battle for it, um.
(25:53):
But I think that's the best thing that ever happened
to me. He was getting a chance to play for Atlanta.
When Jerry Glanville that that bread forv was unteachable, that
you had a bunch of teachers here that read it
and sent a letter to him saying that you were
really a good student, and that wasn't you know, that
wasn't the right way to describe you. Absolutely, I had
about five or six teachers who who wrote letters. Um.
(26:15):
I had elementary teachers, junior high teachers, and high school
teachers who wrote to him, um and and basically set
him straight. All right. Going to going now we're to
Green Bay. How would you describe your relationship with with Mike, Well,
it was it started off very rocky and difficult because
the worst. We were so different and the way I
(26:38):
look at it, and I could be wrong. You say
you're really different. I mean, describe you and describe Mike.
How why you say that you're that different. Well, I'm
from here. I'm from South Mississippi. Mike from San Francisco.
And most people in the United States, maybe not most people,
but have been to San Francisco before, they've been to
South Mississippi. Um, and then if they came to South Mississippi,
(26:59):
they'd see a big dear rus. I mean everything here
is so slow and no one gets in a hurry.
There's no traffic. I never saw a taxi cab until
left high school. Um. We basically eat Cajun food around here.
It's either fried shrimp or red beans and rice, or
poe boys or shrimp creole, something like that. You know,
we have his diners. So you just talk about Friday,
(27:21):
you know, you guys, that's right. You guys jump out
of a cab, grab a Philly beef and cheese steak,
and then you jump back into cab and you go off.
You know, here, we just take our time. We right
into town, eat a nice poe boy, and you drink
your barks root beer. Um and and that's basically your day. Um.
And people here talk real slow, and they have their
own unique sayings. Um And and that's kind of how
(27:42):
they deal with things. I mean, just real slow. And
then here's Mike who is basically used to a fast
lifestyle in San Francisco and coaching at b y U
went in Super Bowls coaching Joe Montana, you know, the
best quarterback to ever play the game than Steve Young, um,
who may be the second best to ever play. And
then to uh to go to Green Bay, which obviously
(28:02):
was a big change for him. Um. And then have
bred Fave come in, who was just totally unpolished and
to try you know, I'm sure that's the biggest job
he's had yet, was to try to make me into
a great quarterback. And he's done a hell of it.
What did he try to do? What did he focused
on in the beginning? Well, I think it at first
(28:24):
he maybe took it a little fast, you know, And
and because he was so used to to everything being
perfect and winning games and win the Super Bowls that
he thought he could come right in and do that.
But what about you, I mean that you obviously we're
a good student in school. I mean, you could pick
things up. You'd think that that you'd be a quick study.
Well I was, but you know, I had to the
third game of the season. I had to play UM
(28:46):
and this is an offense that I'm still learning UM
and it's it's been four years UM. And we basically
when we went in and we tried to do everything
at once, and I say we Mike and the offensive
coaches trying to say, okay, here it is, here's a
hundred fifty past place we're going into this game with.
And I thought, guy, this is the way it's supposed
to be. This is gonna be very difficult. Well, eventually,
(29:10):
over a couple of years now we're going with seventy five.
We've actually backed off and we said let's learn these
first and then going to these. And in the first
couple of months there it was not like that. And
my head was swimming and I said, God, maybe I'm
just an idiot. Come to find out that that every
guy that's everyone went through this offense has has had
that problem. But every guy's every went through this offense
(29:31):
had a chance to wait. Montana didn't start in his
first year. Steve Young definitely didn't start in his first year,
but I had to start in our third game, um,
and and my head was swimming. I was learning on
the run, and that's that's the most diffic It was
a game against the Bengals, and we won that with
you know, we we got I'm sure you've seen that shot.
We got that great shot of you in yeah, oh yeah,
I've seen it a million times. And I played horrible
(29:54):
up until that last drive. I was fumbling and I
had dropped interceptions everything. And then U at the end
of the game might cause some basic plays and he
kept repeating them and it worked, and then gradually we
started working in and things that we could do as
a team. Well, are you the kind of quarterback that
likes it when a play breaks down and then you've
got to be on your own resources to make it work. Well,
(30:15):
I don't want to say I like it, but but
if that happens, I feel very comfortable in doing it. Um.
