Green Bay Packer fans finally had something to cheer about Sunday.
No, it wasn't the Packers' 31-3 drubbing of the lowly Cleveland Browns.
It was the fact that the Minnesota Vikings and their quarterback, Brett Favre, were finally handed their first loss of the season.
Not that Packers fans wouldn't normally be happy about seeing their arch rivals in the NFC North suffer a defeat, but this year is different.
For fans of the Vikings and Packers, the 2009-10 season has become like an NFL bizarro world.
Favre, the longtime superstar for the Packers, has taken over quarterbacking the Vikings, with impressive results.
This has predictably steamed Packer fans.
It's sort of like the Vikings stole the Packers' high school girlfriend and took her to prom, where they were voted king and queen and danced the night away cheek to cheek. Meanwhile, the old boyfriend (that would be the Packers) sits in the corner and stews with his last-second replacement date who isn't scheduled to get her braces removed for a couple more weeks.
It's amazing, the drastic change that has occured. Everything that Packer fans loved about Favre for his 16 seasons in Green Bay, they now hate.
Whenever Favre would throw a touchdown pass, crack a joke in the huddle or slap an official on the butt, Packer fans would giggle like little school girls.
He just loves to play the game, they would say. He's just like a kid in a Pop Warner league out there having fun.
Conversely, many Viking fans were completely fed up with how the Green Bay fans and especially the media fawned over Favre and how John Madden did everything short of proposing to him on NFL broadcasts.
Well, now the shoe is on the other foot.
Minnesota fans rave about how brilliant of a quarterback he is and slap each other high fives when he races down the field to block a behemoth defensive player. And now Packer fans can't stand the guy. They'll tell you he's a waffling, overexposed prima donna and a traitor. Well, Packer fans rarely use words with more than one syllable, but you get the idea.
I have to admit, I've done a 180-degree turn on Favre as well. But not just since he became a Viking. In his early years with the Packers, I viewed him as a sworn enemy. We were like Hatfields vs. McCoys or Burr vs. Hamilton, just with more teeth and fewer firearms.
But as we both grew older I became less annoyed and more envious of Favre. He really was just a like a kid out there. Man, that looked like a lot of fun, running around and chucking touchdowns and chest-bumping wide receivers half his age.
And as if that wasn't enough, Favre has now made it cool to be a silver fox. The ladies love it, which is good news for those of us who are getting a little gray, no matter what football team we cheer for.
(Chris Bieri is a sportswriter for the Minot Daily News. He can be reached at cbieri@minotdailynews.com)