Responsibility + Accountability = Peace: C’mon, Brett Favre — Just Fix It

Brett Favre.  Green Bay Packers Legend.  When Green Bay sent him to the kid’s table so Aaron Rodgers could take his seat, I was pissed. Favre was an underdog when he got to Green Bay – only given his shot to get on the field because of the injury of the Magic Man, Don Majkowski.  Then, when Brett got out there, he lit it up.  His nickname is one word – Country.  He ran like he stole something and threw at one speed – all fastballs.  He’d take hits and put on hits. Finesse and recklessness were the same thing to him.

He wound up playing for the Minnesota Vikings, and I was the only Bills fan who owned a Minnesota Number 4 Jersey. I liked his energy and attitude.  Always Go Big or Go Home. Now, there’s a documentary about Favre on Netflix – I watched it last night.  As tough as Brett is – he’s no match for Netflix because the numero uno streaming service hit him hard. If it were a fight, they’d have stopped it a half hour in.  

Netflix Hit Him Harder Than This

Like many we admire, Brett seemingly didn’t use his superpowers for good. We aren’t talking about deflated pigskins here, either.  They had him stalking a reporter, wrecking her career, and if sexual harassment doesn’t sound bad enough…stealing from the poor.  A multi-millionaire stealing millions from the poorest families in Mississippi.  I can’t believe I just typed that – one more time to let it sink in.  Stole from the poor…in Mississippi.  Now he has Parkinson’s, and it’s gonna be a bad look when they keep going after him.  But when it’s all said and done, we’ll see he got away with a lot – got away with a lot, for a long, long time.

So did Tiger, and Kraft.  Cosby…for a while.  Diddy did, until he didn’t.  Ted Kennedy with the car in the lake, and OJ’s glove didn’t fit, so they had to acquit.  Lance Armstrong gets to keep the money.  I’d bet Monica isn’t too fond of Bill. 

Monica is a couple months older than me. I aged. She didn’t.

$$$ Talks and ________ Walks. It’s a cold, complex reality, folks – some people get diplomatic immunity.  And for them, it takes way more for any of the rules to apply. It takes cameras, auditors, teams of lawyers, and even microscopes. It’d be a fun conversation to make a list of them all and give them grades on how they handled their situations.  If I could go back in time, I could see myself and my friends going on and on about it over beers. 

A+ goes to Chris Herren for fessing up and using his platform to help everyone and anyone he can.

For more on Herren, check out herrentalks.com

A boldfaced F goes to OJ.  He profited from the damage he did.  If there’s a hell, The Juice is boiling.

There are others with Fs. I only mention OJ because he can’t be upset with me for the grade I give him.

I googled OJ in Hell and this is what came up

Responsibility and Accountability are two different things.  People forget that, or don’t realize it. 

Responsibility is the messes we make – and saying…yeah, that was me. 

Accountability is what we do about it.  Make it right.  Get better.  Overcome. 

Responsibility is talk.

Talk is cheap.  Promises are weak. 

Responsibility is the first step.  Accountability – the last.

This post is about the line between responsibility and accountability, separating the ones who deserve another shot from the ones who dodge and disappear. And that line keeps getting blurred — especially when the spotlight’s on, or when lawyers and PR teams step in, and suddenly “I’m sorry” turns into “I was misunderstood.”

But real accountability? It’s raw. It’s uncomfortable. It costs something. It’s saying, “Yes, I did that. I hurt people. And now I’m gonna spend whatever time I have left making it right — even if I can’t.”

That’s why I’ll always credit the few who choose that road. People like Chris Herren. Like Steve-O. Like Monica Lewinsky, who carried shame that wasn’t even hers and turned it into something more substantial than most of us ever could. 

Steve-O is in the cart

The rest? The ones who play dodgeball with the truth? They may keep their money, their careers, their silence — but they lose something else.

They lose their voice. They lose trust. And when the noise dies down, what’s left?

The older I get, the more I believe this: Getting away with it isn’t the win we think it is.

Living with what you’ve done — without hiding, spinning, or hurting more people to stay comfortable — is the real victory. That’s the real flex. And it’s rare.

So yeah, maybe I used to root for guys like Brett Favre. Perhaps I still wish that version of him – the reckless, wild-eyed underdog – was the whole story. But it’s not. And if I’m going to be honest about my story, then I’ve got to be honest about his too.

We all screw up. That part’s universal.

But not all of us own it.

And if I’ve learned anything rebuilding my life from the inside out, it’s this: You don’t get better by dodging the truth. You get better by walking straight through it.

Some people get away with it.

But the people I respect? They get real.

Maybe you're reading this because you’ve looked up to someone who let you down. Or maybe you're the one who dropped the ball — in your job, your marriage, your life. I’ve been both. And I’ve learned this: the world has plenty of people who got away with it. But we really need the ones who admit they didn’t — and choose to show up anyway.

That’s the kind of comeback worth chasing. Not for applause. Not for redemption points.

Just for peace — the kind you earn when you finally stop running from yourself.