Sometimes there is sports news so important that it crosses the boundary of its sport. Sometimes there is sports news so important that it isn’t even really about sports at all. So important, the news is more of a humanitarian issue.

Brett Favre, we will miss you.

Favre retires with 61,655 passing yards, 442 touchdown passes, 160 career wins, and 253 games started. These statistics make Favre the record holder in each of their individual categories for quarterbacks and make him a definite first ballot hall of famer. However, Favre’s career can not be summed up with statistics. Favre’s departure means that not only does the NFL lose one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, but they lose a great ambassador. 1991 was a long time ago; there are 16 years of NFL fans who have never known the Packers without Brett Favre. What happened over the last 16 years was magic. Before our eyes Favre transformed from the gun-slinging college boy to a gray haired – gunslinger. Brett Favre is what is right about professional sports in a world with so much wrong. Shaun Powell of Newsday recently went on a tirade saying:

Whenever [athletes] get busted for using performance-enhancing drugs or misbehavior or whatever, they come groveling to the public for forgiveness and manage to follow the same tired and transparent script. First comes the apology. Then they admit to making mistakes. And it's all a bunch of bull.

Truthfully? They're not sorry for what they did. They're sorry they got caught.

And they didn't make a mistake. That's what a third-grader does in math. They made a choice. There's a difference.

Brett Favre made a choice too. His choice was that no matter what the NFL was turning into, he was going to stay the same. Brett, we all owe you a thank you. Athletes everywhere could learn a lot from you. Perhaps what NFL fans really lost was a friend. Favre’s down to earth manner made you feel like anything could happen – and not just on the football field where he lead comeback after comeback. It’s fitting that the Packers franchise made such a great comeback in Favre’s last year. After all, it all started with a comeback back in 1992 when Don Majkowski went down with an injury and in came Brett Favre. He led the team to a fourth quarter comeback victory and hasn’t missed a start since. That is, until the first game of next season.

Brett Favre we will miss you because you showed us that not all athletes fit Shaun Powell’s profile. Brett Favre played because he loved the game. He would never do anything to hurt the game or his team. That Monday night in Oakland after his father died he proved to the world why he was so much more than a player with good stats. He proved to the world what football meant to him. And, he played a hell of a game too.

Kids everywhere aspire to “Be like Mike.” Well, Barry, I have just one thing to say to you: “Be like Brett.” If you were half the man Favre is (or had half the size testicles) you would never had taken steroids. They say that if Favre threw a baseball with the same force he threw a football it would go over 100 miles per hour. And he did that without steroids. Roger Clemens, take note: “Be Like Brett.”

Favre will be missed. He may not take the field as the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers ever again, but his spirit will live on in all those who play the game the way it is meant to be played. Those who are great are remembered. #4 has become synonymous with Favre just as #23 has become synonymous with Jordan. Barry what do you have, a ball with an asterisk on it?

Congratulations. Here’s a hint to those who want to be remembered: “Be Like Brett.”