Brett Favre - Liberty University Convocation

[Applause] we we've got a lot to cover and obviously what you're most known for is your storied NFL career but can you take us back to your just earlier years that you were overlooked almost by you know colleges you were when you did get into the school that you got into you at the seventh string quarterback and even as a high school player because your father was the coach and he ran the wishbone he'd no one really got to see your arm power but take us through just the years before you walked into the NFL yeah so you touched on it I had one scholarship offer and that was from the University of Southern Mississippi which came the day before the actual signing day so throughout the recruiting process to say I didn't get many looks or offers is an understatement I got none and so and we we all can relate to this even though mine is football it can be life in general I felt like no one wanted me that I wasn't good enough and I felt as though I could play at the next level but yet no one would offer me the day before the actual signing day I was offered by Southern Miss I was overjoyed went to Southern Miss was last on the totem pole actually didn't know if I was going to play defense or offense I went as a defensive back believe it or not and a quarterback and a couple of guys got hurt a couple of guys came in and didn't play it very well and there I was and they were like you're going in are you ready and I went yeah I'll learn the plays later in the rest is history so even at Southern Miss when you do finally work your way through the gauntlet and become the starting quarterback the second game in the season they're playing Alabama and you upset Alabama all right tell us about that season I didn't think it was an upset actually trust no David is a big Crimson Tide fan here and I hate to burst his bubble but we beat you guys but we actually Alabama played Southern Miss last Saturday and yeah and it was a little different and then tell us about tell us about that year you not only beat Alabama but as a sorting quarterback you almost beat Georgia and then went on to yeah so I started my true freshman year of 17 years old when I got my first start and so I in other words I never red shirted so I my freshman year sophomore year was a little better junior year was a little better and so a lot of positive things going into my senior year believe it or not I was up for the Heisman which I didn't at least I was up for it that's that's the best I can I can say but two weeks before the start of training camp I was in a pretty severe car wreck I had 36 and inches of my intestines removed I had a fractured vertebrae in my back I lost 36 pounds had had surgery August eighth to remove the the basically the part of my intestines that had died and so I walk out of the hospital like August 14th and was told that I would probably have to retch hurt and come back the following year which would have been okay but I was stubborn and a lot younger then and I said I'm gonna come back and play in September 8th we played against Alabama and I hate to tell you but we beat them but we it was a it was a great year for for us for our team and for our University statistically speaking it wasn't a great year but that's okay I had a lot of fun we beat Alabama we beat Auburn almost beat Georgia and there's not to me teams can say that so it was a it was a fun and magical year for us well our football team our football coach beat Alabama twice two years in a row and that's because you have a great coach and Hugh Freeze we did we love that yeah but I was born and 19th this is an exciting day for me because I was born in 1962 right after the Green Bay Packers had had one of the longest streaks of they won more Super Bowls before it was even named the Super Bowl right anybody's ever ever won since and so the whole time I was growing up I had Green Bay Packers all over my walls all everything and Liberty's first football team started in 1973 and I think we have a picture of that what the colors were well David said we did anyway there it is go gold and green for the first three years but we were named Lynchburg Baptist College so we had to there was another Lynchburg College in town and they were getting big gifts that were intended for us and so so we by mistake and so we changed it during the nation's Bicentennial to Liberty University and we changed the colors to red white and blue but we started with that one because my father was a huge fan of insulin Bharti and I've still got a speech at Vince Lombardi on my wall and the football suite that my father had on his office wall his whole life but you and I were talking before about what a great coach he was and I just remember going to Green Bay when I was a kid teenager when Bart Starr was a coach and with dad and I walked out on the field weren't supposed to be out there but he still took a picture with us anybody said now get out of here I'm doing practice but tell us what what you've heard about Vince Lombardi and about your coach - well first of all you mentioned Bart Starr and who just recently passed away but lived a wonderful life his wife cherry is still living I think Cherry's probably 85 and I was honored to be asked two weeks ago to escort her out of the tunnel at Lambeau Field where she was to receive a helmet really for the star family so I was a part of the ceremony in which bar was honored and you know to me I consider myself I don't think historian really is the right word but a a person who truly respects the guys in and just the whole NFL process I could name players off of every team and and so I say that because when I was traded in 1992 from Atlanta to Green Bay you know family friends were like man are you ready for that cold and I was so ready leaving South Mississippi they said do you even know where Green Bay is I said I have no clue but I know it's up north somewhere but I knew who Bart Starr was I knew who Vince Lombardi is and I thought of people here younger generation you may even look