The retirement of Brett Favre, star quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, will not only have an outstanding impact on the sport of football but also on the state of Wisconsin.

When it comes to football, Wisconsin residents are a lot like Texans in their love of the sport. Around the state people live and breathe football.

My friend and I recently had a discussion about the Packers and football in general. When I brought up the fact that Favre might be past his time, I thought I was going to have my head bitten off.

In Wisconsin you do not see this obsession with any other sport. Football takes over all media around July and does not truly give them back until mid- to late March.

Baseball and basketball get their few months every year, and other sports around town such as hockey always end up getting the short end of the stick.

Favre, whatever problems or addictions he has had in the past, will no doubt be remembered with a street named after him or a statue somewhere in the state. Wisconsin — especially the city of Green Bay — has a way of enshrining its football heroes, from coaches to players.

Personally I have a problem with idolizing athletes such as Favre. When you start to put people on a pedestal as we have done with him, we also put their personal lives — as well as demons — on that pedestal with them. Now everyone knows of his “former” prescription painkiller problems, but we also know that he is an outstanding athlete.

The question is when you put his name on a street or give him a big bronze statue what will people remember most? The games or the pills?

There are no true sports heroes who that are free from the “skeleton in the closet” test... Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and Favre, just to name a few.

While the loss of Brett Favre will be a tragic event I believe it is proper to remember him without the statue or the street sign with his name on it. Ordinary people have flaws, athletes have flaws, but so do heroes.

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