Don't Call it a Comeback

Brett Favre is coming back. Brett Favre isn’t coming back. Brett Favre wants to return to the Packers but the Packers don’t want him. Brett Favre would never have retired had Ted Thompson not been the GM.

Who knows what’s true and what isn’t…beyond the fact that Brett Favre clearly enjoys being the center of attention.

Forget about a nice relaxing life of hunting and fishing and piling wood…Brett Favre wants back in – to the spotlight at least.

Then again, Brett never really left the spotlight, did he? Since the day he “retired” we’ve been seeing him and hearing about him. On Letterman. In endless speculative blog posts and PTI segments.

How can a person stage a “comeback” when they never went anywhere?

Brett can play for the Packers in 2008 if he wants. Or for Miami or Atlanta or some other team. Just don’t call it a comeback if he does.

And don’t call it an unretirement either. It takes more than a tearful announcement to make a retirement…it takes actually walking away from your job. Which Favre hasn’t done. All he’s done yet is miss OTAs and minicamp…which may have been the whole point in the first place.

Of course it takes two to tango. If Favre wants to stage his non-comeback, he will need the Packers to oblige him. The Packers hold all the cards…and they look ready and willing to transition to the Aaron Rodgers era, and leave Brett to his fish and his varmints and his woodshed.

So Favre will need the Packers to release him…but why should they? Why give some other team, maybe one in their own conference, the advantage of a Hall-of-Fame quarterback?

If Favre plays in 2008, it will be in a green jersey, and a yellow helmet with an antiquated logo emblazoned on it. Packer fans will not suffer the shock Cowboy fans knew when they saw Emmitt Smith in Cardinal red.

But what are the chances of Favre ever taking another snap for the Pack? Odds are that, when Jared Allen lines up for the first time as a Viking against Green Bay the opening Monday night of the season, he will be trying to destroy Aaron Rodgers and not Brett Favre. And despite the yearnings of some, Brett will not be taking snaps from Matt Birk for the Purple. It would be suicidally stupid for the Packers to let Favre go so he could play in the Vikings‘ West Coast offense.

The non-comeback is likely just a flame of rumor and speculation…deliberately fanned by Favre and his agent. Why? Because Brett is bored. Because Brett doesn’t feel appreciated enough. Because the Packers removed his locker, and the players are all talking about moving on, and he wants everyone to remember who the man is.

He never left…and he will apparently never leave. Not as long as there are accolades to be received.

So much for the gunslinger riding off into the sunset. This gunslinger doesn’t even want to get on the horse.