Fickle fans happy to embrace Favre as 'their' guy

This thing about Brett Favre coming out of his latest retirement to quarterback the Minnesota Vikings is just too beautiful.

On one side, you have a Vikings team with fans who have feared and loathed Favre from 1993 through 2006 when he was a Green Bay Packer.

Suddenly, Favre is a Viking. He's one of us, the purple people are saying. The missing king to a chess set full of Super Bowl pieces has supposedly been added. We're the team to beat. Brett's our guy. Why, it turns out he's a great guy!

On the other side, you have a Green Bay Packers team with fans who had regarded Favre as a combination of Archangel Michael and Dirty Harry. All heart and guts.

Indestructible. The seat-of-his-pants designer of so many wins, so many magical moments.

No pretty boy with perfect throwing mechanics, our guy Brett. No tucking it in, no dodging a blow if there were extra yards to be taken.

This was the toughest son of a gun who ever played his position, they said in Wisconsin, someone who represented them with his grit and refusal to be beaten down by injuries, personal problems or rotten weather.

He wasn't just a quarterback. He was a football player.

Oh, how Packer fans idolized and mythologized the guy. Sure, his annual Hamlet routine about whether to quit or not got old, but he was Favre and he got a pass.

He finally did retire March 6, 2008, and it was as if cheese itself had left the state.

But Favre wanted to play again several months later, and the Packers weren't enamored with the idea. So off he went to the New York Jets.

The Jets weren't in Green Bay's conference or time zone, so what the heck. All the best, Brett.

Then Feb. 11 of this year, Favre retired again. This time it was for real.

Except it wasn't. Tuesday, he became a Viking. Yes, a Minnesota Viking.

Where do you stash all that memorabilia of your Judas, Packer fans?

What do you box up to make room for your new No. 4 trinkets, Viking fans?

I've often borrowed Jerry Seinfeld's line about sports fans, and I'll use it again. Since we cheer for teams that constantly are changing players, we're rooting for the uniforms. We're basically cheering for laundry.

People in Boston now bad-mouth Manny Ramirez. Fans in Philadelphia are thrilled to have Michael Vick with the Eagles. San Franciscans didn't think Barry Bonds was a bad guy. Still don't.

Hawkeye fans on Bret Bielema when he was an Iowa player and then an assistant coach: Fiery player. Terrific recruiter.

A lot of Hawkeye fans on Bielema since he became Wisconsin's head coach: Jerk.

As for Favre, a hero has become an enemy and an enemy has become a hero. You're either with us or you're against us.

Does this strike anyone else as very funny?