Brett Favre Retiring - Page 2

Teri B. · 03-04-2008, 10:09 AM

A showman to the end, Favre retires right on time
Posted: Tuesday March 4, 2008 11:52AM; Updated: Tuesday March 4, 2008 12:24PM

They say the best entertainers always seem to have that innate sense of timing for when to exit the stage, leaving you wanting to see just a little more and wishing the show would go on a little longer. That's the secret they all know: Don't make the mistake of staying to the point where everybody's seen enough and has no desire for more. The great ones end on a high note and just walk off.

Today, that's the part I think Brett Favre got just right. The news of his retirement leaves us wanting a little more, rather than suffused with the feeling that we've all seen enough. There's a certain skill to that.

Jerry Rice couldn't manage it, bouncing from San Francisco to Oakland to Seattle to Denver at the end. Emmitt Smith wrapped up with those two painfully ineffective seasons in Arizona, and Dan Marino in the late '90s was a shell of the Dan the Man that we had come to revere, leaving with the bitter taste of that 62-7 playoff shellacking at Jacksonville.

But Favre wrote himself the perfect ending with his renaissance season of 2007, and he was smart enough to recognize it when he did. One final sweet victory lap of sorts. A last chance to prove to himself and to all the doubters that he could still get it done, and play like the Favre of old, albeit with a tad more discipline and discernment.

No, it wasn't completely the stuff of storybooks. The Packers lost at home in the cold of overtime to the Giants in the NFC title game, with Favre throwing the ill-advised and game-deciding interception. But that loss, no matter how excruciating for the Packers and their fans, didn't wipe out the glorious 4½-month magic carpet ride Favre and Green Bay went on in 2007.

The lasting image of Favre's final season, of course, will be that snow-fest against Seattle at Lambeau in the NFC divisional round. It was a holiday post-card come to life, with No. 4 playing and jumping around like the little kid he tended to be in such settings. Had the Packers gone on even to win the Super Bowl, I'm not sure we could have ever had a moment to top Favre besting his old Packers coach, Mike Holmgren, in a blizzard at Lambeau. It seemed almost too good to be true, and maybe now we all understand why.

Only a handful of NFL players truly leave a void when they leave the game. There have been many greats in the 88 seasons of the NFL, but very few irreplaceables. Johnny Unitas was one. Jim Brown another. Walter Payton comes to mind. And now we can add to that list Favre, whose story was always about more than just his strong right arm and playmaking skills.

He wasn't always the best quarterback in the game, sometimes far from it. Both early and late in his career, he was mistake-prone and too often stubborn to a fault. And for some reason, I love how you never heard anyone talking up Favre's cerebral approach to the game. He wasn't out there doing a lot of thinking. He was too busy playing. Reacting. And yes -- dare we say it? -- having fun. Thanks to John Madden, it's horribly clichéd by now, but still true.

From his earliest days in the NFL, Favre was always entertaining, always watchable. He made you think that if you turned away from the TV screen, you just might miss something you had never seen before, and might never again. He seemed to fit our perception of how an NFL player should look when he was out there on the field doing what he did best. He competed like a guy who never really knew any other way to play the game, from Pop Warner all the way to the NFL. For Favre, it was all just one long continuous grass stain on his knee.

The guessing game that Favre's retirement watch had become the past three years or so bored me out of my mind. The tea leaf reading and "informed'' speculation got so very old. At times, Favre was to blame, for stringing out his decision-making process, and at times the damnable 24/7 news cycle was the culprit, making us all talk and talk about something, even when we're devoid of real news.

But now that that particular game is over, and Favre's retirement has been set in motion, I can't help but recognize the irony involved. In recent years, as Favre's play declined and the Packers struggled, we kept thinking that those would be the key factors in his decision to step away from the game. Instead, he kept coming back. Kept trying to win again, and to play up to his previous Hall-of-Fame standards.

And then he did, last season. The Packers won again, and Favre flashed so much of his old magic. With a young and potential-laden team around him, it seemed like retirement would be the last thing on his mind this offseason. I thought for sure he couldn't walk away with so much going for him now, having endured the lean years in Green Bay.