I'd love to be able to drop back, have a
perfect pocket read for three or four seconds make a throw,
but that's not gonna happen. So I've always prided myself
on on no One before I go into a game
that there's gonna be times where a guy breaks free.
You know, as great as our offensive line is, somebody's
(30:36):
gonna break free the guys across somewhere pretty good. So
what do you do next? You know, I don't look
at it as okay, I'm going to this game. Everything's
gonna be perfect. If I get rushed, I'll just throw
it away. You make most of your big plays when
you leave the pocket. Now, you don't have to be
modest on this one. You think you have a strong arm, yeah,
I do. You know, I've worked ever since I was
a little kid. I've worked on throwing it as far
(30:59):
as anyone else that's that's hard, as far which enabled
me to throw. You know, in the sixth grade, if
I could throw fifty yards, that man, I could throw
thirty pretty hard. And then it just gradually got You know,
I don't work when I when I try to make
my arms strong, I don't take thirty yard passes and
just throw as hard as I can. I go by
seventy yards and try to throw it seventy yards seventy
(31:19):
yards and just throw it as many times as I
can tell my arm is about to fall off. Do
you ever have the criticism thrown at you that you
throw the ball too hard at one point, but but
not anymore. I always know I could throw a touch ball.
But touch balls you explain that? What do you mean?
You know everybody you throw a football, any person in
(31:40):
the world, and when I throw it back to you,
they probably throw it hard. But but a touch passes
when a guy's twenty ten um yards away and you're
able to just lob it in their perfect throwing a
dart sort of no, No, a dart is more of
a you know, it's like that, right, Darts is probably
a big game right here. It that said that, you're
(32:00):
probably pretty good at that, not really, because I like
to drill it, you know, and then you can't pull
the dart side of the board. But a touch passes.
It is hard to do. You know, if a guy's
running away from you and there's a guy guarding him,
but he's two yards behind him, obviously, can't drill it
because you'll hit the defender. But you got a better
touch It in like a rainbow, and it is a
hard pass to make. But I feel that that I
(32:22):
can throw it as well as anyone. But uh, someone
sees me throw one as hard as I possibly can.
They that kids got no touch, you know, so, but
you've got an interesting motion because you really like come
right over the top like that is. That's something that
came naturally to you. It just came natural. Um. And god,
you know, I'm lucky that that it did, because it's
one of the best things that's ever happened to me.
(32:43):
It was my release because it's a quick release. It's
short and it's snappy, but also you know, there's a
lot of velocity behind it. Now, playing quarterback, do you
think it's better to have a strong arm or to
be able to make quick decisions? I think quick decisions
out because almost every play is a quick decision. You know,
if you if you have a strong arm but you're
(33:04):
two seconds late, you can forget it. You know, nowadays
the guys are so good. You know, some of your
best athletes at cornerbacks nowadays, and you know these guys
are getting better and better each year, and having a
strong arm just doesn't cut it anymore. You have to
have a lot of timing, um, And like you said,
quick decisions, Um, you got to know before your guy
(33:25):
and the defender knows where you're going. But that's having
a strong his arm. As you do, that can work
against you can because you can get overconfident. Just figure
I think guy's open and you can force it. Right.
It's kind of like baseball. You take a picture, you
can throw nine five. He has no junk, you know.
He can't throw a good curveball, not a good change up.
But he throws the ball so hard he thinks he
overpower every guy steps to the plate. So he just
(33:47):
drills a fastball and then eventually some guy's gonna knock
it out the park. Now, if we're gonna look at
all the interceptions that you're thrown in the last three years,
what do you think would be the cause of most
of them? Either you made a bad read, your receiver
made a bad read, or maybe you decided to force
the ball in. This might be the first plane ever
to fly over kill Mississippi, right, I couldn't be. Could be.
(34:10):
They may have heard that Steve Stables in town. They're
trying to get that. Could be, But you're right, they
don't fly around too often. But I'm go ahead continue
what we were talking. It's almost every interception I've ever
thrown has been forced, and that's no one to blame
it myself, and I can almost tell you the play
(34:31):
every time you know it's it's it's one of those
things like the minute you let it go, you say,
oh no, right, yeah. They're mostly all down the middle.
