What kind of night was Monday at Lambeau Field? By the measure of the National Football League record books, it was extraordinary.

Brett Favre's streak of consecutive starts is like a statistical rocket launch to outer space. While most NFL quarterbacks hope to reach the moon, Favre is zooming past Pluto.

But for barefoot Brett from Kiln, Miss., it was just ordinary. Not that much different from the previous 199 times he raced out of that tunnel wearing the green and gold. Another chance to have fun playing football. Throwing touchdowns. Leading the men.

Nobody in their right mind thinks of setting records like this. And it's doubtful that Favre cared much about the actual record when he passed it several years ago. Yet to get such a record, there has to be a singular desire from week to week that burns as hot as a welder's torch.

If it is Sunday, you will play. Period.

Personally, I don't think enough was made of Monday night's milestone. Sure, it was chatted up on sportstalk radio Monday and Tuesday. But that was pretty much it. The immutability of Favre under center, rendered his own big moment largely ho-hum.

I actually heard some people on radio debating whether Ripken's takedown of Lou Gehrig was more or less impressive than Favre's ongoing historical opus. Yes, debating. Like there was even a question. Please.

Favre has basically doubled the previous mark. Ripken had about 1,600 more games to go if he wanted to do the same. During Ripken's assault on the record, there were long stretches where people openly and rightfully wondered whether his poor play merited a benching. Favre, never had a losing season, and even at his lowest point, was still a 57 percent passer with 22 TDs against 23 INTs.

Plus, I don't recall Ripken ever playing with a broken thumb.

While the rest of the country might have only taken passing notice of this night, I hope that Packers fans -- both young and old -- savored it like it was their last night out before the electric chair. I hope that Packers fans know this could all end at any moment. I hope they realize a 12-plus year rule of a singular quarterback with Hall of Fame guts will never happen again anywhere in the NFL, much less in Green Bay a second time. I pray that what has become ordinary for you, is still a wonderment for guys like me in other NFL cities.

You see, what Brett Favre has given Packers fans, is what a good father gives to his children -- a carefree childhood. An upbringing devoid of worry, lighthearted and seemingly endless.

As a Packers fan, you haven't had a real live quarterback debate since the first Gulf War. Of all your concerns for your team, this hasn't been one of them. I remember when there was great hyperventilating over "who will replace Sterling Sharpe!?"

Well, Sharpe begat Robert Brooks, who begat Antonio Freeman, who begat Donald Driver, who begat Javon Walker. And there will be others. Same thing too from whence the loss of Edgar Bennett once upon a time surely meant dark days ahead for the Pack. Until Dorsey Levens happened. And then Ahman Green happened.

Favre has been the everlasting constant in the equation, and for many young Packers fans, the only quarterback they have ever known. If you are 18-years-old or younger, you don't know where the Packers begin, or Favre ends. The two are one.

Someday, many years from now, you'll sit a grandkid on your knee and tell old Packers stories from the Brett Favre era. You'll describe heroic feats and brilliant comebacks -- all led by a player who the master talent scout himself, Ron Wolf, only envisioned as a Jim Harbaugh 2.0. Not a living legend.

Why didn't Wolf have higher hopes for a guy he traded a No. 1 pick for in the first place? Well, what did you want him to do? Say that his project player with a drinking problem from a mid-major program would someday start 200 games in a row and win three league MVPs and a Super Bowl?

You would have sent Wolf to the funny farm or laughed him out of town.

Here's a better question to ask. Knowing what Favre has done so far, what would other NFL teams have been willing to trade to get him? A first and second round pick -- every year for 10 years?

It is too bad that a guy like John Madden taints the pool of goodwill toward Favre by his incessant and often embarrassing adulation of the player. Seventy percent of the time, such lavish praise is justified, the rest is gratuitous.

There have been crushing defeats and boneheaded moments. He's been extremely human both on and off the field. So many times a backhanded Favre flip to a waiting running back has produced a big gain out of a sure sack. Or resulted in an interception. Such has always been the acknowledged equation with the riverboat gambler.

But would you trade any of it? Would you forfeit the decade-long security blanket he has given your team at quarterback, for anything else? What's the worst you can say about Brett Favre the leader, the orchestra conductor, the hero and the gunslinger?

That he took too many chances? That he battled painkiller addiction and alcoholism?

I mean honestly, what is the biggest knock on him? He never agitated to get out of Green Bay to play in a "larger market." Money in contract negotiations was never the first and last thing on his mind. And when the team had stretches where the receiving corps was clearly sub-standard, he never went public to blast management for not surrounding him with more weapons.

Favre has been the magnetic "true north" on the Packers franchise compass for a dozen years. And the players and coaches all oriented themselves around this fact without bitterness or jealousy.

Some people will no doubt file this column as well, into the much lampooned "Cult of Favre" category. Whatever. Nobody here said he was perfect, or even the best quarterback in NFL history.

Only that he has been, and still is, remarkable and brilliant as an athlete. And there is certainly no shame in taking pause, to appreciate that.