Retiring My Favre Jerseys

I’m getting so fuckin’ tired of the drama surrounding Brett Favre. Yes, Favre has always been high on the drug called Brett Favre’s career. Who could blame him? God knows I’ve been high on Favre’s career for years. But enough is fucking enough! The golden age has ended! The guy retired and then waffled his way through an off-season in which the Packers would have rolled out the red carpet for him again. July is just a little late in the year to decide that you want to play football again.

A lot of people feel that the Pack has fucked up by not re-instating him. This passage is from an editorial by Tom Oates of the Wisconsin State Journal:

Actually, the Packers missed out on the best-case scenario. They should have accepted Favre back as the starter, but made it known that he had forfeited any leverage he had accumulated as the face of the franchise for 16 years.

They should have told him he could be replaced at any time by Rodgers -- after a poor half, a poor game or several poor games. They should have told him his consecutive games streak would be no factor in whether he keeps the job. They should have told him that, like the other 52 players, his input was no longer welcome on personnel moves.

Had the Packers done that, they would have kept the quarterback who gives them the best chance to win this season. Some don't agree with that, though they apparently have forgotten the NFL is a win-now league, that Favre has won 18 of his last 22 games and that he used his vast experience to successfully alter play after play at the line of scrimmage last season. The Packers could have kept the inexperienced Rodgers interested and involved by letting him know Favre was on a short leash.

The second-best option is the one the Packers apparently are pursuing and that is to trade Favre to a galaxy far, far away. The Jets make more sense than the Buccaneers because the Jets are in the AFC and the Packers don't play them during the regular season. Getting something in return for Favre going away quietly is probably the best the Packers can do at this point.

I really couldn’t disagree more. My view is that it’s time to figure out if we have a future without Brett Favre. QB is one of the hardest positions to train. Right now, we’ve invested three years in Aaron Rodgers. Oates is wrong. If Rodgers doesn’t start next year, he’s going to look for a new job when he becomes a free agent in 2009. It’s as simple as that. He wants the chance to play. Would Favre be around for the 2009 season? Probably not—he almost retired for this one. This basically means that we would start in 2009 with no one at all for quarterback.

Yes, I hear all the complaints that Rodgers may be injury prone. Yeah, I was as pissed off as everyone else when Rodgers made his back-up debut on a broken foot. But let’s get real—we have an n of exactly three games here, with exactly zero as the starter. We don’t know what Rodgers is capable of. The only real indicator we have is the confidence of Ted Thompson.

Well, how reliable is Ted Thompson? During the 2005 season, the Packers has a 4-12 season. Thompson canned Mike Sherman and hired Mike McCarthy. Next season, the Pack went 8-8. In 2007, we were 13-3. We went from sucking shit to playing in the NFC Championship game in three years. So yeah, I’m willing to give Thompson the benefit of the doubt. I’ll roll the dice on Aaron Rodgers. I’d rather see him start this year than Favre, not because I think Rodgers gives us the best chance of winning this year, but because I would like to see us keep on winning for the next several seasons.

I’m retiring my Favre jerseys. No more prima donna QBs for me. The guy needs to get real, retire with dignity and become a football news anchor. He’d be fucking amazing at the job. Being the QB of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is beneath the guy. But that’s the direction in which I see him headed.