Once it was apparent that Favre no longer wanted or needed in Green Bay, they decided to trade him. Favre was obviously not happy with this decision but he completely understood and told them, ok, trade me to the Vikings. Even though this was a bitterborderbattle rival, surely the franchise that Favre lifted to new heights would accommodate him with this request right? Wrong. In fact they traded him to a place he obviously didn’t want to go, and put protections in place to guarantee he wouldn’t play for that rival. This brings us to retirement numero dos.
Is it really that hard to believe that Favre did not want to stay and play in New York where he never wanted to go and play in the first place? Favre plays this game because he loves it and because he has fun. It is obvious that the Jets were in a transition and Favre wanted nothing to do with that this late in his career. So can you blame him for retirement number two either? I don’t think so.
Once he is released from his contract (which could only come after he announced and filed for his retirement) he was presented with the best of opportunities. Not only did he have a chance to keep playing football again, and not only was it with the franchise he wanted to be traded to, but he also would become the missing link the Vikings had been looking for (why else were Viking’s fans so quick to welcome him).
That brings us to Retirement Gate 2010 and my extreme hatred for ESPN (even though I still love them). The issue here is not whether Favre actually did send texts to his teammates letting them know he was definitely retiring, leaning towards retirement, or never sent them at all. The issue here is the fact that the Star Tribune, ESPN, and the NFL Network took it upon themselves to make this an official announcement (retirement #3). So apparently Favre again is a Diva and an attention W*$RE (according to OchoCinco) again, and for what? Because he text a few friends with his thoughts and feelings about where he was physically, and these “teammates” decided to leak the information out. That is hardly an announcement.
I could go on for hours but I a guarantee maybe 1 out of 100 readers have even made it this far down the post, but I will leave you with this. Why did ESPN/Star Tribune/NFL Network decide to dedicate hours of TV/Media coverage to this story yesterday even though we all heard the conflicting reports going around and around? Simple, because the real media W*$RES are the viewers who tune in for the garbage, visit the StarTrib website and watch the NFL Network, which in turn makes them all a pretty penny. If the reports are true that Favre could earn up to $20 million this season if he returns, that is merely a drop in the water these networks have already banked from pushing this media and this image on us. Yes Favre is indecisive, but who cares. He plays the game with passion, he plays the game for love, and he gives it his last dying bit of energy. He is the typical “I left it all on the field” type of guy and he could care less about how many times his name is in the media, trust that.
Agreed. The media knows exactly what a golden ticket Favre is for generating instant website hits and TV ratings. They are the whores now. Favre may have some ego issues but I can't say I would be any different. Sure he's had his days that made me sick but mostly that's because he was a packer. They guy is a legend and one tough SOB. He deserves respect. The Jets gave him that. Ted Thompson got hit with the egg after all.
ReplyDelete