Lots of people have mocked Brett Favre the last few years for his retire, waver, unretire shenanigans, typically portraying him as indecisive or as a guy who just can’t stay away from the game. I’m convinced, however, that Favre is in no way indecisive; on the contrary, he’s just selfish (not really surprising; there’s a bit of extra selfishness in nearly every elite athlete). What’s really happening is that Favre:
- doesn’t want to play for a non-contender and
- doesn’t want to go through training camp.
This is why I have lost virtually all respect for Favre: a few years ago, it stopped being about the team and started being all about Brett. He still loves playing the game on Sundays and badly wants to go out a Super Bowl champion (to add to his earlier ring), but he doesn’t want to have to fight through the fire with his team. That’s why he waits until after training camp is nearly over to “waver” and shop himself to a few contenders. By doing this, he doesn’t have to go through all the struggles and the fires of training camp and can come into the season on a new team as the (potential) conquering hero, having had little practice and not having had to deal with the preseason. What kind of message does this send to his teammates? Again, it’s not about the team at that point, it’s about Brett.
I’m also convinced that this is why he has struggled at the tail end of the season since he started this crap—Favre is ironically hitting the “rookie wall,” the point in the season that the body begins to break down because it isn’t conditioned to the length of the NFL season. This year’s Minnesota team was good enough to help keep him from hitting the wall as hard, though he still struggled some down the stretch (nearly getting benched a few weeks ago). Fortunately, Minny had a first round bye, helping him get rested enough for a good performance in his first playoff game. That said, I’m still convinced that Minnesota’s “Favre experience” will fall short of a Super Bowl ring, with Favre then retiring again until he thinks about returning (maybe to Minnesota, maybe to another contender he thinks has a better chance) at the tail end of training camp next year. And if he does it again, I’ll root against him even harder.
