Shut up, Brett Favre

OK, ever since this "story" broke a few weeks ago, I have felt very lonely over here on the "what an ass" train. It's nice to see that some people have finally realized that "the gunslinger" and "Green Bay's hero" is acting like a complete and utter douche.

I am (and have been) SO over Brett Favre for about 6 months now. The way his retirement was treated was an abomination of journalism. Here in Wisconsin, it was Favre 24/7 and it got ridiculous and out-of-hand. I'm sorry, but I just don't think anyone deserves the deification he received.

I tried valiantly to ignore most of this talk, from the first retirement rumor through today. I stopped watching the nightly news. I only watch Baseball Tonight, instead of SportsCenter. This is coming out more angry than I thought I was, but frankly I just wish Favre would sit down and shut up. I find it so off-putting for a guy to sit and talk about his own legacy. Maybe it's me, but I find it incredibly distasteful - too boastful, I guess. And for someone who is so self-aware of his legacy, he's certainly doing his best to flush it down the toilet.

Every 4-6 weeks since then, there's been some sort of leak about how he's going to unretire and he wants to come back.  It's to the point that I feel these "leaks" were orchestrated as their timing meant that as soon as he wasn't a story and as soon as their were bigger sports stories in Wisconsin, here came another possible Favre unretirement. This latest one came just in time for the baseball All-Star Break, which I don't think is it all coincidental.

The day the Brewers signed C.C. Sabathia and the Bucks signed their draft pick, this tidbit happened on SportsCenter:

Scott Van Pelt:"What I wouldn't do to be in Milwaukee today, raise a double fister of Miller's and extend Summerfest an extra day."

Michele Tofoya : "After a hardy burp just sit back and watch first CC Sabathia get traded to the Brewers, then Richard Jefferson get introduced to the Bucks, and the likelyhood that Brett Favre will do something to trump it all because he won't be mentioned in the Wisconsin press today unless he does."

He was the butt of the joke even before this rant with Greta Van Sustern. Now he's going on to say that we don't know the whole story and Ted Thompson's not telling the truth and Brett can't trust him. O RLY Brett? Because saying you were retiring and then changing your mind totally makes you trustworthy? And while we're on the subject, I would imagine it's ard for them to trust you too, when they had a chartered jet scheduled to come down and see you 2 months ago when you first decided you were coming back, only to cancel it because you still weren't "100% committed."

And I just don't see how anyone can blame Ted Thompson at this point. The man has a team to run. He's got 80 other players to worry about. He cannot yank them around and pull the carpet out from under Aaron Rodgers because of Favre. I think it jeopardizes Ted Thompson's standing/reputation with other players - not just on the roster, but on other teams as well. If he bends to Favre, he's going to lose the trust of the other guys. I think Thompson gets a reputation as someone not looking out for all the players and it effects whether or not guys want to come here in the future.

This article from the retirement hoopla has agent Bus Cook saying: "'nobody forced you to make this decision to retire". Interesting that now Brett's saying that Ted Thompson and that Packers forced him to make a decision.

Because how dare the leader of a professional football franchise want the most important position on the field solidified sometime before mini-camp. How dare he not want to go through the "Will He/Won't He" that we suffered through for two off-seasons prior to this. How unfair and ridiculous of him to expect to be able to make decisions for the rest of the team and not drop everything for Brett Favre.

Of course, since the story went to the media when Ted Thompson didn't return his text messages (is this how we're handling business deals now, by text?), I find it hard to imagine that Brett didn't expect Ted Thompson to drop everything.

The more this story goes on, the more I think Brett Favre is an egomaniacal jerk. Buddy, you had your chance. Ok, so you changed your mind and you need to discuss it with Ted. But Ted doesn't need to drop his vacation at your whim. You've been sitting on this for months. Wait another week. For someone who has often pontificated on how much he loves his privacy and wants respect from the media/fans in terms of personal time/space, you sure didn't give a damn about the fact that Ted Thompson was taking some personal time and you had a fit when he didn't drop everything to cater to you.

In addition, I love how you want your release, even though you have said you don't know if anyone is interested in you but you want your release "for whatever comes up", but if the Packers  won't give you that, you're in no hurry for reinstatement because you don't want to pay the $15,000/day fine for not showing up to camp.

"I know this has been tough on him," Favre said of Rodgers. "And this has nothing to do with him, this whole deal."

Saying that this has nothing to Aaron Rodgers is like running off with the bride and saying it has nothing to do with the groom. You're putting his starting job in jeopardy. You're making him the ugly step-sister. You're distracting the entire club. You're ensuring that if Rodgers stumbles, he gets the "we should've brought back Favre" cold shoulder. And you admitted that you didn't really bother to work with him/teach him/mentor him as any good out-going quarterback should have. So he's gotten nothing but screwed from day 1, but you know, it has nothing to do with him.

I'm not understanding why every story about Aaron Rodgers intimates that we aren't secure in him as our quarterback because we drafted two others. Last I checked, every team carries 3 quarterbacks. We don't have any others. I'm sorry Craig Nall, but we're not willing to take the chance that you're our starter if Rodgers gets injured.

In addition, I think both Brian Brohm and Matt Flynn were steals. If Brohm comes out early, he would have been a top 10 pick. Matt Flynn is a national champion who fought for his position before. He stepped into a bowl game 2 years ago against Miami and absolutely picked them apart. He played for a top-tier program and amassed impressive numbers: he completed 245 of 437 passes (56.1 percent) for 3,096 yards, 30 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in his LSU career. He carried 128 times for 340 yards (2.7 avg) and five scores. On 565 plays, he amassed 3,436 yards in total offense. And we got him in the 7th round.

This does not mean we don't trust Aaron Rogers - it means we need 3 QBs on our roster and we weren't passing up these opportunities. Did people think it was a threat to Brett when we drafted Rodgers? NO. They knew we couldn't pass him up in that position. Much like Brohm and Flynn.

Lastly, I'm not sure I could retain my last shreds of respect for Favre if he shows up in Green Bay this weekend. I know he's supposed to introduce Frank Winters for his induction in the Green Bay Hall of Fame, but if Favre shows up, the weekend becomes ALL ABOUT HIM and I find that inexcusable. Be selfless for the first time in a few weeks, Brett. Don't spoil what the moment for Winters and Gilbert Brown. Your presence will completely over-shadow the honorees.