Not that I’m a huge Brett Favre fan, but I probably remember being a fan since the time I was 12. The year was 1993, I was in 6th grade. My class did this year-long project where we would pretend to live in a pretend town somewhere, hold jobs, learn how to balance checkbooks, be nice to your neighbors, buy insurance and make smart life decisions. My alter ego was “Jenny Spector”, a quality control inspector at the local maple syrup factory. Oh, did I mention our fake town was called Maplesville Wisconsin…
So, the Spector family consisted of a mom (me), a dad (I forget what I named him, but I’m sure it was something generic like Bob or John or Fred), and two children. We had to draw a family portrait. I made my “husband” very plan vanilla. I didn’t want to draw any attention to any specific characteristic that could cause other kids to make fun of me (I still wasn’t living down the stigma that comes with your mom being a teacher at your elementary school). But then I had no idea what to dress him in. I mean, what do adult men wear? I didn’t know. All the boys were wearing their pants around their ankles and oversized starter jackets, and I was sure that wasn’t what I would be putting on my husband. So I figured he would wear jeans and a sweatshirt, as boring as you can get. Being a recent football fan (the Redskins had just won the Superbowl the year before), I decided to put him in something sporty. But I really didn’t know that much about football (I know, can you believe there was a time when that was true?!), so I asked my sports loving Uncle Karl who someone living in Wisconsin would root for. He said, “the Packers”. After I confirmed they were a good team, I took out my yellow and green crayolas and went to town on my fake husband’s brand new sweatshirt. A Packers fan was born.
Now while the Redskins will ALWAYS be my team, I have to confess that I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for the Packers. Ever since that day, when I dressed my future husband in cheesehead gear, I always felt that while I would never cheer them on or don any gear myself, I always wished the best for them. Keeping that in mind, I LOVED the fact that the Skins beat them this year. So, call me what you will, but they always say that it’s your earliest influences in childhood that create your sports allegiances. So while yes, I was a Redskins fan first and will never diverge from that loyalty no matter how bad they are, I will always remember my secret crush on the Packers. And what do you know, for all those years, while I was watching all those Packers games, I was watching Brett Favre, create a history that ended today.
Chicks Like Sports Too 