Brett Favre talks about Southern Miss Career

picking it out my maybe my most favorite year was the year we beat Alabama and Alburn and had Georgia on the ropes and we lost 17 I think it was 17 to or like we lost by two points we kicked the field goal at the end of the game a Chip Shot our guy hit the crossbar oh man we almost beat Alabama Auburn and Georgia in the same year now who can say that not many people I I off top of my head I don't know if it's been done may not have been so that's you know we we had some pretty good pretty good teams back then they were largely made up of Alabama guys all right what year was that 87 through 90 so 90 so Jean Stallings was at Alabama at that time yeah that was just his opening game oh man you know that that's an interesting season so that was my senior year I started as a true freshman I didn't R shirt had a had a pretty good year as a true freshman I was as raw as you could ever get um my dad was my high school football coach and it's been well documented we ran the wishbone you you ask any younger generation kid today you start talking about the wishbone he'll look at your crossided like what is that but but we ran the football we ran the option we threw it maybe two or three times a game if that so when I got to Southern Miss and became the starter we we opened the season in 87 I'm 17 years old we open in alab at Al Alabama Ray Perkins is the coach they had Derek Thomas rushing off one end so you can imagine the atmosphere in that Stadium um and I think we played them in Birmingham uh I think and um I'm the third string quarterback and there were every time I was a backup quarterback which thankfully wasn't that often but the few times that it was I wanted to play I and you know I mean this may sound bad but in a in a weird kind of way I pulled for the the starting quarterback as I pulled for the team to win but I also like when he got tackled I would be like don't get up don't get up because I wanted an opportunity yeah um that game I remember vividly thinking to myself get back up I'll wait till next week because they were bringing it man I mean they were that was like a pro team playing a junior high team I mean they were killing us so I was like maybe next week and lo and behold we played two lane the following week um first guy struggled strling we're we're down 173 at halftime the second guy he's struggling so the head coach looks at me and he said I was a backup punter by the way and the the head coach grabs me at halftime and says get ready you're going in so tells you how where my head was at 17 I thought I was going in to punt I'm like I'm over there stretching my right leg well I didn't go in punt I went in the quarterback and I had no reps as a starting quarterback you know in practice I didn't get any reps god um and I was taking nine step drops on on pass plays that were three-step drop plays I was rolling out when it was a pocket pass I mean I was doing everything wrong and yet I threw two touchdowns and we came back we won and rest was history uh but uh yeah we played Alabama we lost 30 something I think three the first game beat two lane and the rest was history but we beat Alabama in Auburn my senior year after I had a car wreck and I the interesting thing about that story is July 14th before the my senior year I was in a bad car wreck I had uh um bad internal injuries I fractured a vertebrae in my back this is July 4 14th and we're playing Alabama I think it was September 8th and we had a game before that we were playing like uh Delta State or something so July 14th I had the wreck I'm in the hospital for 7 days no surgeries had a bunch of stitches and bad bruises and stuff like that and they said you you know you're free to go after a week but I felt awful I couldn't eat had no appetite uh I was one I was 236 the day I had the wreck I was in the best shape of my life when I walked out of the hospital I was about 2:20 I was home for about 5 days and then me and my wife we we W married at the time we came up to college she was taking summer school classes and I was staying with her in her apartment again I had no appetite I I would try to eat and couldn't get anything down well eventually I started throwing up um this was so July 14th uh August 7th I go back in the hospital and they run some tests I mean within an hour they said we got to do emergency surgery and called my parents in and uh I mean it was like bang bang bang they had discovered that 36 Ines of my intestines had died yeah and and it took from the time of the wreck till then for it to kind of materialize if that makes sense you know it was I don't want to say it was undiscover discoverable in the first week but as uh as I I digressed you know my intestines just basically were rotting so they went in and did emergency surgery cut my stomach open pulled out 36 inches of intestines the doctor took a a Polaroid picture of what he took out and it looked like a boa constrict that had died a week ago that had been beaten with a bat till till it was purple till it was unrecognizable that's what it looked like so he sews me up and he's first thing I say to him when I come to was can I play football this year and he said now you he said good thing you got a red shirt year our head coach Curley hman was in the room too he Curley was like hey don't worry about football you gotta so when I walked out a week later uh from the hospital I was 193 lbs really hadn't eaten since July 14 and I was and I was hunched over because my back was still in bad shape and uh and to this day I can't believe it but I ended up starting September 8th against Alabama and was uh was about 38 lbs lighter than than when I was when I had the wreck and was went from the best shape of my life to really in no shape at that point and the great thing about that story is the first play of the game Jean stalling well let me back up so I get a phone call after the surgery about the third day after in in recovery I'm sitting up in the bed you know I'm starting to kind of make a comeback and my mom or my dad or Dean my wife I can't remember which one the phone rings in the hospital room and they they say and I you know I got the the the flicker for pain medication I'm in and out so it's the head coach of Alabama and I'm like really so he gets on the phone he's like oh Brett I just want you to know I'm pulling for you I hope every and I said when we hung up they said who was it I said it was Bear Bryant he sounded just like Bear Bryant and I was kind of La La Land uh and but it I think a lot of Stallings to this day for him calling in um but we ended up playing him September 8th the first play of the game we run a little pass play and I complete a little hitch out to the flat and I get hit right in the ball balls I mean and you know a good hit in the balls will stop you dead in your tracks I fall down and I'm doubled over so our trainer doc Harring comes running out he's thinking stitches or the stomach busted open I knew he shouldn't have he came back too soon I mean what are we thinking putting him in the game he comes out there oh my God what is it I said I got hit in the balls and he said oh good I go not good good we end up winning a game I didn't play all that great but maybe I inspired the players and uh the rest is history