Just to take one example, Rod Smith has had the “should he retire or shouldn’t he” dilemma the past few years. He’s a potential Hall of Famer with a rich legacy, yet nary a press conference was called to discuss it, and nary a text message was sent to Peter King or equivalent. Jerry Rice never pulled this stuff. Tim Brown. Warren Sapp. Junior Seau unretired to play again, but there was no public jerking around of his teammates and organization. Tiki Barber, as unlikeable as he’s become, said he would retire, followed through with it, and stayed retired. I guarantee there were dozens of NFL players who had the same issue over the years, probably a few of Favre’s stature in the game, and only Strahan managed to turn it into a production the way Favre did, and he only did it once.

I’ve referred to him as a malcontent because that’s exactly what he is. He was given every opportunity to come back to the Packers, including multiple instances after the retirement announcement when the team contacted him and said they wanted him back, and he insisted he wanted to stay retired. Then, after the draft, after the Packers felt they’d had closure with Favre and had begun the process of moving on, Favre asked for his old job back. He went back on his word, and now he’s leaking pouting messages to the public because the Packers have plans that they’re unwilling to change for him. Boo freaking hoo.

On top of all of it, I think the Packers agree with me that Favre is not a good bet to be a top six or seven QB next season. Neither is Rodgers, but at a certain point, if you’ve got an old QB and a young QB, and neither is a surefire championship talent (in Favre’s case, you can add “anymore”), you’ve got to see if the young QB might have something in him that indicates he can do it in the future.

What you (and others) are missing with the “they really want Rodgers?” thing is that the Packers front office, like any good front office, is looking ahead. Right now they have a very solid team, with an improving defense, young talent at the skill positions in Jennings and Ryan, and one of the best O-Lines in the game. They’re very possibly a contender for years to come. The final piece would be a QB.

So the question is, simply, do you toss a guy you’ve liked for years, and has studied your system for years, for one more year with a guy whose skills are clearly diminishing? If yo uchoose to do so, you are virtually 100% guaranteeing that you will have to start from scratch at the most important position in the game in 2009, to some extent wasting years of putting together a deep, talented club. Or do you see if that final piece is good enough to play QB for you for the next 5-7 years, and if so, sit back and enjoy a great football team?

If you REALLY want to play, then say to the Packers “trade me.”

Stop trying to be released so YOU can decide where you can go play, it doesn’t work that way. You’re an asset, the team needs to get something back for you. But if you’re so convinced that you can still be an elite quarterback, you should also be convinced that you can turn any team around with your awesome passing accuracy.

So if you truly, desperately want to play, then go play, wherever it is. And don’t entertain this “well, they’ll offer me 20 million bucks to stay retired,” notion.

(And how insane it is for the Packers to be offering the guy 20 million bucks? Twenty Million Freaking Dollars!)

It’s now really NOW that everybody has grown sick of this story. Most people were sick of it two years ago, when the “Favre announces that he had some milk this morning, still doesn’t know if he’ll make a decision today on whether he’ll have a press conference tomorrow to announce the day when he might decide if he’s going to retire or not,” circus was in full swing.

And as for Favre’s legacy, here’s the legacy that I remember : A guy that absolutely KILLED his team for five straight years by throwing the most ridiculous interceptions, because he’s too stubborn/stupid to realize that he can’t throw into triple coverage anymore and thread the needle.

Then he gets one year where suddenly he’s actually doing okay, he’s managing the game better, he’s not throwing so many stupid interceptions, the Packers are miraculously winning every game, nobody wants to take them seriously, but in the end you kind of have to. And then, through sheer fortune, they get to play the championship game at home, against Eli, in the cold, and it’s smooth sailing, right? Favre in the cold!

And, ofcourse, when it all comes down to it, he apparently has another seizure, believes it’s 1997 again, and tries to throw into … what’s the word for 11 man coverage? Eleptiple? … eleptiple coverage, and hey, guess what, that got intercepted, game over. When it really mattered, he just became the guy again that KILLED his team.

But, everybody figures, hey, he’s been good this year, so he’ll come back, right? But no. Favre retires. All the tears and the ridiculous emotional drama and blablablabla, but at least he’s gone, he went out his own way, etc.

Until next spring, and then HE wants to play again. Hey Brett, have you ever considered that maybe Green Bay is tired of you KILLING them in every big game with your stupid passes into 5000 man coverage?

