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Brett Favre, A Sad Ending to a Great Career

In all my years of covering and broadcasting sports I’ve never seen a more dramatic, silly, unnecessary demise to the end of an outstanding athlete’s career.  The saddest and silliest part is that it was self-induced.  I will forever be amazed that a great athlete, who had a Hall of Fame career, could stain that career in such a short period of time by his own doing.

The Favre-Packer divorce is again proof that no matter how good a marriage may look on the outside, it may not be that way on the inside.  Sixteen years of peace, happiness and mutual love between Favre and the Packers, and their fans, dissolved because he failed to move beyond petty differences and communication breakdowns.  Hearing Favre say that he didn’t think he could get beyond his disappointments, and the lack of feeling wanted by the Packers organization, makes me wonder how grounded Favre is in the realities of professional sports.  Also, he must believe in the Tooth Fairy if he doesn’t understand that he wasn’t anymore immune from the “game playing” that goes on behind the scenes in sports as anyone else who throws on a player uniform.  While the politics of football and that “game playing” rarely touched him when he was throwing touchdowns, he set them in motion when over the last couple of off seasons he yanked the Green Bay management’s chain with his “I may retire, I may not retire” pontifications.  In reflection, I can only surmise he did this to try to test the Packers ongoing “love level” for him and to play mind and control games with them. 

Be careful what you wish for.  Like any couple, when things start to fall apart, things are said and threats are made.  Favre played his “unhappiness” power hand in March when he publicly and emotionally announced his retirement.  Also, he used a retirement reason that gave the Packers the gunpowder needed to make the break they wanted, or knew they would need to make at some point.  That retirement reason, Favre saying, “I don’t have the passion for football.”  Not only did he say it publicly in announcing his retirement; he repeated it numerous times until he announced on July 8th that he had changed his mind.  He walked out on the marriage, said many times he had no desire to return to it, and then thought he would walk back into the marriage in his previous role when he changed his mind.  The problem is, the Packers had taken him at his word, made plans to move on with their lives and had starting dating someone else (Aaron Rodgers).

Like all divorces, both sides deserve some degree of blame.  However, a great deal of it belongs to Favre.  The worst thing the Packers did was to try to buy off Favre by offering to pay him to stay retired.  All that did was say they didn’t understand that he simply wanted to come back and play football and that money wasn’t his motivation for doing so. 

The marriage started falling apart several seasons ago when Favre let it be known that he wanted Steve Mariucci to be the Packers new coach, but the Packers hired Mike McCarthy instead.  The split accelerated when the Packers decided they didn’t want to, or couldn’t, sign receiver Randy Moss.  Looking to show his displeasure, and remind the Packers he was their best ticket to a chance for the Super Bowl, he overplayed his hand by following through on his threatened retirement. In the final analysis, Brett Favre never realized he was simply a football player/employee and the Packers are a company/employer.

Where does this leave Favre and his legacy?  In his first year of eligibility he’ll be enshrined into the Hall of Fame.  He’ll always be remembered as an intense and great competitor who won a Super Bowl, and his record setting number of starts.  But sadly, fans and particularly Packer fans will always remember how ungraciously he left the team and the turmoil it created.  And the saddest part of all is that it didn’t need to happen the way it did.  He could have un-retired, come back to the team in whatever role they decided while at the same time working quietly to be sent to a team where he could start.  Or, he could have been Aaron Rodgers backup, ready to step in and save the day if Rodgers either failed or was injured, and gotten what he wanted, while at the same time solidifying his football legacy as a great player, a great competitor and a beloved and great Packer.  The first two are safe, the last is now tainted, and Brett Favre will have to live with the fact that he’s responsible for that.           

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