I love this story. It says something about kids as fans, and it says a lot about the grip Brett Favre had on the public’s imagintion.

A kid from Connecticut wore his Brett Favre No.4 Packers jersey for 1,581 consecutive days. Right up to his 12th birthday when, apparently, he outgrew it — and just about the time other kids would start razzing him, too.

Here is the story:

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Finally, David Witthoft shunned his Brett Favre jersey for the first time in 1,581 days.

The Ridgefield, Conn., boy, 12, wore the No. 4 jersey every day since receiving it as a gift for Christmas in 2003.

David’s father, Chuck, said Monday that his son’s last day wearing the jersey was April 23 — his 12th birthday.

Witthoft conceded his son was starting to become more concerned about his appearance after the jersey barely came down to his belt line.

Witthoft first gained national attention three years ago and attended his first Packers game in December. He’s also planning to attend the Sept. 8 game when the Packers retire Favre’s No. 4.

His mother, Carolyn, had washed the jersey every other day and mended it when needed.

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

Kids and sports heroes and sports teams … it’s quaint. It’s cute. But it’s also dangerous. Because we have learned the hard way over the past 2-3 decades that 99 percent of our sports heroes have feet of clay. Which is a rough way to live when you’re placed on a really high pedestal.

They not only aren’t better/nicer/braver than the rest of us … they usually are the moral and ethical inferior of John Q. Public. Something about being considered “elite” their whole lives so often seems to leave athletes without a moral compass. At all. And often severely short in just plain human kindness, too. Many professional athletes are barely human until several years after they retire.

Man, that sounds cynical. But, hey, it’s what I found in three decades of hanging around those guys.

The flip side of this … the Favre adulation. Man, is it wide and deep.

Has any American athlete in the last 50 years been the object of so much love? Even when he had to go to rehab because of an addiction to pain-killers … the praise essentially never stopped. When he announced he was retiring, it was like the pope had died.

Favre. There was a sort of Marlboro Man/High Noon feel to the guy. Playing hurt, playing all the time, a man alone against powerful forces but never shrinking from the challenge. Laconic. Hard. And, we apparently decided, good. Heck, noble. Hell, god-like.

OK, a top 10 list out of the blue! And I’m giving this, oh, about five minutes of thought.
The 10 most beloved American athletes of the past 20 years:

10. Charles Barkley (America’s uncle; how can The Round Mound of Rebound be otherwise?)

9. Tony Gwynn (A great exception in the “huge talent equals huge jerk” universe.)

8. Peyton Manning (“Everyman” with record-breaking stats.)

7. Shaquille O’Neal (Really, does anyone hate Shaq? Anyone? The embodiment of “big kid.”)

6. Tom Brady (Brad Pitt with three Super Bowl rings.)

5. Wayne Gretzky (He would be higher if he were American himself and hockey really mattered.)

4. Tiger Woods (Not so much loved as monstrously admired.)

3. Cal Ripken (The Favre of baseball.)
2. Michael Jordan (Yes, many of us did want to Be Like Mike, even if that meant “aloof”.)

1. Brett Favre. (God walked among us.)