Sometimes it is more difficult to be a good sport in winning than it is in losing.
I have played competitive golf all my life. It has taught me way more life skills than I can count. It is all about ettiquete, courtesy, and above all, respect of your fellow competitor. You compliment the successes of your opponent and shake hands after the round. You want them to play well while you play better. Partly, for these reasons, I feel that golf is the greatest game and the best life teacher of all the sports.
That being said....
Somehow, the respect of the opponent gets lost as fans of a team. I am even starting to see it in the Ryder Cup in golf. It is almost a rule that you cannont applaud a well done effort even in defeat, of your opponent.
Which brings me to Favre and how he was treated after the game. It was one of his most gutty performances of his career. Regardless of the mistakes he made, he still gave his team a chance to win in the end. The pass to Harvin at the end could not have been a more dramatic or better thrown ball. Well done on Brett's part.
After the game, it IMO would have been good sportsmanship to put behind all the crap from the last 3 years and given him an ovation as he left the field. It would have said as much about the Green Bay fans by displaying good sportsmanship in winning as it would to thank Favre for all he has done while with Green Bay. It would have been the gentlemanly thing to do.
It was personal. It wasn't just that it was the QB for the Vikings that they booed. Take a look at the end of other games. Fans (thousands of them) remained well after most of the players left the field just to boo Favre. They don't do that after other games.
As was said before, we came to love Favre (warts and all) because of his attitude on the field and the honest heartfelt answers off the field. Most of the trouble he would get in with the media was because he would be open to actually answering the question than to give "player speak". We looked past his drinking binges and Madison stories (Lolipops anyone?) when he was younger. Why? because we knew there was some of him that we wanted for ourselves. And because we too were not perfect, we accepted his faults, both on and off the field.
Those fans that stayed to boo were the jilted lover that can't forgive the past, and move on to the future. So he went to the rival team. Is he the first? of course not. To me it is petty. The man did a ton for this team, town, and state. Just because it didn't have the fairytale ending we idealistic fans wanted doesnt mean he doesn't deserve our respect.
I certianly understand the resentment but don't we, as Packer fans, hold ourselves to a higher level than what was displayed?
I would hope so.