The line has been draw in the snow. The marriage is broken. The dishes have been divided, the CDs painfully argued over, the furniture sold off, the cars assigned and custody granted. What had been for years one of the most inspirational hookups in sport has disintegrated into a bickering feud between the jilted lover and the one who won’t return phone calls. The only thing missing is Brett Favre sitting alone in his room, eating a pint of Cherry Garcia while listening to Avril Levine make a hard press for Ted Thompson’s affections. It was a breakup that never should have happened.
Favre’s time in Green Bay had come to an end. After waffling about retirement for three years and after putting together two of the worst seasons of his career (2005 and 2006) in which he handed out nine more interceptions than touchdowns, the time had come for the franchise’s greatest player to move on to a life of hawking comfortable outerwear, heartburn treatment tablets and Pagrus auratus riding mowers. Unfortunately, ego and stupidity on both sides have made it impossible for an amicable split.
The Packers were correct in giving Favre an ultimatum. With Aaron Rogers just eating cap space on the bench, it was time for the team to find out if its 2005 draft pick is capable of taking over the team or if he’s going to join the long line of post-super star busts at the quarterback position. Favre, for all he has done for the team and the game, deserves to go out on his own terms, and any concerns about his legacy are really no one’s business but his own. So with both sides being right, how did everything go so wrong?
If Favre, as he recalled during his interview with Packers’ share holder, Greta Van Sustren, did in fact speak to the team about a possible return on June 20, he sure didn’t give the team much time to determine what it would do with a roster that would have been bloated with four quarterbacks upon his return. During the 20-minute interview in which he played the standard semi-victim whose magnanimous gestures to his former club bordered on the angelic, Favre still found time to slam Thompson and tossed the entire franchise under the proverbial sausage truck thereby burning any bridge that may have remained.
While “The Pack is Back” bumper stickers had been a Wisconsin staple for 20 years, it wasn’t until the former Falcon party boy arrived that the annual prediction begin to have any merit. More than just winning a title, Favre resurrected a team and turned a backwater franchise into a major NFL player. The Packers should have realized that anything but the most lavish send off and post retirement hand holding would make the team appear ungrateful and cheap. Filing a complaint with the league charging the Vikings with tampering after Favre had a get together with old buddy Darrell Bevell, who also happens to be Minnesota’s offensive coordinator, did nothing to smooth the rough edges.
Had both sides decided to bury the animosity and the determination to prove whose is bigger, the next step in Favre’s professional career may have already been decided.
Though the QB and his agent say the first play begins with Green Bay — a statement designed to further implicate the Packers as the bad guys — the true first move involves Favre applying for reinstatement. Until he is no longer “retired” there is little anyone can do. Until then he is the Packers’ property and he can’t “legally” discuss options with anyone else.
There is no way the Packers can just release Favre and risk him signing with another NFC Central team. For all the mileage on his tires, Favre still has value and the NFL is not in the business of giving away valuable merchandise. Which means the only alternative is a trade — preferably out of the NFC, but definitely one that would keep him out of the Central. Easy enough except that the best fits for Favre are teams within the conference.
If the Mississippi-native really wants to play, he needs to forget any shot of playing deep into the playoffs and that’s a major problem. Favre wants to win and any team with a real shot is set with either an established veteran with more upside than Favre or a youngster in whom they have entrusted the keys. Favre will stay retired rather than go to Buffalo or to the Jets which means the only real way for both sides to save face and to squeeze even the smallest benefit from the deal is to give the Panthers a call.
Carolina is a perennial top NFC pick with a quarterback who is trying to return after missing 13 games last season following Tommy John surgery. Unlike Chicago or Minnesota, whom the Packers will face twice, Carolina appears only once on the schedule and not until week 12 and in Green Bay. That should give Rogers enough time to adjust to his new role and provide both Favre and the Packers with valuable PR as Lambeau welcomes back its beloved son. The only problem is how to sell this idea to Carolina.
The single word opening doesn’t make for much of a lead, but does provide a fitting one-word description of the Badger State’s favorite adopted son.
Amazing was the toughness and the arm that could still dominate a game after 17 years of punishment.
Amazing was the creativity and the confidence.
Amazing were the throws he made and the ones he should have never considered.
Most amazing was the joy with which he played the game. Every athlete in every arena, rink, stadium or field swears to the joy of competition, but few show it as readily or convincingly as Brett Favre.
Tiger Woods seems to play 18 angry holes while Payton Manning goes about his job with the apparent excitement of an accountant at tax time. Not Favre. Though slower of foot and topped with a head gone gray, he still refused to act his age on the field or cease pulling pranks on his teammates. Sneaking up on teammates and pinching them under the arm seems to have been a particular favorite. Just as the shovel passes, last-second comebacks and impossible throws are burned into the collective memory of NFL fans, so is his fist pumping sprints across field, the hugs, the high fives and the snowballs tossed in jest at teammates and officials. Not to mention the live, on-air goosing of Terry Bradshaw following the 1996 NFC title game and the hoisting of Greg Jennings following the pass that broke Dan Marino’s touchdown record. Without knowing the context of the play, one could safely assume it was Jennings who had set a record.
While NFL Films and YouTube will continue to replay his on-field greatness and Halloween pranks on former coach Mike Holmgren, to portray Favre as the perfectly padded, eye-blacked patron saint of boyhood joy would be simply wrong. He’s had his share of demons. His use of painkillers led to a seizure in a Green Bay hospital following ankle surgery in 1996, and he basically drank himself out of his first job in Atlanta. Brett missed a Falcon team photo because he was hung over. Jerry Glanville and June Jones, incorrectly, have been taking hits for trading Favre ever since. In hindsight, it was a horrendous move, but at the time they were getting rid of an overweight drunk whose Hall of Fame career may never have gotten started if not for Tim Krumriel taking out Dan Majkowski in the third game of the 1992 season.
Where exactly Favre fits into the hierarchy of NFL quarterbacks is to be debated. His positives are amazing considering some of the targets he’s has to throw to in Green Bay. He leaves the game as the all-time leader in passing yards (61,655), touchdowns (442), wins (160), consecutive games started (275), passes (8,758) and completions (5,377). He has also thrown for more interceptions (288) than anyone in history, sliding the Favre name ahead of such greats as George Blanda (277), John Hadl (268) and Vinney Testaverde (267). Herein lies the rub against Favre taking over the top slot as most of his numbers would suggest is appropriate. It’s hard to be the best when the position’s greatest fault becomes too often a reality.
The huge number of interceptions were the downside of his famed “gunslinger” reputation. Not all those out-the-wazoo plays turn out exactly as planned, and it was his refusal to give up such practices that led him to throwing 62 passes to the opposition in his final three years in the league. Also, in the highly critical modern definition of success, his one Super Bowl title also hampers his assault on surpassing Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, John Elway or a still active Tom Brady.
What comes next for Favre is anyone’s guess, likely even to himself. His huge popularity and every-man reputation means he could easily follow in the footsteps of Arnold Palmer and become a gracefully aging corporate ad man for hire. He speaks better than many who have made the transition to the broadcast booth, so that is a viable option even though he has said he has no real interest in such a job.
Then again he could just head to his property near Hattiesburg, Miss., to be rarely heard from again — a future that would surprise no one.
Whatever he does he will always be the joyous man-child who brought high school enthusiasm to the NFL and who forever etched his name into the anals of epic history with his 399-yard, four-touchdown performance the day after his coach, best friend and father passed away in 2003.
