Of all of Brett Favre's retirements, this has to be one of the strangest. After all his years at Green Bay, he was old and it was accepted, fine, you're going to retire. Then the Jets came into the picture and he reconsiders one more year. Then for retirement number two: he's done his years at Green Bay, done his extra year with the Jets, he's finished. And all through the summer, the Minnesota Vikings banged on his door and begged him to join them for a year. He says no. No through the OTAs, no through the real training camp, and then, oh, go on then... And then it finally happens! The old Brett Favre is back! In one of his best seasons in yeeaars, he takes the Vikings to within one painful play of reaching the Superbowl.
Is he done now? I refuse to believe it. All summer long the bookmakers have had him as favourite to return but on Wednesday it was announced that he would decide to retire. Espn's writers wrote frantic blogs, Espn Football Today called an 'emergency podcast', and it seemed that this was it. Until Thursday when news filtered through that Favre "will play if he's healthy"...
Well all I have to say to that is this: HA HA HA! I'm sorry, I just think the whole thing is ridiculous. First of all, I firmly believed from the start that if he was going to retire, he would have done so a short time after the Vikings season ended - this was the respectable way to go. All through the summer he's been saying he's unsure and couldn't make a decision; yet at the same time, he decided to undergo the ankle surgery he had which was obviously done in prep for a 2010 season - he wasn't getting microscopic ankle surgery to mow the lawn or play tag football. And as for health, this is Dr James Andrews we're talking about. He's the best, bar none. He would have known all along whether Favre surgery was going to work out, and I believe that being as he is, Favre would have come out and spoken publicly if the had been any doubts raised about whether it would heal properly. For the fact that he's still lingering, and we're 1 week away from preseason, tells me one thing and one thing only: "I'm going to retire, or not, or well, maybe not if I'm healthy" = "Guys, look, I'm old, I can't really be bothered with preseason but I know I'm going to look lame if I just sit it out, so I'll be on my couch for a while and I'll give you a call in a few weeks when Tavaris and Sage have made your hair go a little grey."
Nothing else. It's the great Favre sit out. And for as good as he is, it's acceptable. Get him at Tampa and I'd let him sit the first few games if he came to play the last fourteen for us!
But as for whether he'll retire or not, there's no doubt in my mind that he'll be back and only two possible ways that he'll stay retired: 1) He drops a fruitbowl on his ankle in the next few weeks, 2) He actually really isn't fit enough and has just madly mis-timed his decision to retire. For his sake, I hope it isn't this. If the interception against the Saints was going to be his last snap in NFL football, he should have retired soon after the game; and it would be sad to see things end this way.
So that's my take on it - he'll be back. I just watched NFL Network and in a heated discussion between Mooch, Eisen and Irvin, Marruicci was talking about the situation. He didn't say much but I could I swear I saw it in his eyes :) he'll be back.
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