So of course, he did. He said no to the lure of more glory -- something few professional athletes ever overcome -- and called it a career after the memorable comeback season that added an exclamation point to his legacy. He's leaving on a high note, just like all great entertainers do. We might all want more, but he's smart not to give it to us. In the past 17 years, we've seen more than enough from Favre, and that'll just have to do. It was his show all along, and knowing just when to end it was his last good call.

babylonDon · 03-04-2008, 10:12 AM

Or he just wants to concentrate on his Oxycontin abuse

Teri B. · 03-04-2008, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by babylonDon

Or he just wants to concentrate on his Oxycontin abuse

Uh huh . . . I think he left that to you about a decade ago. I can see it's going well, as there are obviously few cells still functioning in that brain of yours. He kicked drugs before Oxycontin was even on the market.

I'm not in a good mood, and you're not amusing. Sometimes snarky is funny, sometimes it's just nasty masquerading as funny.

babylonDon · 03-04-2008, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teri B.

Uh huh . . . I think he left that to you about a decade ago. I can see it's going well, as there are obviously few cells still functioning in that brain of yours. He kicked drugs before Oxycontin was even on the market.

I'm not in a good mood, and you're not amusing. Sometimes snarky is funny, sometimes it's just nasty masquerading as funny.

I'm a Bear fan who recently spent 5 years in Milwaukee. I've seen snarky and nasty by the busload.

I've also seen the deification of Favre, way past all reality. People walking around with the Lord's Prayer, with Brett's name in place of JESUS', fer crying out loud.

I've also had my share of Sundays ruined by Favre. And no Packers fan was anything close to gracious or sympathetic. It's all part of it.

Unless you can tell me in all honesty you've never made a crack, about The Bears, or Chicago, or laughed along with someone who did, then you'll just have to tolerate this moment of schadenfraude.

Teri B. · 03-04-2008, 11:14 AM

Well at least you're a Bears fan - that makes it understandable. I guess I don't feel so stupid for walking around on the verge of tears all morning, having been filled in on the news when I hit the office door by sneering co-workers and a barrage of HA HA emails and phone calls, considering how the NFL players and soldiers in Afghanistan took the news. It's not funny to me. It's sad. It's heartbreaking. It's sentimental. But not funny. Yeah, he's just an athlete, but he's meant a lot to me.

Quote:

Another season probably wasn't worth grind for Favre
Posted: Tuesday March 4, 2008 12:49PM; Updated: Tuesday March 4, 2008 1:36PM

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan -- When the news of Brett Favre's retirement broke halfway around the world, NFL defensive linemen Mike Rucker and Luis Castillo -- on a USO/NFL Tour to pump up the troops here and in Afghanistan -- stood huddled around a computer in the back of a pub on an U.S. Air Force Base. It was Karaoke Night, but they weren't interested in music. They had their eyes fixed to a Biloxi Sun Herald story reporting legendary Packers quarterback Brett Favre would retire after his storied 17-year career.

"Wow! I love the dude,'' said Rucker, the veteran Carolina Panther end, when he had digested the story. "Over the last few years, it's obviously been on his mind. It must be that he's tired, mentally and physically, and the game has worn on him. What I'll always love and appreciate about him is that he was a gunslinger who didn't change his game to appease his critics. I just got his autograph on a jersey last year, and that thing will go in a frame in my house and I'll treasure it forever. You talk about security -- that jersey will have security like the Mona Lisa has around it.''

Said San Diego's Castillo: "It's sad, but I will always cherish the one chance I had to play him this year at Lambeau Field. As crushed as we were to lose it, it's a thrill to have played in a game that he won in the last minute. I remember preparing for the game thinking what an honor and privilege it was to be playing him. And then it turned out to be a great game, all the way down to the end. What a competitor. It's as good as competition gets.''

This was as surreal a scene as it gets, 12 time zones away from Green Bay, with an airman warbling Raspberry Beret by Prince in the background, and Chicago Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris, the third player on the USO tour, waiting to imitate Johnny Gill. But the moment the news broke, the players and some Packer fans stationed here gathered around the computer and looked stunned.

At this moment, Bishkek was Ashwaubenon and Oshkosh and Wausau, only not quite as teary, presumably. But just as eye-poppingly surprised. Everyone knew the 38-year-old Favre would retire soon, but after how well he played last season, most of those I talked to here thought he'd delay it at least one more year.

