This is our American stories.

Much of what's known about legendary NFL quarterback Brett Farve has been kept between the goalposts.

But our own Greg Hangler took a drive three hours south to Hattiesburg, Mississippi,

we broadcast from here in Oxford.

To learn the rest of the story, as we do so often here at our American stories,

are Brett's life.

And what we've come up with is a five-part series about a lot of things.

This one has to do with the day.

On December 22, 2003, the day after his father's fatal heart attack, and his father's name was Irvin,

Brett Farve played in a must-win Monday night football game against the Oakland Raiders.

Farve dealt with the grief in the best way he could imagine.

He played his heavy heart out.

Here again is Brett Farv with part three of our five-part series.

That game, of all the games I played, I played in 321 games, played in two Super Bowls.

By far, not even close, the most pressure and the most nervous I've ever been was in the Oakland game.

And it wasn't, it had nothing to do about will I or will I not play as people were

thinking, leading up understandably so, I mean, do you think he'll play?

I knew I was going to play, but I was so afraid that I wouldn't play.

I wanted to honor my dad by playing

the lights frigging out I didn't want to just play even though I would have gotten a

free pass so you play we win he played crappy people said what do you expect

can't even believe he played I didn't want I didn't want to even go down that road.

...