Favre Should Retire After Packers Game
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Dear Brett Favre,
Give it a rest, will you? Take a break – a permanent one. Stop while you’re ahead. Give Chilly and Zygi a wave and ride off with Wranglers in tow.
Just let it go.
Retire midseason. Shock the world. Leave it all behind.
It would hardly be a popular decision – you’re still a huge draw as far as NFL fans are concerned. But you’re Brett Favre, the poster boy for counterintuitive decision-making. You’ve come out of retirement so many times even Michael Jordan thinks it’s getting ridiculous.
What’s more fitting than a dramatic, on-the-spot retirement to finish it all off?
You’re 41 years old, your body is broken, your team is on the rocks, and you have fewer weapons at your disposal than Buddhist fundamentalists. What do you have left to play for?
Personal achievement? The Iron Man streak? Another shot at the playoffs?
Those are nice sentiments, but let’s face it: you already own all the records worth owning, your team is awful, and you’re doing more disservice to your reputation by playing than you would by ending your consecutive games streak.
It’s a losing proposition continuing to play this way.
Sure, you had a career-high 446 passing yards last week against the Cardinals. But Sunday’s loss to Chicago was an abomination. You cost your team the game by throwing three picks, bringing your season total to a league-high 16 and your team record to 3-6. The Vikings scored just three points in the second half. You looked more out of your element than Donny.
At this rate, you’re on pace for 28 interceptions and six wins. Is that worth the pain of waking up in the morning and not being able to put a t-shirt on?
Tenacity is one of your most admirable qualities, but it’s clear your body is struggling to keep pace with your ambition.
Your shoulder is in desperate need of a break – as we witnessed on Sunday when you underthrew Percy Harvin. Your elbow is wracked by tendinitis. And your ankle is fractured worse than the Jersey Shore house before Angelina left. Yet you continue on like the NFL’s own Don Quixote.
Why not give in?
You’ve had a brilliant career full of personal achievements and team success. You’ve earned the respect of your peers and the media. And you did it your way, on your terms.
There’s nothing left to prove.
Winning a championship with the Vikings would be sugary roses on top of the icing, but that’s an old man’s pipe dream.
That team can’t take you where you want to go. The offensive line isn’t up to the challenge. Neither is the receiving corps. Neither is Brad Childress.
Even if you beat the Packers this weekend, you’re still two games out of the division lead (at best) with three of the remaining six games on the road. You’ve yet to win a game outside of Minnesota this season or beat a team with a record above .500.
Making the playoffs is simply not going to happen.
Embarrassment and disappointment: that’s all that lies ahead in Minnesota; especially when you consider the NFL’s ongoing investigation into the Jenn Sterger case. That can’t be helping matters at home with Deanna and the kids.
It’s time to let go.
Play one final game against the Packers on Sunday, win one at home for the purple-clad faithful and then bow out – gracefully this time. No open-ended statements. No Ed Werder ambushes. No Rachel Nichols camping outside your house.
Say goodbye and mean it.
It was a good ride while it lasted, these 20 years. You experienced success beyond a Mississippi boy’s wildest dreams: Super Bowls, MVPs, comeback wins so magnificent grown men fawn on national TV. But it’s time to leave all that behind.
Your family needs it. Your body demands it.
It’s time to retire, Brett.
With respectful concern,
Patrick Crawley
To reach editor Patrick Crawley, click here. Follow him on Twitter, @BasketballFiend.
