Back in March, when I watched Favre’s
emotional retirement speech on Espn.com, I, like most Packer fans, got a little choked up. Who am I kidding? I cried for real. And not just the first time I watched
it. The second and third time too. Favre just seemed so naked up there. You could tell he was a little lost and was only
beginning to get a grip on the finality of what he’d decided as he was saying all those past tense verbs in front of everybody. All those teary-eyed looks up to heaven, all those strangled sobs, all those recoveries: It was sort of perfect. Improvisational, gut-wrenching, but ultimately passionate and kind of beautiful to watch. Just what you expect from Favre.
And now, four months later, we gotta deal with this bullshit?
I don’t want Favre to come back. If I thought he could lead us to a Super Bowl this year, I would say do it, whatever it takes. But I don't think he's got it in him anymore. Here's how I see 2008 ending up if Favre is miraculously allowed to quarterback the Packers: we go 11-5, get into the playoffs again and once again, he screws the pooch at the critical moment. I feel there's a 80-90% chance of this happening and, I'm sorry, but I don't want it. Will Rodgers be any better? No idea. But after 10 years of post-season heartbreak, I’ll take my chances. Maybe this is idiotic, but I look at what Eli did last year, and what Ben Roethlisberger did a couple years ago, and I think: why not A-Rodge? It probably won’t happen this year, but it might happen in the next couple. Though it definitely won’t happen if Rodgers is asked to wait, (which looks very unlikely) and decides it's time to split.
We all know Favre loves taking risks. But if he insists on un-retiring, it’ll be the stupidest bet he’s ever made. Yeah, there is a very very slim chance he'll wheedle the Packers back into taking him and Rodgers will wait patiently one more year, and Favre will make up for missed training time quickly and return in a blaze of glory and play like 1996 in the playoffs and beat the Colts or Patriots in the Super Bowl with consistently smart play and make us all forget the hassle it took to get there. But it's much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, more likely crappy, unfulfilling things will happen, like:
He'll be allowed to return as a starter for GB under a cloud of resentment, scare off Rodgers, and fail in the playoffs. Or he'll just plain stink this year, and we don’t even make the playoffs. Or he'll be just okay and a QB controversy starts up and Favre'll get petulant when he's pulled and his team-player image will get even more tarnished. Or, much more likely than these scenarios, he'll get traded to another team where he has no chemistry with the new offense and just plain stink. Or he'll mesh with said team, make a charge in the playoffs, and blow it in the playoffs again, and then feel torn again about returning, again, and further annoy the football world. And if this other team is the Vikings or the Bears, no matter how well he does, he's inviting GB fans at Packers/Bears/Vikings games to, if not boo him--we wouldn't do that, would we?-- suffer a painful and worthless existential crisis over how to deal with him. Didn't he say it wouldn't be worth it to come back unless he won a championship this year?
The whole thing is just lame and I feel it's going to get lamer. Hopefully Favre takes to heart Peter King’s online intervention and finds it in himself to take the wider, broader view, cut his losses, and stay retired. But as we already know, taking the wide view isn't always his strong suit:
P.S. Thanks, Pat's friend, whoever you are, for making this photo available to Pat, and to me, via Pat. It's a little slice of insight and heartbreak.
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