over and go who's he talking about and you may actually say who am i and that's ok that's ok but Green Bay was a wonderful place for me and my family it was there were so much tradition in history even before Lombardi with Curly Lambeau and the the Packers were were sold for $100 like in the 20s or the teens or something and you know you could put a price on what they're worth today and what they mean to so many people so uh Lombardi man that guy's got tremendous quotes and the guys that played for him that I have become friends with some have passed away speaks so highly of him and his leadership not so much his coaching but what type of guy and more a mentor and and it's not so much about the X's and O's it's about communicating with these young men and being tough but also being fair and and putting your arm around them so he was all that and then some at speech in my wall he says it's an American zeal to be number one and everything and he entered that speech by saying I believe in God and I believe in human decency but I believe any man's finest hour is when he finds himself lying on the field of battle exhausted victorious and so it's touching nothing amen to that he played sixteen years with the Packers you played on multiple teams but obviously that's who you're more known for than anyone else talk to us about the greatest moment but we I know that you won the Super Bowl but ironically that's not what you consider your greatest moment your greatest moment was really in a in a moment where you were mourning the loss yeah yeah so 16 years in Green Bay 20 years in the NFL extremely thankful and blessed to have have played that long and to play at the level I play that I think from a team standpoint well I know the the greatest moment would be winning the Super Bowl in 1996 a 97 season because as a the ultimate team sport in my opinion is football you have to rely on each other so much if you think about it receivers can be wide open all day long but if the line doesn't block the quarterback doesn't have time to get it to and if the line blocks and the quarterback can't make the right decision so there's so many factors that go into success in football and so the ultimate goal in the National Football League is to win the Super Bowls and we did that and that was a great great honor and a great year but I think by the one moment that in my 20 years that I think about that that is really kind of in a class by itself there's one that I wish didn't happen it was when my father passed away and we had to play Oakland on a Monday night a day day and a half after my father passed away and not only play but we it was important that we we had to win the game in order to continue our playoff hoax it was two days before Christmas and you'd have to know my father he was tough and Jerry and I talked about this a little bit before and David we talked about this on the plane never once did my dad tell me he loved me now do I know he loved me yes it was I'm not making excuses it was a different generation it was tough love he was my coach he never wanted to show any signs of weakness and I'm this is more of an assumption I as I look back I think he believed that had he told me great job or I love you or anything positive that it would inflate my ego or make me feel that you know I was better than someone else and and it wouldn't put in the time the effort the work ethic that I had shown up to that point my dad was a was a great father who was flawed like all of us and you know he's got three sons and a daughter I'm the second oldest and we're all flawed but you know I've learned from my dad and tell my kids and grandkids that I love him tell him over and over again till they say we know we know so all that being said my father passes away he was my mentor he was my coach he was all those things and he wasn't a question even though the media made it out to be a question of whether or not I would play the question was not what I played the question was could I play in a in a way in which I honored my father that no one could understand I didn't want to play win or lose media afterwards fans just people in general said well what do you expect he played with his father had just passed away you know how could he play at a high level and of course I prayed so much leading up that game and my good friend Doug Peterson who was right by my side is now the head coach at the Philadelphia Eagles there's also a friend of JD and JD knows Doug very well but we prayed so much right up until we went out for pregame we had a prayer right right at my locker and I just wanted to honor my I wanted to win the football game I didn't care about being the greatest player that night I I wanted to honor my father in a way that that he would be proud and you know we talked about this on a plane it was it was that times a thousand you know that I had a first half that I never in 20 years just to give you an idea I threw for a lot of yards and at one time I had every passing record in the NFL with so many yards only threw for 400 yards twice in my career guys do it all the time in a whole game in 20 years and had all the records so you think I would had to throw for a 600 yard game or a 500 yard game no I the most ever had was to 400 yard games that game I had 399 at halftime so I had a half a football that was was better than any full game that I had had in my whole career and what I realized later after I retired as I think about that game is that I and maybe you as well have oftentimes said you know God I show me your real just you know show yourself just for me just for a second however come out of the clouds cross the road whatever and you look for these signs and you and you never see them when they're right there in front of you and for me the sign was how I played in that game and you know I'm looking for some you know some figure to come out of the clouds or out of the sky when the signs were right there in front of me and that's the one thing that you know I wonder if my if my father was saved he was 56 