Favre: I am so re-tired of all of this crap.
Legendary quarterback and Mississippi boy Brett Favre announced his retirement today from the New York Jets. It was his second retirement from pro football within a year’s span having said au revoir or perhaps something more colorful earlier with the Green Bay Packers with whom he spent an eternity.
I have a problem with athletes who can’t give it up when they say they’re giving it up. It makes that person look like a flake. Likewise it gives that athlete a pathetic appearance, one that says: “I have a money jones.” Or, one that says: “I have a glory jones.”
Who cares about appearances in sports? Perhaps many greats will say they don’t. But look at people like Barry Bonds. He hit more home runs than The Babe and Hammering Hank and because of all the intrigue about his alleged steroid use not to mention that he comes off publicly as a prima donna, he doesn’t generate near the fan juice than say a Mark McGuire or a Sammy Sosa. I know I am talking about a football player (Favre) okay? So don’t get your knickers all in a wad. I just wanted to use some baseball dudes as an example.
While I say I have a problem with the unretiring retired jock that doesn’t mean I feel they are fatally flawed. I hope each time that the player will have a great season with their new team after becoming un-re-tired. But it doesn’t often happen that way. Sometimes the unretired finds out quite quickly that they should have stayed retired.
Though I am by no means an expert in pro football, or sports in general, I am a data collector and by looking at Favre’s one season with the Jets the stats don’t show all that terrible of a picture. Let’s do a little comparison shopping between Favre’s season and perhaps one of the tip top if not the best NFL quarterback in the 2008 season, Peyton Manning.
–Favre completed 65.7 percent of his passes. Manning connected 66.8 percent for the Hoosier-by-God Colts.
–No. 4 threw 22 TD passes. Manning threw 27.
–Manning had 4002 passing yards. Favre passed for 3472.
–Viva la difference! Manning was intercepted 12 times. Favre was picked off 22 times.
–And the big a la difference: The Manning-led Colts had a 12-4 season in 2008, losing the wild card playoff game in OT to San Diego. The Jets finished 9-7, which is a winning season but not a wildly winning season.
Well, as many of you know or suspect, the quarterback is but one player. With my limited knowledge of football, I would be willing to bet that not all of Favre’s interceptions were directly attributable to his bad passing and ditto with winning and losing games.
So Favre could have done worse which should be an object lesson to one of the best who has ever played football — not just quarterback but football. The next unretirement — let’s say Brett gets a wild hair to lead the Detroit Lions to the Promised Land — might not go as well as his stint with the Jets.
Therefore, Mr. Favre, I don’t want to see a good ol’ Mississippi boy, genu-wine legend and damn good athlete finish his career on the scrap heap. This time if you quit, then please good sir, quit damn it.