As a Favrophile over the years, I'll relate one story from late last season that I think says much about why Favre made the choice he made this week. Two nights before the Packers played Seattle in a playoff game, I was in Favre's home and the doorbell rang. News had broken that day that Favre had decided to come back for the 2008 season, but he denied that to me, and told everyone that all he said was that he was enjoying the game and his team this year. He hadn't determined his fate for 2008 and wouldn't until sometime after the season.

But now, a Green Bay TV station was at the door asking for comment on the story, and Favre's wife, Deanna, politely shooed them away. The look on Favre's face said: Does it never end? Take me at my word -- I will decide my future in the future, not now.

That, I believe, was at the heart of this decision. Favre still loves the game and knows he can play at a top-NFL level. But at the end of the day, he also knows if he had signed up for another year, he would have signed up to be the titular head of the Packers from late July 'til the bitter winter, with all eyes on him during every practice and every walkthrough, and his words in all press conferences being closely analyzed. I think he'd rather edge his 465 acres in Hattiesburg, Miss., and worry about how to contain the runaway beaver population than to have the bright lights on him, even in a small town like Green Bay, for five months a year.

Favre loved being just a guy. But it was next to impossible for the all-time touchdown leader and passing-yardage leader to be that. Putting the records far out of reach for the next generation of great passers -- led by Peyton Manning -- held no interest for him. Taking another shot at a Super Bowl held some interest for him, and that's why I believe he agonized over the decision in recent weeks. But another five-month grind to get to January, in his opinion, obviously wasn't worth what he'd have to go through along the way.

That didn't make it any easier to swallow for Packer Nation, even for those halfway around the world.

"My God,'' said Air Force Airman First Class Lyle Tonnon Jr., of Chicago, an avowed Packer fan despite his home zip code. "My legs are weak.''

"Dude, I'm shaking,'' countered Air Force Sgt. Brian Caliba.

"I want to cry,'' Tonnon said. "I just heard, and when I did, I put my head down on the pool table. I'm saying, 'No! No!' It's a shock. But I do know this: Wherever I'm stationed, when he goes in the Hall of Fame, I promise you I'll take leave and be there for his induction. He was the toughest SOB at the quarterback position, ever.''

When Harris, who sacked him twice playing in the spirited Bear-Packer rivalry over the years, was done singing, he said he wasn't surprised. "I thought he might come back, but I'm not surprised,'' he said. "I respect him even more as a person right now than I ever have, because he made a decision that's good for him and for his family.''

I asked Harris what he'd remember about competing against Favre.

"As a competitor?'' he said. "There was no one like Brett Favre. I remember playing him once and seeing him jump in his offensive linemen's faces. He just wanted everyone always to be their best. He's the competitor I always want to be, the kind of competitor I want to show my teammates every game.''

babylonDon · 03-04-2008, 11:28 AM

You can't fault packers fans for their loyalty. And in a era of showboating divas and guys who considered Sportcenter appearances more important than their teams, Favre was old school.

Still ain't gonna miss him.

Or listening to John Madden, man-crushing on him

lucytalk · 03-05-2008, 12:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teri B.

Well at least you're a Bears fan - that makes it understandable. I guess I don't feel so stupid for walking around on the verge of tears all morning, having been filled in on the news when I hit the office door by sneering co-workers and a barrage of HA HA emails and phone calls, considering how the NFL players and soldiers in Afghanistan took the news. It's not funny to me. It's sad. It's heartbreaking. It's sentimental. But not funny. Yeah, he's just an athlete, but he's meant a lot to me.

i know how you feel ~ i really do.

gretsky owned edmonton and i went to many oilers games back then. then came the trade to la kings. i swear you could hear a pin drop in alberta upon that announcement. true i could still watch him play on tv but it was devastating all the same. it took about a year for me to crack it was canada's 1st free trade with the usa and it was meant as a bitter joke.

i took his retirement a little better but not a whole lot. hockey lost a class act that made the game become better.

they might just be athletes but they inspired something in us and losing that is never easy or fun.

Jonesy · 03-05-2008, 01:13 AM

Moments like these make me happy to be a Saints fan. When they lose anything, it's just funny.

