Tom E. Curran • E-mail

Could Brett Favre be the most selfish athlete in NFL history?

The hand-wringing about whether to quit or keep playing that held the Packers hostage for years.

The bitter 2008 season with the Jets, all about him trying to make the Packers look bad for slamming the door on his butt when he finally left.

Even the record number of interceptions — the dozens of “let’s see if I can fit it in there” throws that had no business being conceived — is there any better evidence of his disregard for his team than those?

Just selfish. Selfish to the point where all those naïve hero-worshippers up in Wisconsin, the ones with No. 4 tattoos and the 12-year-old sons and daughters named “Brett?” The ones who rise up as a mindless mass when anyone dare wonder what the hell is wrong with Brett Favre? The ones who would gladly give up five years of life in exchange for five minutes of personal time with Brett Favre? They don’t matter to him.

In fact, he’s coming to ruin their football season; how do you like that? He’s going to take the two things those beautiful, simple people love — Packers football and Brett Favre’s legacy — and set fire to them right out there on Lombardi Ave.

He will become a Minnesota Viking solely to stick it to Packers GM Ted Thompson, the man who finally indicated he’d had enough of the selfishness and ushered Favre into retirement a year ago.

Captain Ahab had his white whale, Moby Dick, who he pursued at the peril of his men. Favre’s got his white-haired personnel boss, and he’ll tether himself to the Vikings in order to get his shot at revenge. It didn’t end pretty for the wooden-legged sea captain. It won’t end pretty for the sore-shouldered quarterback.

Or. Or. There is an “or” in this.

Could Brett Favre be the only superstar who ever figured it out? Figured out that it’s a game and that the millions of dollars, the twisted and adoring fans, the cluck-clucking columnists, the stern-faced ESPN commentators...are really only adornments?

That it just doesn’t matter what the neighbors think because it’s...(cover your ears) only football. That he’s noticed that the game consists of finding the guy holding the brown ball and knocking him on the ground before he runs too far? That this talk of “harming a legacy” isn’t about him but about us?

Favre joins Vikings AP file   Video: Vikings are ‘the perfect fit,’ Favre says   Video: ‘I didn’t want to say ‘What if’ ’ Curran: Win-win for Favre and Vikings Celizic: Worst flip-flopper in sports history Newsweek: Let's give Favre a break Live vote: How will Vikings do with Favre Live vote: Does this hurt Favre's legacy? Packers not shocked by Favre's move   Slide show: Tracking QBs who couldn't quit Timeline of Favre's career  |    Slide show Fantasy impact: Favre not a huge get Vote: Top star in Minnesota sports history?

We’ve arrived at our own definition of what a “great career” is supposed to look like and woe be to Brett if he wants to color outside the lines of that. Where does he get the idea that he can’t be constrained by a “what will the neighbors think” cage the way we all are? Where does he get off treating the NFL like it’s beer league softball and he can just grab his glove out of the garage and head to the field and get in a game because he feels like it?

Are we all a little ticked off at him because we’ve let it get out of whack? Because we’ve hatched an emotional attachment with either the player or the mythology of the game that he takes a sledgehammer to by doing whatever he damn well pleases whenever he damn well wants? 

Are we a little embarrassed that we welled-up at his retirement press conference (2008 edition) only to have him lampoon that emotion by coming back all smiles months — months — later?

Is it an affront to our sense of “the way things work” that this guy with a wife and a couple of kids can choose between golf, throwing a football, golf or getting paid millions not to throw a football while we live in silent fear of the A) pink slip B) enlarged prostate C) high cholesterol D) kid who won’t listen for a freakin’ second or E) myriad of other tragedies best not explored in a sports column.

Maybe it isn’t “either, or”. Maybe it’s both. Maybe Brett Favre is unfathomably selfish and a man who only loves his teammates, the fans and the game because of what THEY give to HIM. But maybe the reason he can act with such cartoonish detachment when he goes back on words he burbled in teary press conferences is because, really, what’s the big deal?

He’s playing quarterback in the NFL at an advanced age for all the wrong reasons. It’s not like he’s performing brain surgery drunk just to see if he can do it.

If he implicitly agrees to take the lampooning and harpooning he’ll get for coming back to the NFL again, then maybe we can meet him halfway and ask ourselves, “Who’s it really hurting?”

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