Brett Favre’s Tribute to His Father

On this episode of Our American Stories, Brett Favre, during his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction speech in 2016, takes us back to the day after his dad, Irvin, died in December, 2003—a day the Green Bay quarterback threw for 399 yards and four touchdowns in an unforgettable win over the Oakland Raiders.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
And we continue with our American stories and up next.
Brett fare Back in twenty sixteen, gave a Hall of
Fame speech that anyone who'd seen it well couldn't forget it.
He spent his time thanking his entire family, his wife Diana,
his mother in law, but the ex Packer saved his
most passionate words for his father, Irvin, who died on

(00:33):
December two thousand and three, a day the Green Bay
quarterback threw for three hundred and ninety nine yards and
four touchdown passes in an unforgettable win over the Oakland Raiders,
which was broadcast live and nationally. We like to thank
the folks of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton,
Ohio for generously allowing our American Stories to use their footage.

(00:57):
Let's take a listen to Brett.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'm not surprised one bit at the Packer fans here.
This is incredible, incredible, So I thank you, Thank you Canton,
thank you Hall of Fame, Thank you Jesus Christ, my
Lord and Savior. Believe me, I'm blessed. I'm an extremely

(01:25):
blessed man. I look at my family. What a lucky
man to play a game that I love so much
for twenty years to have all the wonderful things happen,
a little blessing to share and that joy with you
guys here tonight. What an incredible night, what an incredible week.

(01:50):
I'll tell you a story. My father would have introduced
me here tonight. And Deanna and I had after the
game in Oakland, had chartered a plane, our two daughters
had went to Mississippi. She flew out late Saturday night
and was there throughout. We had chartered a playing back

(02:11):
from Oakland to get Christmas gifts back in Green Bay,
take a brief nap and go to the service and
Christmas back in Mississippi and on the And let me
say this first about NFL fans, Oakland Raider fans in
particular that night. And I have played in Oakland before,
and I think everyone here who has played in Oakland,

(02:32):
either as the home team or the away team, will
all agree they can be downright nasty. I've seen it,
I've witnessed it. But I'll say this that night, the
tremendous respect and honor that was shown to me and
my family from the Oakland Raider fans with spectaclear and

(02:55):
although we didn't ask for it. Dan and I got
a police escort to the airport that I can promise
you would have made any president problem. So I say
thank you from the bottom of my heart. But our
on our flight back, it was a long flight, and
as you can imagine, there was a lot of emotions
as we had just won the game and it was

(03:17):
probably the best game that I had ever played in,
but that really didn't matter at that point. And we laughed,
we cried, and we tried to sleep. We laughed and
we cried. And one time in particular, Deanna says to me,
and you'd had to know my father. My father was
short on praise and along on tough love. If he

(03:41):
was ever to praise me, I was not to hear it.
It was always you can do better. He was always
pushing me to be better. That was okay. Never did
I hear him say, son, you've arrived, You're the best.
That was awesome, great game. It was always yeah. But

(04:04):
so Deanna says to me on the plane, you know
your dad. It said to me that he had hoped
or could not wait for the day that you were
inductive to the Hall of Fame so he could introduce you,
And up until that moment, I had never thought about
the Hall of Fame. And I mean no disrespect to
the Hall of Fame. I say this with the utmost

(04:27):
respect for all of you guys. I had dreamed of
playing the NFL. Believe me, way more than I thought
about my schoolwork. I thought about being Archie Manny running
around throwing underhand passes. I thought about being my childhood
favorite Roger Stallback throwing it to Preston Pearson, or Drew

(04:48):
Pearson handing it off to Tony dor Set, being Kenny
Stabler coming out of the tunnel. I had thought of
those things so many times, but I never thought of
the Hall of Fame until that moment. And so a
new goal had entered my mind then in there and
I said to myself, I will make it to the
Hall of Fame. That I would make it to the

(05:15):
Hall of Fame so I could acknowledge the fact of
how important he was. This is tougher than any third

(05:35):
and fifteen, I can assure you. So I could acknowledge
the importance of him in my career, in my life,
which he was a tremendous part of my life. He
taught me toughness. Boy did he teach me toughness. Trust me,

(05:56):
there was no room for cry babies in our house.
He taught me teamwork and by all means, no player
was ever more important than a team. And my father,
for those who don't know, chose to run the wishbone,
which some of you younger generations people do not even

(06:17):
know what that is. But it never entailed throwing. But
that was the type of coach he was, and that
was the type of dad he was. He would never
showcase his son's talents or anyone else's talents for their
good rather than the team's good. And so then in there,

(06:39):
in that moment, on that plane, I was determined, for
selfish reasons to get to this point, to acknowledge how
important he was. I would not be here before you
today without my father. There's no doubt whatsoever. And one

(07:01):
more thing about my father, and this is something I've
never told anyone, including Deiana. My dad was my high
school football coach. He was the head football coach. He
coached me and my two brothers. But I never had
a car growing up. I always rode to and from
school with my father in his truck, and so he
was always the last to leave the building because he

(07:22):
had to turn the lights off, lock up, and then
we made our way home. So it was the last
high school football game of my high school career. And
although I don't remember how I played before, and I
don't remember how I played in the last game, what
I do remember is sitting outside the coach's office, say

(07:44):
on a Wednesday, waiting for my father to come out
so we could leave. It was dark, and I overheard
my father talking to the three other coaches and hurting.
And I assume I didn't play as well the previous
week only because of what he said. And he said,
I can assure you one thing about my son. He

(08:05):
will play better. He will redeem himself. I know my son,
he has it any and I never let him know
that I heard that. I never said that to anyone else,
but I thought to myself, that's a pretty good compliment.
You know my chest kind of swoll up. And again

(08:27):
I never told anyone, but I never forgot that statement,
that comment that he made to those other coaches. And
I want you to know, Dad, I spent the rest
of my career trying to redeem myself and make him proud.
But I hope I succeeded. Thank you. Thank you so

(08:55):
never discount importance of being a father and statements that
you make, whether you thank your kids here, just you're
very important to your children. And the lesson is we

(09:16):
come and go very quickly, so love them meets you
every day.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
And thanks to Greg Hengler for securing this material for us,
and my goodness, Brett Favre, well, he was just so
he was so emotional and he tried so hard to
keep it together. This is the first time he'd talked
publicly about his dad, and in front of this large
football audience.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
This was a beauty.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Brett Favre's tribute to his father, Irvin, at the Pro
Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio in twenty sixteen.
Here on our American Stories