Gone Too Favre
Legend. MVP. All-Star. Disgraced Hero. Nutcase. Egomaniac. Warrior.
He’ll always be a Packer. Except for that year with the Jets. And maybe next, he’ll be a Minnesota Viking.
It’s one thing to want to play football. To want another shot at the Super Bowl. To want to extend quarterback records that will go long unbroken in the NFL.
To play for the love of the game was the motivation of Brett Favre throughout his career.
Now, if the sports-news pimps of ESPN have it right, Favre has a new reason for pretending to retire from the Jets. You can take all of the rational reasons aforementioned and simply strike a line through them. This time, Brett wants revenge against the Green Bay Packers, and no one is pretending it’s anything else.
The NFL, far from censoring Favre’s manipulative antics, will be certain to endorse them. Favre promises drama both on and off the field. Finally, the NFL can compete with professional wrestling. It wouldn’t surprise me if Brett Favre picked up a folding chair and smacked a referee in the head.
I’m a fan of Brett Favre, and have been since he began his career with the Green Bay Packers. When the Packers management didn’t welcome him back with open arms after a “retirement” announcement that was obviously premature – I took Brett’s side. Surely, a living legend who had brought so much glory to an independent, small-town NFL team, deserved leeway.
Now, I consider the plight of the New York Jets and their fans. Surely, a rebuilding team that gave so much opportunity to Brett Favre, deserved better than this. One year. A token marriage, never meant to last, a ceremony perfromed as a stepping stone. In short…a sham.
I still believe that this bitter, and unfortunate closing chapter of Favre’s career could have been avoided. Yet, the question of Favre’s retirement had loomed over Packerdom for years before it actually happened. Favre himself was the author of the annual ritual, casting comments into the media as carelessly as a hurled football on third-and-long.
Favre’s courtship with the Minnesota Vikings is not the act of a rational mind. The Vikings, should they accept this wounded warhorse into their ranks, won’t be going easy on him. They will demand not just the Brett Favre who had a few good games with the Jets; but the Brett Favre who was a three-time MVP. The Vikings are not a desperate team in need of a shot in the arm. If they choose to work with Favre, their expectations will be high.
High enough, that Favre is likely to further injure himself in the effort of living up to it all.
The AFC went relatively easy on Favre. I doubt the NFC central division – particularily the Bears and the now-inflamed Packers – will be so charitable. The war of words has now escalated into a tab that may be too high for Favre’s body to pay.
Furthermore, Karma does not smile on revenge. If this is Favre’s primary reason for staying in the game, he’s disgracing his own sportsmanship, and perhaps, nearing 40, he’s tempting fate.
But Favre cannot simply retire. He cannot willingly leave that field behind. I’m wondering if he really wants one more Super Bowl win, or if he wants to play football until he’s carried off the field in a stretcher. Only in the latter case, could he retire without self-debate. The decision, under such circumstances, would be out of his hands.
If Favre becomes a Minnesota Viking, he may have the chance to rub the Packer’s nose in it – twice – before he retires for good. But retirement will still come. What is one year, two at most, with Minnesota, and one year with the Jets, against a career spent with the Packers?
Revenge is expensive, Brett. Even if you’re willing to pay the price for it, should it be the last chapter in your storied career?
Once upon a time, in the frozen tundra of Green Bay, a wild, reckless kid from the bayou put on a green-and-gold uniform….