when he passed away I'll be 50 in two weeks so I'm getting close to that age I know my dad we went to church all the time but what was in his heart I wonder that and I believe that I've gotten those answers and you know I think back with mixed emotions about that game it was such a difficult time and game in which to play in but I'm also very thankful that I played in honoring the way I did well I found out this morning that I hold one record that Brett Favre doesn't hold the most number of cheerleaders so much I saw the picture was they got it I think but anyway he said all right never that's 450 pounds 150 pounds for 30 seconds so I couldn't do it [Applause] it's a good thing you guys had your eyes closed while that David was praying he's when I saw how he was dressed casualty I took off my blazer my shirt and put this on on stage so thank God you had your eyes closed but anyhow tell us about first priority it's a great question I've been in the student ministry served the local church for 16 years and God brought an opportunity for me cross paths with David when he was selling t-shirts for Rick Stanley y'all know who that guy is but he was yes right do you mind if I let this guy share his testimony at a youth camp and I go sure he drives up in this big white jacked-up Jeep and he's got all these shirt t-shirts and it was David Nasser telling my youth group is how he came to Christ that's how far back I know that guy and in the ministry that I'm doing at a local church I've always only gathered together as the body when we come together for big events to cycle now or a big seat at the pole rally and this guy named Benny prophet said what if we came together every week and went on a nine-month mission trip what if we got the body of Christ and armed him on the campus with a strategy to influence their fear peers for Christ so every four weeks on a local high school campus all across America students are sharing their faith and inviting their friend to come to Christ it's student-led it's dude initiated and we would not be where we are if it wouldn't be for Brett Indiana you know I came step out of faith we're a non-profit I don't raise near the amount of money that you have to raise here but God's blessed us we're in our 21st year of doing this ministry and Deanna came to us and said we're doing this all wrong and I said yes ma'am this is white bread says yes ma'am taught us how to do these things and we are where we are today because of the heart and because the folks like Brit Indiana that care about what God's doing through a local church led ministry called first priority that's awesome my wife says I talk too much and these panels so you go ahead David one of the reasons we wanted JD to be a part of this panel is because of your friendship and I'd love to just ask you know because I think sometimes God will bring a breakfast marv into the life of someone in this room maybe later in your life God will give you a chance to be a good friend of a world renowned you know influencer maybe a professional athlete maybe it's a musician maybe it's someone who is moving the needle on the economy so what are some what are some things can you just talk about the dynamics of your friendship I know you guys just you hunt together yesterday you went on a thirty mile bike ride that you know and so you guys are friends and you get along because you like each other but as two brothers in Christ he doesn't just support you financially how do you support him talk about the dynamic of your friendship here's a guy from Louisiana that's me I went to that Bible School in Baton Rouge called LSU that's not a Bible School this scene if you're listening that's where God called me to ministry that's why I say it and I came to I came to Hattiesburg in 1989 and they were far for Huysmans bumper stickers I came from Baton Rouge don't even know they had a university and Hattiesburg called Southern Miss and there's this hike this far guy watched him in college Washington as you went off and somehow somewhere our paths crossed because of the end of his wife you know connected us on a hunting venture and it's like two rednecks to get together you know each other no matter what state you're from you know you understand without having to say a lot and the thing I would say to that you know the first time Brett and I met he was like he'd following the truck with somebody then he said okay JD's because they're always looking if someone's of statures looking why do you want to get involved in my life you know cuz we're waiting for the ass Hill here it comes he's gonna ask he's gonna ask me to do something and I just you know was drawn to who he was and we had the same love for our family we we outputted our coverage we have godly wife we have beautiful wives we have children and we just connected on that basic level of how do we how we raise our family how do you know how do we go through life and ask these questions back and forth through time it became where we are today so it's one of those you know I don't have to think about it but if you're thinking about somebody like oh I want to have you said Justin Bieber was here I don't know who that is but he was here who's I don't know now his pastor Carlin's was here okay and we would love to have Justin here you're watching Justin come on but the biggest thing I do now is when he was playing I we text we you know I could remember the 90 that he did I was just I was in my living room shouting when that happened I was saying I know this is tough we were there at the funeral we were there you know when he got done that's the first thing I texted he said brother what a god thing and I was like you know he's had all these other things boom I get a text within minutes but he's sitting there you know thank you God you know what he just heard he shared those stories but the biggest thing I tell to tell people is you know you you guard your relationship but you you tell you anybody here from Hattiesburg Mississippi they don't care who I am they don't care they go I swear