For Favre, retirement is a big mistake
Sometime this fall, he’ll look around the NFL and say, ‘I can play with them’
 Morry Gash / AP Brett Favre, shown here in a 2006 playoff game, is not one of those broken-down athletes who is in danger of sticking around too long. |
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In sports, there is nothing sadder than an athlete hanging on when common sense is telling him to bug off. The oft-mentioned example is Willie Mays playing a disoriented centerfield for the New York Mets, but history is chock full of such individuals.
The ego and the competitive drive form a potent cocktail in the brain, one that requires a period of adjustment and rehabilitation along with a stark reality check. Some guys just don’t get the hint.
But a close second on the sad-o-meter is the athlete who bows out too soon. The same fuel that keeps the foot-dragger from admitting the obvious and exiting is also present in the early retiree. And that’s the problem. The gremlin in the brain will torment him endlessly with reminders that he could still play at a high level.
Alas, today Brett Favre has created a slew of new inner demons and has declared to them, “Let the second-guessing begin!”
On Tuesday, it was announced that Favre has decided to retire after 17 NFL seasons, three Most Valuable Player awards, 61,665 yards, 442 career touchdowns and one Super Bowl ring.
That’s not quite enough. It’s never enough for a player like Brett Favre.
The reason he offered for this decision is that he’s tired. Mentally spent. At this moment in time, he just doesn’t have the get-up-and-go to endure the physical, mental and emotional tolls of another long, long season. And I can understand that completely. Sometimes that second wind you’re waiting on never arrives.
But a month from now, three months from now, five months from now, the itch will probably develop. He’ll be at home, in the bosom of his family, enjoying life after football, but he’ll feel that tinge of regret, which might grow into a pang.
It won’t necessarily happen while watching Aaron Rodgers try to carry on a legacy of excellence that Favre created in Green Bay. But it might. More likely, he’ll look around the league, at Tony Romo, at Philip Rivers, at former understudy Matt Hasselbeck, even at Tom Brady and Peyton and Eli Manning, and he’ll say to himself, “I can play with them.”
It would be different if he couldn’t. If he truly didn’t have it anymore, he could walk away clean.
But he does. And he can’t.
His final game was a flop. The New York Giants weren’t supposed to go into Lambeau Field for the NFC title game and win, but they did. Favre was supposed to be the smiling butcher inside the Wisconsin meat locker. The Giants were supposed to be the hanging sides of beef. It didn’t happen that way. Precocious Eli Manning upstaged the main attraction in wind-chill temperatures near 23 below.
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The final pass of your career was an interception, Brett? And you’re O.K. with that?
Bus Cook, Favre’s agent, told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen that the Packers didn’t exactly try to talk their quarterback out of retirement. Said Cook: “I talked to Brett this morning and I told him, ‘Nobody forced you to make this decision to retire, but the flip side is nobody encouraged you to play.’ ”
That may be true. Favre may have detected some dissatisfaction within the organization—an urge to move on—which may have contributed to his decision. Relationships don’t last forever, be they romantic, familial or business. In Favre’s case, they were all three.
But after all these years, Favre knows a little bit about leverage. He’s an icon. If he wanted to return, the franchise would have had to acquiesce. In the past, I was of the opinion that Favre should have packed up long ago. But after the marvelous 2007 season, when the Packers returned to prominence and Favre was again among the best quarterbacks in the world, I think a return with determination to win the Super Bowl would have been the proper course of action.
And yes, maybe the fact that Favre coveted Randy Moss, but Moss had eyes only for New England, may have depressed him. Yet there are other offensive upgrades out there.
What stands out about Favre more than anything – more than the stubble, the drawl, the bazooka of an arm, the jeans commercials, the insatiable competitiveness – is that he wears his heart on his jersey. It is right there, indelible, amid the green and gold, right under the No. 4.
Playing quarterback in the NFL requires superb managerial skills. It is a look-and-recognize endeavor that is nourished by film work, practice, coaching, meetings and cold assessments. But the best practitioners also bring an emotional component to it.
Brett Favre might be the most emotional quarterback to ever play the game.
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Perhaps his emotions got the best of him here. Maybe he dwelled too long on the march through the 2007 campaign and was pummeled by the sudden, disappointing end. Emotions can low-bridge a quarterback just as easily as they can stiffen him for a challenge.
So it could be that Favre may reconsider. He could decide he made a mistake and that second wind arrived after all, albeit a little late. That’s what he should do, whether it means returning to the Packers or finding some other team that could use an elite quarterback.
He’s 38. Once the years are gone, it’s impossible to get them back. Once an athlete steps away, it gets harder and harder to return, and the playing days become a distant memory.
That’s when what might have been becomes what will never be. And that’s too bad.
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