Billy Joe Tolliver cannot recall laughing harder than the time during the 1991 NFL season when Brett Favre, his new Atlanta Falcons teammate, made an unscheduled stop in a hotel hallway before a game against Washington at the old RFK Stadium.
“I mean, I thought I was going to die, I’ve never laughed so hard,” Tolliver said.
This may or may not be the funniest Favre story retold here on the occasion of his No. 22 ranking in The Athletic’s NFL 100.
Truth be told, where Favre belongs on such a list hardly concerns the men who suited up with him across 302 games and 20 seasons with Atlanta, the Green Bay Packers, New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings. The 71,838 yards passing, the 508 touchdowns and, yes, the 336 interceptions matter less to Favre’s football brothers than the teammate whose ability to connect with every one of them off the field, regardless of background, inspired them on it.
“As a player, I don’t think you ever see another Brett Favre, and here’s why,” former Green Bay safety LeRoy Butler said. “When he came into this locker room, he fit in with everybody: the African-Americans, the white guys, the older guys, the younger guys playing Atari and SEGA Genesis, the rookies, the coaches, the towel guys, the guys that walk around with the big tweezers to pick up the dirty stuff — everybody.”
Three MVP awards, two Super Bowls, one championship and a record 297-game quarterback starting streak matter, of course, but those things aren’t what resonate when former teammates reflect on what made Favre special to them.
“He lived two houses down from the house I purchased in Green Bay, so he had to drive by my house to get to his house,” said former cornerback Tyrone Williams, who was a third-round pick in 1996, the season Favre won the second of his three consecutive MVPs.