Brett Favre is and they go do you know him can you can you do this can you do that so I filter a lot of things that way to protect it but also it just be a servant love love without without any strings find opportunities to do things for these people that they just want to be normal Brett's a normal guy you know I wish I could get away with wearing shorts at a chapel and coming to Liberty University but what are the odds of a guy yeah he asked me the dress code I told me and it didn't matter what I would say it anyway he's gonna do what he's gonna do I'm just surprised he's not wearing those Wrangler jeans what about those skinny jeans Brett Brett was making fun of my skinny jeans on the flight over here you're supposed to be skinny when you have skinny jeans right that's true yeah we we go to my office and he disappears and he came out and he was literally wearing look at these pants he was wearing Mesa he borrowed there it is speaking of car lens and then he let me borrow his genius oh you wore mine there it is never again that was the worst set up ever so talk to us about honor and integrity oh hey real quick uh one of the things that I really do admire the most about you is you really are just a friend to my friend but you also seem to be very invested in your family you know you're always always pointing to your wife is a great example even when you won the Hall of Fame in that induction ceremony you honored her I want to see this quick well you know just clip of that and then ask you about your relationship with your wife what have you learned from your wife just watching her battle cancer conquer it what I've learned from her is she's a heck of a lot tougher than I am they may call me the Ironman and whatever but you know JD and I were just talking that what was that eight years ago maybe seven eight years ago she's competing in another one this Sunday Minh Ironman in Augusta Georgia I have no idea how they do it I thought our little 25 mile bike ride yesterday was tough which it was tougher for JD by the way you ever chasing little kids around as the hardest job yeah yeah and having we have a 30 year old daughter who graduated from Loyola and New Orleans in law school and decided now that she wants to be an English professor I said okay she's got three boys so I have three grandsons our youngest daughter is twenty and she's a junior Southern Miss and plays volleyball and parenting is tough parenting is very tough parenting girls and I saw Aaron Jim Kelly's Jill Jill and Jim's daughter Erin the last time I saw her I think she was story she was about this tall and you know and I bring her up because I think about my own children and how tough it is and I couldn't obviously couldn't do it without Vienna and vice versa but she she's seen seen it all and and fought it all and has managed to stay afloat in and thrive and like any good woman does and so uh you know we just tag along yeah I've got a 30 year old 26 year old and I've got a daughter here at Liberty Caroline who's a sophomore and she loves it and I know what advice young men nowadays need get off to video games and go to college but what do you think is the best advice to give you an women in college well I'll tell you what I told and I'll start with my youngest daughter before she went to high school I mean excuse me before she went to college I tried to prep her for what I thought she may face and I know times change and generations change but she was 16 17 at the time never drank and and never had a date and to this she's 20 years old and nothing has changed I mean she may have tried a beer I'm not gonna sit here and say she hasn't she may have I don't know that but but I say I say this to her I said you know I'm very proud of the young lady that you have become not because you don't drink and you know get into trouble and all those things but but she's a very thoughtful loving caring person almost too much where a lot of things bother her and that she can't control but I said what you're gonna face in college is you're gonna face whether it be teammates if you get into a sorority or just students in general they're gonna say come on ride with us we're gonna go have a beer your mom and dad are not around no one's gonna tell them you can have one beer or you can have one pill I mean smoke one joint I mean come on don't be you know so stiff relax have fun I mean this is this is fun and I said at that point you're gonna be faced with two options do I stick with my faith and what I believe in and what I was taught or do I go with the popular choice because I said if you if you say now I'm not you know you guys go ahead they're gonna say well you're no fun and they're gonna defriend you or whatever it's called and and I said and that will probably bother you and it bother you either enough that you join the popular crowd or you continue to let it bother that bother you for you know throughout and I said at some point you get to an age as we all uh sit up here not you know what what age that is is different for everyone but you get to a point where you're not swayed by outside influences and what you thought was a big deal oh I got I got zits on my face at 40 you go who cares you know I'm trying to tell your kids that someday you will get to that point but just to stand true to your faith and what you believe in and in in the face of some of the the tough toughest opposition you're gonna face and that's your peers and so and that's and as parents and we all can speak volumes on this you hurt for your kids I see what my parents went through and so you don't you want to protect them but also it's difficult because they kind of have to learn for themselves and that's painful and so again it's it's tough it's and it's a lot tougher I think with girls it's more complicated a lot of things I don't understand it never will but but I'm very proud of both my daughters and you know they've turned out to be pretty doggone good I love having daughters-in-law but I don't know if I'll ever get used to having a son-in-law we'll