Thursday, April 10, 2008

The Daily Unretirement of Brett Favre

If the Green Bay Packers are ravaged by injuries this season, retired quarterback Brett Favre said that he might consider returning should the NFL team reach out to him.
Is Brett Favre done playing football or not? Even though he announced his retirement last month, no one seems to be buying it. My feeling is that his heart just isn’t into it. Brett retired for some reason (maybe his wife wants him out of the game while his body is still intact), but you can tell that he really wants to get back in the game. The entire affair has reached ludicrous proportions. And the story is far from being over.
Now we have to listen to weekly Favre reports. He’s in. He’s out. He’s undecided. Every time another QB on another team gets hurt or holds out, we’re going to hear Brett Favre rumors. ESPN should just start a Favre Channel, with 24 hour Brett Favre news.
Here’s what you’ll get on a daily basis from the new Favre Channel:
“Brett had breakfast at Waffle House this morning. He ordered scrambled eggs, sausage and grits, but no toast. Does this means he’s coming back?”
Or…
“Brett mowed his front lawn this afternoon but did not trim his bushes. What can we surmise from this latest move?”
The person who is suffering the most here is Green Bay’s backup QB and new starter Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers has patiently waited for his turn to start and now is his time. Favre is just making it more difficult for Rodgers to assume a leadership role with his constant waffling.
My advice to Favre is to just step down. You love football. We understand that. Well, then become a coach like your father. Buy an Arena Football team. Get into broadcasting. But, stop all this indecision and speculation. You’re a Hall of Famer. You won a Super Bowl. What more do you have to prove?
If you come back, Brett, you’re risking everything—and for what? Some big defensive end is going to pancake you and break your neck and you’ll regret it. Quit while you’re ahead of the game. Just walk away.
This appeared on http://www.cbssportsline.com/ today:
Will Brett Favre come back if Aaron Rodgers gets injured?
"It would be hard to pass up, I guess," Brett Favre told the Biloxi Sun Herald yesterday. "But three months from now, say that presents itself, I may say, you know what, I'm so glad I made that decision (to retire). I feel very comfortable in what I'm doing and my decision."
But if Favre's replacement Aaron Rodgers went down with an injury?
"Aaron has fallen into a great situation," Favre said. "And if that opportunity presented itself and they did call, it would be tempting. And I very well could be enticed do it."
Favre understands the kind of challenge he would face should he opt to go back to the NFL after ending his record-setting 17-year career. And he made it clear he is not changing his mind at this time.
"But to think that if they called me in October and told me, 'Hey, we need you this week.' That would be hard," Favre said in a story that appeared on the paper's website on Tuesday. "I'm sure mentally, I would be refreshed. I'd be away from it for a long time. But mentally versus physically, the last thing I'd want to do is go up and it's 'Oh this is great' and all that stuff and me be excited and then just flop.
"You just can't show up and play."
There has been a steady flow of speculation that Favre would have a change of heart following the March 4 announcement by the league's only three-time MVP that he was retiring.
Favre said he would not return unless he was in shape.
"It would be hard to go up there at 38. It was hard to stay in shape. I say that, I worked out and I worked out hard," he said. "Week in and week out, I was just drained. Finally, for the first time, I felt, not that 38 is old, but I looked around at practice and these guys are bouncing around. And I practiced every day and all the time people would ask me ... `How do you do it? Inside I'm saying, 'I have no idea.' It's a struggle."