Very rarely do you see some of my balls being
picked off on the outside by a cornerback, like a
throw that's behind or late. Usually it's a it's a
throw that's been live through the middle. It's once again
at touch pass, which probably was an accurate past. But
(34:53):
you always hear you never hang the ball up in
the middle because there's always someone roaming around, you know what.
Uh um. John Brody used to play quarterback for the
forty Isnors used to call that pass a st Luke's
pass when it's hanging up over the middle, because whoever's
gonna catch it's gonna end up in the hospital because
you're gonna, you know, right, you gonna get your gut killed,
or you're gonna throw an interception unless you just it's
(35:13):
I mean, it's a perfect throw and it's on time,
and that's hard to do over the middle. Is that
the toughest pass for you to throw? It? Is? Um?
I like that pass because you know, it's it's it's
kind of the way I've I've grown up. I like
to do. You know when I was playing touch football
growing up, and we'd be out in the yard play
and there'd be ten guys wide open, but I always
saw the guy who was covered because that was the
hard one to do. And then when you completed, everyone go, WHOA,
(35:35):
that's pretty good. And that's kind of got me in
trouble today. Uh, you know, a guy looks kind of
wide open down the middle, but but I know it's
a tough pass. I'll try to make it, and I
just got to learn that throwing down the mill is
is probably the worst place to throw. Ultimately, Farv ended
up with a much more ignominious record than his consecutive
game streak most interceptions thrown in NFL history, with three
(36:00):
it in thirty six. So this reminds me of a
conversation I had with Bread just a few years ago.
We were talking about the quarterback he thinks most resembles
him in the game today, and it's Patrick Mahomes. Of course,
both Farv and Mahomes coached by Andy Reid. So Farve
had said to read it's got to be a looted
ease you're coaching. Patrick mahomes that it is me and
(36:22):
Read said no, so far says Andy, you're just being
too kind. He never throws interceptions. I mean, what fun
is that as a coach. Don't you want a little
stress every once in a while, As Farve said, he
gave Andy plenty. Well, when we come back, Steve hits
Bread with a couple of out of left field questions
(36:43):
that you have to hear to believe Bread. Farve has
always been a natural storyteller. In fact, over the years,
any time that we would sit with him in a
television production meeting or even in a casual setting, he
would start to spin a yarn, as he might say,
you know, he'd start talking about something and you'd wonder
(37:05):
how we've even gotten on this subject. And of course
oftentimes it would be some crazy story about his childhood.
So when you hear these next two stories, this was
not unusual for Brett. Now, your mom was showing me
around the house earlier. In a lot of these candles
around here, What what was that for all these different
like white candles. It looked like a voodoo kind of
(37:27):
shrine or something. Do you know what mind goodness, I
don't know, Well, your mom said something that that the psychic, well,
I had, yeah, not. I don't know if mom still
does that. But a couple of years ago, the psychic
told me, Um, it was right when I was still
in these twenty four interceptions type thing, and she said,
next year you're gonna have a great season. This is
going into my third year. She goes, but she gotta
(37:47):
light candles all week long. Oh, of course they're still here.
Of course people would ride by my house. I had
smoke come out of windows and chimneys and all this stuff.
But I told my mom about it, and uh, a
couple of other friends know about it. So everyone was
lighting candles. Sure enough through thirty three touchdowns and like
seventeen interceptions, and you know, we went to the playoffs,
(38:09):
won the first round. Well then she told me, uh,
mid season that year that this is not gonna be
your best year. That next year is gonna be even better,
the psychics said, And she said, just continue lighting candles
and believe and all the stuff that that you're gonna
do it, which I've always done, but I never let
candles before. So you know, I let some more candles,
and after a while I kind of quit doing a
(38:30):
little bit. I kind of got, you know, a little embarrassed.
Guys would come over and you know, like you know,
I had a hair um going. Uh. But sure enough
last year was the m v P season and um,
so maybe you know, mom and everyone else is still
doing it. I want to ask you a real serious question.
You look back at your life and there's time you
had that accident, and you've been at an operating table,
(38:52):
and you've had seizures and you've been near death. If
you had died and you hadn't had the opportunity to communicate,
to let your last words with somebody, what would you
regret not having told someone if you'd have died in
that car accident or on that when you had your
knee operated on? Is there something that you would have
(39:13):
regretted not communicating to someone then if you'd have died
right there. Um, I don't know. That's a tough question.
