Oh, Brett Favre.
I hope you haven’t put away your dancing shoes, because the media and the Packers and Brett Favre’s phone are still doing the annual “Favre: Staying or Going?” Tango, but this year has an (alleged) twist: Favre has asked Green Bay for his release from the team, freeing him to play somewhere else if he un-retires and if any team is interested.
Ugh. Seriously? What is it about these guys and comebacks? Michael Jordan and Jerry Rice were two of my childhood favorites whose comebacks particularly upset me, and I don’t want to see Favre take the same route. Sure, there’s the chance that he’d have another 2007, but there’s also a huge chance he’d play like a shell of that Favre, and would be a disgrace to himself. I pretty much eulogized him when he announced his retirement in March. I figured, foolishly, that this end really was the end. In that post, I yearned for “one last Last Season,” but now that that is a possibility, it’s kind of sad.
If this story is even true - which it might not be; I suspect it could be a “heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy who heard it from Brett’s trainer’s next-door neighbor” kind of story - I think the Packers absolutely should grant Favre his release, for their own sake. Aaron Rodgers has been squashed for enough games by Favre’s trademark inability to quit, and for Green Bay to take Favre back would be a slap in the face that would send Rodgers walking at his first opportunity (which is next season). If the Packers are to build for future success, they have to be willing to do it without #4, because to regain Favre would essentially be to lose Rodgers, and they have no one else groomed to step in at QB.
And all that doesn’t even begin to touch how weird it would be to see ole’ Brett in anything but GB green and gold. To me, Favre and Green Bay are inextricably linked, but now the two might be separated, and I don’t know that I’d be able to stand it. Stand by for updates, I suppose. This dance could drag on forever. Again.