see anyway but that's just a different dynamic altogether and well I have a son-in-law and he's from Manchester England and he actually came up Manchester in the house I guess he went to the school that David went to William Carey University and had a spurt and played soccer so we go back and forth about what is really football I say you throw it he says you kick it so but he's a good good guy we wanted to finish out our time we've got about 10 minutes to wit a fun game that we're gonna ask Becky and Mike Donaghy to come out and join us in as well but before we do that this wasn't even a question on our QA cards but I was just so moved this morning we were just hanging and talking about life and faith about your favorite story in Scripture and the way that you voiced it and exemplified it it was such a gospel presentation will you just talk a little bit about your favorite story in all of the Bible yeah you know David kind of caught me off guard on the on the plane over and asked me that question and although there's a lot of great stories and everyone has their own everyone has their own verse that they love I too like in Luke where Jesus is being crucified and there's two criminals hardcore criminals Ryba siding which obviously Jesus was not a criminal one chose to to ask for forgiveness and the other was steadfast and being a criminal and one was forgiven in spite of all the things that he had done at that weak moment he decided to to ask for forgiveness and he was forgiven and he entered the kingdom of God and if he can do it we all can do it we all need it you're talking how you resonate with that thief on the cross in your own life and you're never gonna be perfect but you're just you're forgiven I tell my daughter the youngest because she's at that phase right now what everything matters what people think with people say everything how you look and I said you're absolutely beautiful you know I look at you and I see perfect she said yeah but you're my dad and I said yes I am your dad and I said I'll tell you this you're not you're not perfect neither am i neither is anyone else in this room none of us are perfect the pretty one wants to be smarter the smarter get smarter one wants to be prettier the guy who can run fast wishes he can make the grades and so on and so forth everybody wishes they had something that the other has and vice versa and some get more trouble than others and we all have flaws and so do not try to be perfect because it's impossible be who you are and in trust that God has you back Christianity is all about that's what a lot of religious people who don't understand that you think that there's their sins not as bad as somebody else's turn more people away from Christianity than anything else in the world I believe so I couldn't agree with you more percent so honestly if you're visiting with us and and you're here and you're thinking about college maybe God predestined this is a bigger moment and maybe you just needed to hear that one truth whether you love football or not whether you love you know of tenth Avenue north or not maybe the biggest thing you're gonna walk away from this weekend learning is this reality that all have sinned and fallen short to the glory of God Brett Favre needs Jesus just as much as Jerry well as David Nasser as anyone else and so Billy Graham all the way to Hitler all have sinned and fallen short to the glory of God and we're all the thieves on the cross and so we go to Jesus and Jesus says you're 100% guilty but I died on the cross for you and if you receive me you're 100% forgiven and that's really what makes us all on even footing at the foot of the cross amen we want to play this game to set up the game since Brett and JD you're both big duck hunters and big you know just just second-amendment guys all right we got this game for you let's watch this video and we'll play this game before we leave students buckle up your bootstraps for Liberty University dunk on today's deep waters will be led by NFL legend and Super Bowl champion Brett Farr as they fire a barrage of footballs across the Liberty University Spine Center and a flock of ducks for the classic video game duck hunt each of these ducks will be carried by our A's and RSS who will work as teams of eight to represent door Trump get away across the field for five times without having their duck blood from the sky by our pigskin touch the team of sharpshooter NER hrs a booth gets cook will be eliminated from the game and the team with the most died still quacking after five rounds will be our winner now since president Falwell read Barbara both bottom I'm country fine certified Green Bay tea sets today is wooden door will win a days to fly of Jesus to hold on tied to your second Amendment rights as we find out whether the quads or the circle has the dodgiest ducts of the bar as we play Liberty University duck huh you round one is about to start hunters take your mark ducks get ready on your mark get set go [Music] round two is about to start runners take your mark ducks get ready on your mark get set go [Applause] round three is about to start take your mom ducks get ready on your mark get set go [Applause] first we get hit it and she's ready rapport is about to start runners take your mark ducks get ready on your mark get set go [Applause] [Music] [Applause] well folks that's it looks like the circle is the big winner today the circle and the quad all of you get cheated okay all of you get maybe can we get out of here real quick real quick since today we played on the folks at Sodexo want you to know that today at the Sodexo Bialik at the rot were serving duck for everybody for lunch today all right so it'll be on the international thing hey god bless you guys you're just finished get out of here have a great weekend

Channel: Liberty University

Views: 8,997

Keywords: Liberty University, LibertyU, Liberty, Jerry Falwell, Brett Favre, Tenth Avenue North

Id: 1nAjlGJ-sxk

Length: 37min 22sec (2242 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 27 2019