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Favre to Retire Again

By W. James Antle, III on 2.11.09 @ 12:32PM

We'll see how long this lasts, though it does sound like he is more decisive this time. I am not our resident New York Jets fan, (though I certainly was rooting for them to beat the Miami Dolphins in the final regular season game for my own selfish reasons of playoff math) but I've always liked Favre. I though he diminished himself with his handling of his departure from the Green Bay Packers and his poor performance in his last five games as a Jet.

But there was a run for a while where it looked like his decision not to retire was correct -- beating the New England Patriots, routing the then-undefeated Tennessee Titans, surging to the lead in the AFC East. Had he not torn the bicep on his "rocket arm," who knows what might have happened? As it turned out, his final season at Green Bay -- a 13-3 regular season record, the playoffs, and an overtime loss in the NFC championship game -- might have been a better way to leave the NFL.

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Guy| 2.11.09 @ 3:03PM

It's tough to see the legendary players go. Johnny U comes to mind. Most of them go long after their skills have begun to wane.

The eternal twenty year old Favre has confounded critics for almost a decade by continuing to play at a high level while injury free. Even now, no one can know how things might have turned out for the Jets with a healthy Favre, in a season when the Lombardi Trophy was accessible to so many teams.

While Favre barely covered himself in glory in the departure from Green Bay, the Packers did themselves no better and probably worse. While Favre's replacement had a very solid season and there is no doubt he is the future of the Packers, the team fell a very long way, losing many games by three points or less. Football is a game of only one set of numbers; the score at the end of each game. All else is secondary, especially individual player's statistics. Favre excelled in the one most important intangible; winning. GBP management cannot but wonder, in a season ripe for the plucking, how many of those games they might have won with Favre at the helm.

As the great Warner Wolf says, "the future is now!". The last two seasons show that to be true.

Time will pass and animosities fade. It's unlikely though that we'll see the likes of the Green Bay Gun in our generation again. We should though, not remember the arm as much as we remember the will to win exhibited and the boyish verve with which he played a game with men. In our dreams, we all play that way.