PursuitOfHappinessParty · 03-05-2008, 03:13 AM

I like Favre, tho he isn't and never was perfect. Like Montana, he was a winner. The lack of money for a team around him doomed his SB win total more than his INTs did.
But he is a Media WHORE. He's been f'n with the sports media for years. He's all about me, yet still loves the game. He obviously had alot of fun this last year, and his team hasn't gotten any worse for sure. They coulda woulda beat the Giants and went to the SB.

Moss wasn't fooling anybody with half a brain, yet he was dominating headlines this week. That story died and is replaced with *once again during an off-season* Brett Favre news. He got trumped last year with Strahan's 'serious contemplation of retirement'. I'm underwhelmed until pre-season, because that's when I believe it.

If it's true, it's an end to a very promising season before it began as Favre still is one of the 4 or 5 best QBs all-time. Aaron Rodgers (sp?) is not. His retiring will also make me feel old.

PursuitOfHappinessParty · 03-06-2008, 03:07 PM

Of course I could be wrong. Saw the news conference today, sure looks final. I still reserve the right to not believe it until opening day, but he looked really set in the decision. Did he just double his grayness in a matter of 2 months?

03-04-2008, 10:09 AM	#11 (permalink)
Teri B. Know It All Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 6,382 My Mood: Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 38 Thanked 61 Times in 38 Posts	A showman to the end, Favre retires right on time Posted: Tuesday March 4, 2008 11:52AM; Updated: Tuesday March 4, 2008 12:24PM They say the best entertainers always seem to have that innate sense of timing for when to exit the stage, leaving you wanting to see just a little more and wishing the show would go on a little longer. That's the secret they all know: Don't make the mistake of staying to the point where everybody's seen enough and has no desire for more. The great ones end on a high note and just walk off. Today, that's the part I think Brett Favre got just right. The news of his retirement leaves us wanting a little more, rather than suffused with the feeling that we've all seen enough. There's a certain skill to that. Jerry Rice couldn't manage it, bouncing from San Francisco to Oakland to Seattle to Denver at the end. Emmitt Smith wrapped up with those two painfully ineffective seasons in Arizona, and Dan Marino in the late '90s was a shell of the Dan the Man that we had come to revere, leaving with the bitter taste of that 62-7 playoff shellacking at Jacksonville. But Favre wrote himself the perfect ending with his renaissance season of 2007, and he was smart enough to recognize it when he did. One final sweet victory lap of sorts. A last chance to prove to himself and to all the doubters that he could still get it done, and play like the Favre of old, albeit with a tad more discipline and discernment. No, it wasn't completely the stuff of storybooks. The Packers lost at home in the cold of overtime to the Giants in the NFC title game, with Favre throwing the ill-advised and game-deciding interception. But that loss, no matter how excruciating for the Packers and their fans, didn't wipe out the glorious 4½-month magic carpet ride Favre and Green Bay went on in 2007. The lasting image of Favre's final season, of course, will be that snow-fest against Seattle at Lambeau in the NFC divisional round. It was a holiday post-card come to life, with No. 4 playing and jumping around like the little kid he tended to be in such settings. Had the Packers gone on even to win the Super Bowl, I'm not sure we could have ever had a moment to top Favre besting his old Packers coach, Mike Holmgren, in a blizzard at Lambeau. It seemed almost too good to be true, and maybe now we all understand why. Only a handful of NFL players truly leave a void when they leave the game. There have been many greats in the 88 seasons of the NFL, but very few irreplaceables. Johnny Unitas was one. Jim Brown another. Walter Payton comes to mind. And now we can add to that list Favre, whose story was always about more than just his strong right arm and playmaking skills. He wasn't always the best quarterback in the game, sometimes far from it. Both early and late in his career, he was mistake-prone and too often stubborn to a fault. And for some reason, I love how you never heard anyone talking up Favre's cerebral approach to the game. He wasn't out there doing a lot of thinking. He was too busy playing. Reacting. And yes -- dare we say it? -- having fun. Thanks to John Madden, it's horribly clichéd by now, but still true. From his earliest days in the NFL, Favre was always entertaining, always watchable. He made you think that if you turned away from the TV screen, you just might miss something you had never seen before, and might never again. He seemed to fit our perception of how an NFL player should look when he was out there on the field doing what he did best. He competed like a guy who never really knew any other way to play the game, from Pop Warner all the way to the NFL. For Favre, it was all just one long continuous grass stain on his knee. The guessing game that Favre's retirement watch had become the past three years or so bored me out of my mind. The tea leaf reading and "informed'' speculation got so very old. At times, Favre was to blame, for stringing out his decision-making process, and at times the damnable 24/7 news cycle was the culprit, making us all talk and talk about something, even when we're devoid of real news. But now that that particular game is over, and Favre's retirement has been set in motion, I can't help but recognize the irony involved. In recent years, as Favre's play declined and the Packers struggled, we kept thinking that those would be the key factors in his decision to step away from the game. Instead, he kept coming back. Kept trying to win again, and to play up to his previous Hall-of-Fame standards. And then he did, last season. The Packers won again, and Favre flashed so much of his old magic. With a young and potential-laden team around him, it seemed like retirement would be the last thing on his mind this offseason. I thought for sure he couldn't walk away with so much going for him now, having endured the lean years in Green Bay. So of course, he did. He said no to the lure of more glory -- something few professional athletes ever overcome -- and called it a career after the memorable comeback season that added an exclamation point to his legacy. He's leaving on a high note, just like all great entertainers do. We might all want more, but he's smart not to give it to us. In the past 17 years, we've seen more than enough from Favre, and that'll just have to do. It was his show all along, and knowing just when to end it was his last good call.
	Top

