It’s time to retire, Brett…

The NFL off-season. Those are words that any hardcore NFL fan dread to hear. Other than the draft and a few good weeks of free agent talk, the rest is filled with a lot of nothing, mostly filler stories and rumors that almost make that time tolerable, almost. And until training camp gets close, there generally isn’t much news involving individual teams, and if there is, it’s usually bad news, arrests and the like. That is unless you need to hear about mandatory workouts and when your new rookies and free agents start practicing; fantasy draft preparation starts early, you got to get your team ready, I get it. That is until Brett Favre decides he hasn’t heard about himself in the news lately. Brett Favre’s annual retirement talk starts and believe me the football world eats it up. Will he play this season? Will it be his last season? Will he come back next year? What is Brett Favre going to do next? And again the world waits in numb anticipation.

A little more than a decade ago, Brett Favre was the best quarterback in the NFL. He almost never lost at home and especially not on Monday night. If gambling were legal, I would have been a wealthy man, betting on Favre and the Packers to win. It was like he had ice in his veins, always came through in the clutch with the game on the line. He played hurt and he was a great leader for his team. Packer fans loved him and worshiped him equally, placing him on the highest pedestal. His status as a legend, particularly in Green Bay, Wisconsin was established and his Hall of Fame pass waiting to be stamped. Fast forward to his bitter-ending with the Packers and stints with two teams in two years and that guarantee of legend seems to fade with each season of contemplating retirement and refusing to let go. How the football world views him, has certainly diminished. Packer fans, in particular, have to be extremely bitter, since he should have retired as a Packer and then soon after goes to a long-time division rival, beating them on both occasions last season. I would have been ok with the choice of team had he acknowledged his long-time Packer fans, who as I stated earlier, treated him as a demi-god. But he didn’t. And that makes me mad and I am not even a Green Bay fan, so I can only image how they feel. Like a bitter divorce, only to pour salt in the wounds, simply one party saying to the other that the relationship meant nothing and that they had cheated the entire time. Betrayed is the only thought I have of the situation, like shades of Roger Clemens with the Boston Red Sox.

Lets dive into the Brett Favre retirement timeline a little further. Since 2006, Brett Favre has hinted at retirement. For the next two years he thought about retiring and then ultimately came back for one more season. Then in 2008, three months after a crushing defeat in the NFC championship to the Giants at Lambeau Field, decides that it is finally time to retire, stating he hasn’t got “anything left to give.” Later in the off-season, Favre decides he is having second thoughts and wants to play after all. Green Bay would not grant him his unconditional release, so he decides he wants to play for another team. A month later, he “unretires” and the Packers trade him to the Jets, paving the way for Aaron Rodgers to become the Packers starter. Favre becomes Jets starter, leads team to 9-7 record, but misses the playoffs. At the end of the season, he “retires” again and has surgery to repair a torn bicep. A few months later, even though contacted by a couple of teams decides to stay retired. However, two months later signs with Minnesota soon before the start of the 2009 season. After having one of his best statistical years of his career, he lost in the NFC championship to New Orleans. Now just recently he had surgery to repair his left ankle, injured in that championship game and faces four to six weeks of rehabilitation. He once again must decide whether or not he is coming back next season.

It’s now been four years of fence jumping for Favre deciding whether or not to hang ‘em up. So as you see, this started a few years ago and frankly I am tired of it. The Brett Favre retirement party committee has also had enough, they are tired of planning a huge bash that always gets canceled at the last minute. Favre recently told the Southern Mississippi baseball team that he would return to play one more season if they made it to the College World Series. So now he is pretending his return hinges on his latest proposition, something that has nothing to do with football?

Athletes are the most indecisive people on this planet, (or is Brett Favre just the extreme?) They just don’t know when to let go. It must be some type of extra DNA they have that the rest of us do not. They compete for a reason, for a purpose, for love of the game, it’s what they do, I get it. But why can they not let go? Is it the rush, like a addictive drug that you cannot get enough of? Is it the crowds of fans that cheer and chant your name, especially after a clutch play? Is it the competition, facing the best of the best every day? Believe me, I get all of that too, if I could play professional sports, I would. As a child, I wanted nothing else than to play baseball for a living. I guess letting go for an athlete is like accepting defeat, the one thing that they strive to avoid at all costs. As athlete, you want to leave the game on top, at the pinnacle of your profession, usually winning a championship, if at all possible.

Let’s not forget the media coverage of this anticipated event has also been ridiculous. Just a few years ago, Brett Favre was everywhere you looked, articles written galore. He was the topic on every sports radio and sports TV show. Everyone wanted to cover the event in some unique way. But it never happened. It started up again the following year and ended the same way, without a conclusion. Everyone wants to tell a similar tale of a legend. But is it getting to a moot point? Will media people actually care as much as they once did when this finally happens? What about the fans that still give him the benefit of a doubt? I would guess the list on both accounts is getting shorter.

So here we go again, we all must wait for Brett Favre to make a decision. Will he stay or will he go? To play or not to play, that is the question. And every other cliché you can say about it. I think it’s time to finally make up his mind. I know several people that will argue that he should be able to play as long as he wants, as long as he can still play. I say that answer is no, otherwise he would have kept the ball and ran to get a couple extra yards in the last drive in the fourth quarter of the NFC championship. He would have then called timeout, given his kicker a decent shot and probably booked a trip to Miami for the Super Bowl. But he didn’t. He forced the ball into coverage and was intercepted. Regulation ended and so did their season, as New Orleans won in overtime. That mental mistake is one he would never make, even if he is a gunslinger at heart. That to me means he is trying too hard to make the clutch play, rather than let the play come to him as he did in years past. You may say that it was just a mistake, but I see it as a sign. And actually, you can probably name a hand full of these in the past few years.

So the time has come to say goodbye. He was a great player that unfortunately can’t let go, and is tarnishing his legacy in the process. It’s a sad way to go out, but it has to be said. At least go out with dignity, Brett, make up your mind and quit teasing us. On behalf of the Brett Favre retirement party committee, let’s plan this party and get it over with.