JT the Brick

"The Summer of Favre" ranks as one of the best off-season sports discussions of the past 20 years and we aren't even close to closing down this circus. I've covered this story from every single angle since the New York Giants eliminated Favre from the NFC Championship. I was the first sports talk host to go on the record (five minutes after his original retirement announcement) and state that he would play again.

I have covered too many athletes who tried to walk away from the game, but never could because of their massive egos and love of their particular sport. How could Brett Favre retire after throwing an interception in overtime of the NFC Championship game that ended up costing his team a trip to the Super Bowl?

The entire off-season has scripted worse than a daytime soap opera on the verge of cancelation. If you believe Favre when he says that he was forced to retire early, then you will believe anything that comes out of his mouth in the coming months.

He is his own man and he cried like a baby during his retirement announcement at Lambeau Field. With his wife by his side, Favre talked about "still being able to play", but decided to retire because he was done emotionally and had nothing left to prove. He said, “I know I can play, but I don’t think I want to.” You could tell during that press conference that Favre was burned out. It seemed like he needed to get away from the media spotlight that surrounded him since the championship game loss, but wanted to go through with the announcement and get on with his life.

Fast forward to a trip to New York City to sit down with David Letterman on April 24, where Favre seemed rested and comfortable while promoting the video game MADDEN 2009. During the interview he stated, “Something is bound to happen” as the studio audience applauded.

After that appearance Favre began to enjoy the constant coverage when it came to speculation on his future, and he didn't seem to shy away from all the media coverage. Last month at the ESPY awards in Hollywood, Favre looked comfortable sitting in the front row at the Nokia Theatre.

The problem for Favre is that Packers president Mark Murphy, general manager Ted Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy seemed sold on moving forward with Aaron Rodgers as the starter for this upcoming season.

Some insiders believed that McCarthy and Thompson were willing to go to Favre's home one more time to find out if he was serious about returning to Green Bay, but Favre resisted because he couldn't make up his mind while the clock was ticking. Favre doesn’t agree with that bogus rumor and continues to state that he always wanted to return as the starting quarterback in Green Bay once he decided that he wanted to play again.

The Packers finally circled the wagons and agreed that Favre could no longer stall for more time so they put their collective feet down and forced him to make the difficult decision to return to Green Bay as a backup. Favre and his agent Jim “Bus” Cook lost their leverage in this game of high stakes poker when Thompson and Murphy continued to go to the media with their decision to stick with Rodgers as the starter. They left the door open for Favre to return with his tail between his legs and go to training camp and take his medicine like a man, but Favre was too proud to let this happen without a fight.

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