Ah, the demonstrations.  Some of them have actually been amusing.  Others have been more-or-less pathetic.

The latest – Green Bay’s Minnesota Ave. being renamed Aaron Rodgers Drive – hovers somewhere between goofy and vaguely pitiful.

All have had one thing in common:  they make Packer fans look like a bunch of buffoons who don’t know how to move on from the past.

Of course most of this buffoonery is harmless, because the people perpetrating it are mere clueless hicks.  But then there’s the buffoonery perpetrated by the mayor of Green Bay, who ought to know better.

Now don’t get me wrong:  I have nothing against a government official having a good time with a sporting event.  Silly wagers between governors of states whose teams are squaring off in the Super Bowl?  Fine.

Barack Obama doing a goofy pick-the-NCAA-brackets segment for SportsCenter?  No prob.

But when the mayor of Green Bay goes so far as to ask Packer fans for suggestions on “clever” ways to make Brett Favre feel less-than-welcome when he returns to the village, and settles on encouraging residents to wear flip-flops in honor of Favre’s legendary indecisiveness?  That goes beyond good-natured fun and into the realm of genuine civic irresponsibility.

A sane community would denounce a mayor who behaved like that, and look for ways of removing him from office.  Legal ways at first, and then, barring that, illegal ways involving pitchforks and torches.

The community of Green Bay, being both insane and inebriated, is of course perfectly fine with its leader’s lameness.  They think the crap is hilarious.  The more cans of Miller they slam, the funnier it gets.

The rest of the world, however, sees through these allegedly harmless shenanigans to the all-too-harmful anger that lies behind them.  The sad thing for the Packer faithful is that this anger, in the end, hurts only them and the ones who are unfortunate enough to love them.

But there is hope.  There is a way to end the cycle of bitterness once-and-for all.  There is a means by which Packer fans can take back control of their lives, and rejoin the human race:

Just f***ing get over it already.

Yes, it’s that easy.  Just forget about Brett Favre and all he once meant to you.  Leave the past where it belongs – in the past.

After all, he is only a football player.  He is not a god.  He is not a demigod.  He is not even a Demi Moore.  He’s a guy who has thrown a bunch of touchdowns, won one Super Bowl, and made fans snicker with his tales of farting in the huddle.

He is only an obsession if you are Jon Gruden, John Madden, SportsCenter or a Packer fan with a hopeless case of nostalgic yearning for the late 1990s.  For the rest of us, he is just a guy who plays football, sometimes well, sometimes badly, sometimes only after agonizing for months over whether to retire.

You, crazed Favre-hating Packer fan, could be one of the fortunate many who have kept their sense of perspective throughout the Favre drama, and not allowed themselves to sink into alcohol-fueled crankiness.  And it doesn’t take a miracle to make it happen.  It just takes opening the door, walking outside, breathing the fresh air, puking out the poison and realizing that there’s a whole world out there, a whole great big beautiful planet that doesn’t give a rip about Favre, or the Packers, or football or sports or anything except flying around and eating and screwing.

Just think of yourself as the caterpillar creeping along the tree branch, waiting to weave its cocoon so it can begin its transformation into the beautiful butterfly.  Don’t you want to be a beautiful butterfly?  Wouldn’t you rather float across the world on delicate, multicolored wings than drag yourself across the dirt leaving a disgusting slime trail?

Of course you would.  We all would.  And some of us do, every day.  We let the wind carry us where it may.  And sometimes we give our purple wings a flap and fly to a higher plane, from which we may gaze down upon all the poor caterpillars with their slime trails and their six-packs of Bud and their Aaron Rodgers jerseys and their misspelled “Go to hell Brett” signs.

We feel for you.  We want you to be among us.  Not all of the time, because you’re really annoying and you smell like urine, but some of the time.  For a few minutes anyway.  As long as you don’t drink all our liquor and try to have sex with our dog.

What I’m trying to say, Packer fan, is that I care about you.  I don’t want you to spend your life wallowing in bitterness.  I don’t want you to remain trapped in the past forever.

I want you to take my hand and walk with me into the future.  The beautiful future, where Brett Favre leads the Vikings to the Super Bowl while the Packers sit at home with their 8-8 record wondering what the heck went wrong.

Don’t be afraid.  He’s only Brett Favre.  There’s no reason to reach for that bottle of cheap whiskey or start loading that shotgun.  He can’t hurt you.  Unless you break onto his property and he runs you over with his Toro.

1. Never underestimate a motivated Brett Favre.  He’s like Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods – great on any given day, but a beast when he has extra reason to want to beat you.  He may have tried downplaying his desire for revenge on the Packers, but they way he played is proof of how much he wanted to show his former team what a mistake they made.  When Brett finally does retire – hopefully not any time soon – and wends his way to the Hall-of-Fame, don’t be shocked if his speech, like Jordan’s, turns into a bitter litany of people who had to pay for slighting him.

2. The pass blocking could not have been better last night.  The highlight was that long pass to Jeff Dugan where Favre had enough time in the pocket to pick out a new TV and iron a pair of Wranglers.  The run blocking, conversely, did not appear as dominating.  Second week in a row we had trouble generating a ground game against a 3-4.  I don’t need to mention that we’re facing the 3-4 again 3 out of the next 4 weeks.

