My beef with Brett Favre

You have to be living under a rock to not know the Brett Favre story over the past 3 years. I am going to get into how it came to be later on in this entry. I am not here to trash the man, his numbers are phenomenal. There is no question that they speak for themselves. He is a first ballot hall of famer. There has been a lot of talk lately on whether or not he is tarnishing his legacy. I for one do not believe that he is tarnishing his legacy. Numbers speak for themselves. I think he is not doing himself any favors winning fans over but when its all said its done its his body and if he feels he can still go then its his choice.

Some players like him just do not know when its time to hang them up. Like Michael Jordan, if you caught his hall of fame speech where he hinted around that he can still play. I fear though that he will have a career ending injury that will just play over and over. You never want to see a player not able to make the decision on his own like Michael Irvin and his neck injury. One picture that plays over and over in my mind is of a fellow New York Jet quarterback, Joe Namath on the bench in a then Los Angeles Rams uniform a broken man fully aware that his body just won’t let him play to the level he was once at. Sitting on the bench with 2 bags of ice on both knees. He didn’t know when to leave out when he was on top and instead of leaving the game when he was on top of his game on his own accord; he showed us over and over that he just didn’t have it anymore. I am scared that we will see Brett like that. I foresee him heading down that road. He is 40 years old and I don’t see him playing at this level for a full NFL season. His body I see breaking down on him similar to the last 8 games as a Jet. Granted he was injured and played through which it still leaves me wondering what was the medical staff thinking letting him play with a partially torn bicep.

Right now he is playing out of his mind. He still has a gun for an arm and the block he made on Patrick Willis was not a hit like most quarterbacks would make but who are we kidding most NFL quarterbacks would not be running down to make a block. You don’t want your quarterback doing that in open space because it leaves him open to get hammered by a huge lineman or linebacker. But Brett is not your average quarterback. He wants to win, and will do anything to win.

That is why he was God-like to so many Green Bay fans. My one bestie can attest to that. She is a die hard Cheese head. She literally bleeds green and gold. She went so far as to swear to name her first born after Brett Favre. She has now since retracted due to his now wearing a Minnesota Vikings uniform. She is completely heartbroken. I can totally understand how she feels, I would be devastated to see Derek Jeter in a Red Sox uniform or Jason Witten in a Redskin Uniform. Its hard to see him in a rivals uniform.

Now i totally do not blame him either for wanting to still continue to play and still competing at the highest level. I just do not think he will ever be happy unless he is carried off the field on a stretcher so that decision is not his own. Because we can clearly see that if the decision was left to him he would play forever and continue to strap up every Sunday.
My main issue with the man is how he treats the off season. I for one love this new Sears commercial.

It is right, the man can not make up his mind and kudos to Sears for marketing his indecisiveness. But as great a quarterback as the man is, his indecisiveness is my issue with him. This indecisiveness holds teams hostage, along with ESPN for that matter. We are forced to see on ESPN every other day his every move. How many times do we have to see Rachel Nichols on his lawn talking about his day to day activities and who he spoke to. he tells a team, I'm done, I am retiring and then a few months later oh wait i do want to play after all.
I commend the Packers for finally saying enough is enough. For 3 years prior to his first retirement, he held the organization hostage during the offseason. All they wanted was an answer so they could make needed personnel decisions related to the draft and free agents. But Brett always wants to mull it over and right before the preseason and training camp he will then decide yes i want to play. After his final game with the Packers he was told by the Coach Mike McCarthy and the GM Ted Thomson that "We want an answer before the draft whether or not you will retire or not. Two years prior I am sure it hurt Bretts feelings when they drafted Aaron Rogers to one day take over the job from him. But the Packers had to make plans for the future and Brett never very positive of whether or not he would play the next season they had to cover their butts. But he was giving 3 months almost 4 months to make his decision on whether to come back to Green Bay or to retire. He chose then to retire. So the entire offseason then for the Packers was to prepare Aaron Rogers as a starter. Then right before Preseason we start seeing Rachel Nichols pop up in Mississippi that Brett might want to come back. When he decides that he does the Packers told him that he would not be the named starter and would have to compete for the job. Obviously he did not like that idea and demanded a trade. He wanted then to play for the Vikings but why would the packers trade him to their rivals.
I think it was then that Brett and his agent devised this plan to get to Minnesota not to stick it to the fans but to stick it to McCarthy and Thompson. His plan almost got derailed at the end of the 2008 season when he got injured. But after all the mess of not to play or to play, whether the surgery and rehabilitation was a success, Brett Favre got his way and on Monday Night Football last week became the only quarterback to beat all the NFL teams by beating the Green Bay Packers. He had a great game. But i do not care what Favre says publicly this was entirely about revenge. Minnesota needed a top notch quarterback to get over the hump and Brett wanted to get back at the Packers management no matter the impact it would have on the fans. But it still remains to be seen whether or not he will bring a championship to Green Bay. They are off to a great start at 4-0. Time will tell how long Favre will play, i just hope he can walk away from the game and not carried off or leave the way Namath did.