NFL Network’s new documentary series, “The Timeline,” is being kicked off this week. With the series premiere following the thrilling Thursday Night Football game and then a replay tonight, the show gets off to a very good start with “Favre Returns.”
The documentary co-produced by NFL Films and Friend of Favre Tim McGraw (who narrates the film) looks at the way he left the Green Bay Packers before the 2008 season to his triumphant return this year being inducted into the team’s hallowed Hall of Fame in the summer to the retiring of his jersey this past Thanksgiving.
The film starts with a sports radio show asking fans how they’ll react to Favre returning to Green Bay for the Hall of Fame ceremony and then flashing back to 2005 when the Packers drafted Aaron Rodgers from Cal and marking the time to when Favre would leave the team just before the 2008 season.
Using present day interviews with Favre, Rodgers, team general manager Ted Thompson, former GM Ron Wolf, coach Mike McCarthy, former coaches Mike Holmgren and Mike Sherman and others, we get a perspective of the tumultuous period that affected the Packers from 2005-08. The interviews show Favre’s desire to play and not retire despite being asked the question by the media throughout that time and Rodgers’ frustration having to wait to play.
Finally when Favre announced his first retirement after the 2007 season, it appeared the Packers were ready to move on and anoint Rodgers as their quarterback. But as we watch the clip of Favre’s retirement press conference, we see present day Favre saying that he’s immediately questioning his decision to leave the game and asking how he got to that point. Favre’s candor during his interviews provides viewers with his thinking and the inner turmoil that he had in wanting to play rather than retiring.
Thanks to news footage plus NFL Films’ own archival footage of that crazy 2008 summer, we see how the Favre sideshow becomes a media circus. Favre takes a private plane from Mississippi to Green Bay. Favre is in camp. Fans are protesting over his treatment. Favre admits that he has to leave knowing the relationship is untenable and beyond repair, but the fans don’t. One fan says to Thompson, “Rodgers .. the only place he’s going to take you to … is the toilet bowl, and then you’ve got Brett Favre, who will take you to .. the Super Bowl.” This is classic footage.
And it all leads to the Packers trading him to the New York Jets where he played only one season. The documentary glosses over this era and quickly moves to his second retirement where it appears this time it’s for real. But as we know in this period it didn’t stick for long. In August of 2009, that infamous private plane is back, but instead of landing in Green Bay, it touches down in Minneapolis, the home of the Vikings, the Packers’ hated rival.
It’s then when the Packers fans feel betrayed and Favre becomes a pariah. We watch fans burn their Favre jerseys and stage a funeral procession with three hearses that passes his restaurant. Present day Favre said he wanted to play for anyone who played the Packers and he got the opportunity to play them twice with the Vikings. The 2009 season for Favre was a very good one in which the Vikings swept the Packers and his return to Lambeau Field was not well received:
But after an injury-riddled 2010 season, Favre retired for good. There was a little hint of healing when Favre and Rodgers appeared together during the 2013 NFL Honors:
But the real healing came when the Packers announced they would induct Favre into their Hall of Fame this summer. Instead of the vitriol that appeared in 2009 and 2010, fans welcomed him back with open arms.
The real payoff in the documentary is footage from the Thanksgiving Night number retirement ceremony with Favre miked and seeing fellow Packer legend Bart Starr. His reaction is what makes the film.
This shows that sometimes in sports, you can go home again and time can heal all wounds. If the Packers had tried to bring Favre back in 2011 or 2012, the scabs in the Green Bay community might have been too fresh. However, five years removed from his last game as a Viking and seven as a Packer, Favre knows who he is and for that, Packer Nation is thankful.
The storytelling is patented NFL Films. It lets the footage speak for itself and takes the viewer back to the period of Favre’s on-again, off-again retirements. Plus, the present day interviews give us insight to what happened.
“Favre Returns” receives a Awful Announcing grade of A minus.
The Timeline is another in a series of NFL Films documentaries that is well-produced and serves as a way to showcase the history of the league. The Timeline’s next installment, Jersey Guys on the New York Giants’ move from the Big Apple to New Jersey premieres Tuesday, December 8 at 8 p.m. ET.
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