03-04-2008, 10:12 AM	#12 (permalink)
babylonDon Canalien Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: In the Service of the Quee-an Posts: 4,541 My Mood: Blog Entries: 5 Thanks: 94 Thanked 149 Times in 97 Posts	Or he just wants to concentrate on his Oxycontin abuse __________________ http://action.credomobile.com/comics...ing_obama.html McCain '08: 'He'll Get Those Kids Off Your Lawn' The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.-Maureen Dowd
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03-04-2008, 11:28 AM	#16 (permalink)
babylonDon Canalien Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: In the Service of the Quee-an Posts: 4,541 My Mood: Blog Entries: 5 Thanks: 94 Thanked 149 Times in 97 Posts	You can't fault packers fans for their loyalty. And in a era of showboating divas and guys who considered Sportcenter appearances more important than their teams, Favre was old school. Still ain't gonna miss him. Or listening to John Madden, man-crushing on him __________________ http://action.credomobile.com/comics...ing_obama.html McCain '08: 'He'll Get Those Kids Off Your Lawn' The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.-Maureen Dowd
	Top

03-05-2008, 01:13 AM	#18 (permalink)
Jonesy Truth Lion Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 2,554 Thanks: 10 Thanked 32 Times in 23 Posts	Moments like these make me happy to be a Saints fan. When they lose anything, it's just funny.
	Top

03-05-2008, 03:13 AM	#19 (permalink)
PursuitOfHappinessParty Snarky Maverick Liar Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Dallas/Ft. Worth Posts: 3,807 My Mood: Thanks: 75 Thanked 96 Times in 73 Posts	I like Favre, tho he isn't and never was perfect. Like Montana, he was a winner. The lack of money for a team around him doomed his SB win total more than his INTs did. But he is a Media WHORE. He's been f'n with the sports media for years. He's all about me, yet still loves the game. He obviously had alot of fun this last year, and his team hasn't gotten any worse for sure. They coulda woulda beat the Giants and went to the SB. Moss wasn't fooling anybody with half a brain, yet he was dominating headlines this week. That story died and is replaced with once again during an off-season Brett Favre news. He got trumped last year with Strahan's 'serious contemplation of retirement'. I'm underwhelmed until pre-season, because that's when I believe it. If it's true, it's an end to a very promising season before it began as Favre still is one of the 4 or 5 best QBs all-time. Aaron Rodgers (sp?) is not. His retiring will also make me feel old. __________________ For all those brainiacs that got themselves an ARM, I suggest an APT.!
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03-06-2008, 03:07 PM	#20 (permalink)
PursuitOfHappinessParty Snarky Maverick Liar Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Dallas/Ft. Worth Posts: 3,807 My Mood: Thanks: 75 Thanked 96 Times in 73 Posts	Of course I could be wrong. Saw the news conference today, sure looks final. I still reserve the right to not believe it until opening day, but he looked really set in the decision. Did he just double his grayness in a matter of 2 months? __________________ For all those brainiacs that got themselves an ARM, I suggest an APT.!
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