Favre Finally Inactive

2006 ended with the New Year's Eve victory over the Bears on Sunday Night Football to allow a 4-8 Packer team finish 8-8 and just miss the playoffs. Who can forget the tearful interview with Andrea Kremer about how much he loved his teammates? Everyone was sure he'd retire after that. But he decided he had two more NFC Championship Games to fuck up with interceptions.

 

I'd forgotten all about that. He was a blubbering wreck. Looked finished for sure.

So he really, in effect, retired after each of his last FIVE seasons.

 

Who knows, maybe in 15 years stories on Favre will include the line, "...when he left the Packers, who have not won a playoff game since his departure following the 2007 season."

I agree Bubbler that he's had a rather unique exit(s). But it's not any more embarrassing (other than the dong shots, of course) than the exits of many others. And he's also unique in that he enjoyed one of the best seasons of his career in one of the years that is supposedly going to tarnish his legacy.

Maybe people will hold the retirement, unretirements against him. I don't, simply because athletes should be able to hang on as long as they want. If they want to, they should stay around until they're scraped off the turf like he was last week. If they retire and change their mind, so what? How many times did Ali do it? Anyone remember him primarily for his fight against Trevor Berbick?

Just going by performance, though, his final years were Hall of Fame - one spectacular one, an average one and a terrible one - compared to the majority of legends who stick around too long. I just don't see those years ultimately being remembered more than the ones he put in with the Pack.

 

I think if he retires after the 2006 or 2007 season, he is remembered a lot differently than he will be now.

What's crucial now is does he try to repair his relationship with the Packers? I think that answer is no. He hates Thompson so much that I don't think Favre's relationship with the Packers will be repaired until after Thompson is gone, and that could be awhile.

If Favre repaired the relationship with the Packers where his jersey can be retired next season, I think people will reflect more on all the good things he did rather than the diva he became at the end of his career.

Keep in mind, this was not a three-year dance with retirement. He told Peter King in 2001 that retirement was beginning to look like a good option. He retired after the loss to the Falcons in the playoffs and then was quickly talked out of it. One year he waited until March to announce when he was coming back, and the following year, he waited until a couple days before the draft.

On the athlete diva list, he's Aretha Franklin.

 

I'm curious to see if Mark Murphy will offer the ambassador contract to him like he did back in 2008 (the same one that many thought was a bribe to stay retired).

But yes, there is so much vile contempt toward Ted Thompson that I can't see Favre coming back anytime soon ... even if it is to sign the "one-day contract."

 

Murphy can't do that to a player who went to the Vikings essentially as a "fuck you" to his former team.

 

Favre isn't going to wander the wilderness for the next however many years, turned away and spat upon wherever he goes.

It ended for him in Green Bay for the same reason it did for Joe Montana: Younger guy waiting and the organization wanted to make the change. It wasn't a real clean break in SF for Montana, either. Like Favre he wanted to keep playing.

Favre didn't handle himself well during the process of separation from the Packers, but there are others in football who have generated similar feelings.

Like Vince Lombardi and Curly Lambeau:

But in truth, the messy divorce between Favre and the Packers is just history recycling itself. And unless human behavior has changed as the result of web rants, around-the-clock sports talk and instant communication, all will be forgiven and forgotten in due time.

Want evidence of that? It can be seen in those two imposing statues that greet visitors to the Lambeau Field Atrium.

If you’re going to talk about bitter breakups or someone putting the screws to the Packers organization, the conversation probably should start with Curly Lambeau and Vince Lombardi.
http://packersnews.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20101021/PKR07/101021152/Christl-column-Lambeau-Lombardi-also-had-rocky-exits-from-Packers

I don't post that as a shot at Green Bay. I'd be the same if it was the Vikings.

Point is, time heals all wounds and for anyone to say Favre won't be welcomed back by the Packer fan base shows a distinct lack of historical perspective.

Bart Starr was booed and had beer dumped on him when he was the Packer coach. Is he still hated?

But I guess since the Favre deal is happening right now it is the biggest thing ever. That's the way it works.

Speaking of today, I think he's done:

DETROIT - Brett Favre is scheduled to have his right shoulder examined again Tuesday after experiencing numbness and tingling in his hand. The results could determine whether the quarterback's 20-year career is over.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikings/111829514.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4OW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU1yDEmP:QMDCinchO7DU

If anyone was wondering why the Vikings pursued Favre I hope they saw T Jack last night.

 

Good point... Starr is still beloved and attends nearly every home game. This too shall pass ... may take some time, but Favre will be welcomed back and this will be a footnote (albeit a very notable footnote) in a very bizarre career.

Favre will eventually have his statue built, number retired, and name on the ring of honor. Just a matter of how long it will take for all of that to happen ... and it's all up to Favre on that end.

 

Maybe not for the same price tag, but he will have to do this eventually ... offer the olive branch. Too much money in Favre merchandise/memorabilia on the line in the future and too much of a PR hit to say "F You" to the man who largely brought the franchise back from Siberia.

 

Correction: Last pass with the Jets wasn't an interception ... his second-to-last pass was.

 

I think it will probably be all warm and fuzzies with Favre and Green Bay by the time he goes into Canton.

But I think it might take 3-4 years to get to that point.

 

Based on your earlier post on this thread you are saying Ted Thompson is gone in three years, right?

I don't agree when you said he was "run out" of three towns. That has a negative connotation to me that isn't accurate.

He was essentially fired in Green Bay. Remember the contract they offered him?

The Jets didn't need him. He was injured and they had other options.

He isn't being "run out" of Minnesota in any way. He's old and beat to hell. That's why he's done.

Edit: Do you include Atlanta? I see I may have also misread your time frame here.