There is so much to love about this photograph. Click to enlarge. (Getty Images)
The 2013 NFL Draft is three weeks off. But before we look ahead to an event that, through savvy marketing and an insatiable fan base, has become a spectacle unto itself, we thought it made sense to consider how things used to be.

Twenty-two years ago, Brett Favre was a 21-year-old quarterback out of the University of Southern Miss who, like a lot of players with NFL aspirations, was sitting by the phone waiting to learn his professional fate. He didn't have to wait long; Favre was taken early in the second round (33rd overall) by the Falcons.

He played in just four games as a rookie, attempting four passes and completing none. But Atlanta sent Favre to Green Bay before the 1992 season where he started the final 13 games -- and all 240 over the next 15 years for the Packers. Favre finished his career with the Jets and the Vikings before officially retiring in 2010. (We say "officially" because, as you'll see below, it happened more than once.) He'll almost certainly be a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2016.

As for the photo above, here's how Getty Images describes:

"Brett Favre talks to the Atlanta Falcons from his bedroom in Fenton, Mississippi, on NFL draft day April 21, 1991. The Green Bay Packers quarterback announced his retirement on Tuesday, March 4, 2008, after a 17-year NFL career. Favre was drafted in the second round by the Falcons, and later trade to the Packers. (Photo by Tim Isbell/Biloxi Sun Herald/MCT via Getty Images)"

We've gone through the trouble of pointing out the mundane-at-the-time-but-awesome-now highlights.

You're welcome for that and for this:

Left: Favre at Southern Miss in 1989; Right: Favre (not Chipper Jones) and Falcons coach Jerry Glanville. (Getty Images)

* Pretty sure that's not Favre's crazy uncle