His legacy is that of a guy who didn’t know when to quit.

Chiefs fans?

49 fans?

The unfairness of the Favre situation stems from the fact that the Packers are now handcuffed by a contract that Favre chose to abandon.

You want to retire and then come back? Okay, fine. People change their minds. But why does Favre get to come back with his huge salary and trade approval in place? Those are elements of a contract he walked out on!

Favre ended the season with perhaps the most disappointing loss of his life, playing in terrible conditions, losing to a team they were favored to beat, and certainly getting banged up plenty on the frozen tundra in Green Bay. As anybody knows who is past their twenties, it takes longer to heal. You need more sleep, more rest, and more mental down time as well as physical. And for most football players, and I’m sure that Favre is like Jerry Rice and Walter Payton and LaDamian Tomlinson in this, football is not a six month sport. To be the best, to be able to take all those hits and still be able to play well, you have to train nearly year round. I’m sure when he retired, Favre was mostly retiring from mental burnout; he’d lost a terrible game, and he didn’t have the will power to drag his aching body into the weight room to start getting ready for the next season. And the Pack needed an answer early, and he was probably later than he’d ever been in not being able to start training again, and he retired.

But given another month or two of rest, and warmer weather, and spring, the juices started flowing. Favre loves football. Nobody who plays as often as he plays does so without loving it. He has had plenty of unimportant if not meaningless games he refused to sit out, even though an extra week of rest late in the season both would help his substitute and would get Favre readier for the playoffs. I’ve seen Favre late in blowouts and always wondered, “What idiot coach isn’t taking advantage of this great opportunity to get the backup some snaps and protect the health of his star QB?” But I’m sure it’s Favre; he *loves* to play, and doesn’t care about winning nearly so much as he cares about playing.

And with the juices flowing again, Favre came back. Why wouldn’t he? Unitas, Namath, Mays, those guys were allowed to leave because their teams had better players ready to take their spots. And even though they’d had bad years, they couldn’t hang it up. But Favre didn’t have a bad year; he had a great year, one of his best, one of the best ever for a Green Bay quarterback. I mention GB because it’s a lot easier playing half your games on turf, with no wind chill freezing your face, good traction, no hands slipping on wet or icy balls. It’s hard to remember now, but at the start of the 2007 season I think you could have won a lot of money at Vegas if you’d bet that the Packers would have held home field advantage in the NFC title game. He improved from the year before, and the Packers improved, and he still is an excellent quarterback.

And anybody who expects this guy who loves to play so much that he refuses to leave games, refuses to let his consecutive game string get broken, refuses to do what’s best for the team when it interferes with him having fun, is mistaken. Favre had always been selfish in that way. But he’s so good it’s easy to confuse selfish with dedicated.

I don’t see an easy solution for the Favre dilemma. I don’t know what happened behind closed doors. I think Favre thinks that the Pack should have given him more time before forcing him to say yes or no, and since they didn’t give him that time they didn’t want him, but now he wants to play. I don’t think he’s sold on having to join the Bears or Vikings, to prove the Packers wrong. But I bet he’d prefer it. And I’m sure that all the teams that could really really use Favre for a year or two, and would give him a good shot at another ring (Baltimore leaps to mind, and Tampa Bay might be another, and maybe even Houston) are holding out for bottom dollar, and the Packers are maybe holding out for top dollar knowing that the longer they go before trading, the less likely is the worst thing in the world to happen. The worst thing in the world would be for Favre to win a ring somewhere else. But the Packers also promised Aaron Rodgers he’d be the guy, and he’s been forced to sit in so many fourth quarter blowouts when normal first round QB draft choices would be getting some experience because Favre’s selfish, and if the Packers slap Rodgers in the face by letting Favre win the starting job, Rodgers will walk when his contract is up. And then the Packers will find Favre retiring in a year or two, and have no QB of the future with years invested in grooming him and paying him first round QB money so he’d be there when Favre finally went down.

I know this is pretty much a family site, so I’m going to change my usual phrase for this kind of stalemate to appendage waving. The word I usually use is much shorter than appendage, and only men have one. Once the appendage waving starts, everybody loses. And yes, Favre and the Packers are busy waving their appendages at each other. But I’m not surprised. Favre is great, one of the best of all time, but he’s never been a team player when it meant he should sit down.