3. Adrian Peterson had a bad game.  Yes he scored one touchdown – about the only running play all day that looked well-blocked – but his 2.2 yards-per-carry average was pitiful.  And he had one of the worst fumbles you’re ever going to see in a professional football game, getting stood up and stripped along the sideline (it looked like a mugging more than a tackle).  Peter King said it best on Twitter: “If you’re even a marginal NFL running back, you don’t give up a ball like Peterson just did.”

Maybe AD is the best player in the NFL, but he didn’t play like it Monday night.

4. The chemistry between Favre and the receivers seems to be coming along.  He found Bernard Berrian 6 times for 75 yards, including that sweet touchdown where they burned Al Harris.  He hit Sidney Rice 5 times for 70 yards.  He only found Percy Harvin twice but it was for 39 yards.  Favre had more yards passing against the 49ers but the passing game looked far crisper against the Packers, who are alleged to have a good secondary.

5. Charles Woodson got screwed on two penalties.  That should not have been defensive holding when he was fighting with Visanthe Shiancoe down the sideline, and it should not have been interference when he appeared to pick off the pass intended for Sidney Rice in the endzone (the INT would’ve been wiped out by an offsides anyway).

6. Everyone sort of expected Jared Allen to go off, what with Chad Clifton being out of the line-up, but I don’t know if anyone anticipated him going quite as crazy as he did.  One thing has become apparent about Mr. Allen:  he shows up in big games.  He made huge plays against Philly in the playoffs last year, and last night, he helped Brett get his revenge.

7. Brad Childress came very, very close to having a bad night.  First, he failed to get the red flag out in time after that goofy 1st down catch by Greg Jennings off Donald Driver‘s tip, missing a chance to reverse the successful 4th down play and give his team the ball back.  Antoine Winfield rendered that moot by intercepting Aaron Rodgers two plays later.  Then, that miserable 3rd down pass play call when the Vikings just needed to keep it on the ground and run clock.  Some are suggesting that Favre freelanced there but I don’t buy it.  I think Chilly was trying to stick the knife in and…it was idiotic.  Again, Chilly was bailed out, by Sidney Rice who made two good leaping plays on off-side kick attempts, keeping the Packers from completing an improbable comeback.

8. Jared Allen and Antoine Winfield put up superstar defensive performances, but the defense overall did not perform in superstar fashion.  It got way too easy for Aaron Rodgers in those tense final minutes when it seemed the Packers might pull out a miracle.  After the Jordie Nelson 33-yard touchdown catch, you could see Winfield mouthing, “What the hell was that?”  Our safeties are okay in run support but they are not good in coverage.  Thankfully, the Packers didn’t figure out how easy it might be to pass against us until it was too late.

9.  Is it just me or do Chester Taylor and Brett Favre look like they’re pretty good buddies?  Favre is always putting his arm around Chester and they did that butt-bump that ended up knocking Chester to the ground.  Does Chester also enjoy hunting and light lawn work?

10.  I have never been so appalled by a TV announcer’s performance as I was by Jon Gruden‘s last night.  The fawning over Brett Favre passed well beyond unprofessionalism and into the realm of the surreal.  The sad thing is that the alleged old-pro announcers, Ron Jaworski and Mike Tirico, seemed to find Gruden’s slupring hilarious.  I hope someone at ESPN sits down and has a chat with Gruden, and tells him to at least feign objectivity.  Nothing during John Madden‘s long tenure as a Favre-lover came close to the display Gruden put on.

Because of this eternal connection, whenever Madden does an interview, he is going to get questions about Favre.  Like when he sat down for his first post retirement chat with Fox Sports Radio.  The big guy was asked if he thought the luster had worn off Brett, who, in case you didn’t know, recently came out of retirement and signed a contract with the Vikings.  Madden’s response:

No, not at all. I think that for some reason people think they can take ownership of someone’s life just because they’re a player or a public person, and they can make decisions for them. “He shouldn’t do this, he shouldn’t do that. He shouldn’t go back, or say that he’s going to.” You know, it’s his life. This isn’t a game. This is what he does and it’s a tough decision. The big part of it, to be honest with you, is that he’s worried about not how he’s going to be in August and in training camp or in September, but can he get through the whole season. Can he get through the sixteen games and play at the end of the season at a very high level. The Minnesota Vikings were in the playoffs last year, so they’re not bringing Brett Favre into the Vikings to win six, seven, eight games. They’re brining him in to get into the playoffs, win some playoffs and maybe get to the Super Bowl. If that’s what he wants to do, I say “hey, more power to you.”

Well, what did you expect him to say?  “I’ve always thought Brett Favre was over-rated.  Frankly, I wish he’d stayed away from football.  The league is better off without him.”

No.  This is John Madden.  Any Favre remark he makes is going to be a pro-Favre remark.  Actually, I’m shocked Madden wasn’t more effusive.  I’m amazed he didn’t drop a “Brett Favre is the greatest athlete in the history of the universe” on us.  I’m stupefied he didn’t go with the old “If I had a vagina, Brett Favre’s penis is the only penis I would allow anywhere near it” bit.

He must be slipping.