I know, I told you was a tough question. You
didn't tell me coming in you asked me something like that.
I don't know, Uh, you know, I've never thought about
it that way. Um, you know, I guess I just
want people to know, you know, how how hard it
is to two to play the sport I do, and
(39:37):
how hard it's taken me to get here, and that,
you know, I am a good person. And uh, a
lot of people that I went to high school with,
a lot of people that I grew up with around here,
you know, I don't see much anymore. And I think
they probably um would assume that you know, bread stuck
up and now that he makes money, you know, he's
too good for us and all that, you know, which
is totally false. You know, I think, if anything, people
(39:58):
have changed around me because they assume too much um,
you know, And I wish it wasn't that way. But
I bet a lot of celebrities and athletes could could
relate to that, because we're basically the same person, if anything,
a little more humble, a little more modest um and fortunate.
You know, I'm very fortunate because I grew up just
like everyone else around here. And I just want people
(40:19):
to know that, um and and and treat me as
such and not treat me any different. And I know
that that's hard for people to do, but um, you know,
if if anything, that one thing I've tried to do
is give back to two people, you know, whether it's
here in Mississippi, whether it's in Green Bay or United States.
In general, I tried to do a lot of things
for other people, family members, friends, um. And a lot
(40:42):
of that goes unnoticed. You know, a lot of the
negative things that we do as athletes and celebrities makes
the paper, and that's the big deal. And that's the
unfortunate thing about what we do. Why is it so
important to you to be so tough? To be able
throw up blood against the Steelers and keep playing play
on an ankle against the Bears you can hardly walk?
(41:03):
I mean, is that part of being a quarterback something
that you don't talk People don't talk about. We're talking
about how you make quick decisions, how to have a
strong arm, But what about the toughness that seems to
be so important that you to you? You know, I
don't think it's part of being a quarterback, although nowadays
there there are more tough quarterbacks, uh than several years back,
(41:24):
you know, when we could name a bunch. But it's
just part of my mentality and how I grew up
and I wasn't able to be hurt, um unless I
really was hurt. You know, you get the wind knocked
out of you. My dad's air screaming at me, get up,
you know we're playing. I played baseball for him in
summer league ball when I was eighteen and got hit,
you know, in the growing area in the mid section,
and it basically knocked me down the shortstop. And if
(41:46):
you ever been hit there, you know what it feels like.
My dad's screaming from the doug. I'll throw the damn ball.
So I had to throw it before I lay down
and started throwing up on a shortstop. I couldn't lay there,
you know like other guys. Um. And then eventually I
didn't want to. There was one point where I wanted
to get the attention. I wanted to lay down and
have everyone, uh look at you and wonder, God, is
(42:08):
he okay? When you got up there clap for you know,
Bradshaw could really do that. Oh yeah, he could play
it up bigger than anyone. But you know, I don't
like to do that. I mean, there was one point
where I did UM because I think my team needs
me too much and I want to be out there.
We talked to a lot of great players. I think
we just We're talking to Walter Payton and he was saying,
there's a little voice inside him. It says you gotta
(42:29):
do better, you gotta do better. I asked him at
Smith the same question about to do a little voice
inside of you, and he says, yeah, it's make it happen,
Make it happen. Do you have some little like a
conscience or like a little bit shoulder like, uh, Walter Payton,
you can do better. You know, as well as I
played last year, we didn't win the Super Bowl, so um,
(42:49):
there's some room for improve. Okay, that's it. A little
over six months after his interview with Steve, Brett won
his first and only Super Bowl, beating the Patriots in
New Orleans, about two hours from where this interview took place.
Over the years, FARV has done many an interview with
NFL films, but nothing will top Steve and Brett sitting
(43:13):
on the dock of the Rotten Bayou talking family and football. Now,
next week we'll hear from one of Brett's top rivals
in the nineties, another Hall of Fame quarterback the Cowboys,
Troy Aikman. Thanks for taking this trip with me into
the NFL films Vault. Hope you'll join us again next week.
I'm Andrea Kramer,
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