In a parallel universe, one where the romanticized notion of sports exists, where sports are the glue that bond fathers and sons, old and young, the (apparent) decision of Brett Favre to retire from the National Football league and Alex Rodriguez’s quest for 600 home runs would captivate the national consciousness. It would cause aging sportswriters to wax poetic for thousands of words, exhausting their thesauruses finding new superlatives for greatness.
Instead, both Favre’s supposed retirement and ARod’s eventual 600th home run are mere blips on our radar screens.
I’m not going to sit here and decry the lack of interest in either story, in fact, I couldn’t care less about either one. My dislike for Favre is well-documented and I’m completely ambivalent towards Rodriguez’s 600th home run.
The real question is why people are disinterested in these stories. Brett Favre used to be the golden boy, the media darling of North America. All we ever heard about Favre was that he played ‘like a kid out of there’, he’d ‘play for free’, and that he’s ‘a gunslinger.’ Plus, he was developing one of the greatest quarterback resumes the sport has ever seen.
Currently, Favre is first all-time in completions, yards, consecutive games started, and touchdown passes. In every measure of quarterback greatness, Favre is at the top of the list (He is also number one in interceptions thrown, which is due to his propensity to stubbornly throw balls into triple coverage under the guise of being a gunslinger, but I digress).
If on-field success was the only component to the Favre saga, then men would be crying in the streets with the announcement of his retirement. Streets and babies would be named after the guy and I’m confident the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell would probably make a motion to just rename the Hall of Fame to Brett Favre’s House.
None of this is happening because Favre completely shattered all of this goodwill and admiration with his wishy-washy ‘retirements’ over the past few years and leaving entire franchises unsure of the most important position on their team well into the first weeks of training camp.
He has said, with unequivocal certainty, that he is one hundred percent retired from the game of football on three previous occasions and has returned to the game weeks later. Yesterday’s announcement was number four. Rumours have it that Favre’s ankle is too busted up to play; what happens when the ankle is healed?
Brett, you can still play the game. You had one of the best seasons of your career last year. I know you hate training camp, so just say you’ll be there when you’re healthy. Enough with the waffling; you sound like a woman.
You’re a joke, a punchline. Everyone is laughing at your latest proclamation: ‘Oh, there goes Brett again.” Unfortunately, this is what you’re going to be remembered for first, not your on-field greatness.
If you’re done, be done. Otherwise suit up and get to 500 touchdown passes.
Tune in tomorrow for my thoughts on ARod’s search for six hundred.
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