Brett Favre, just hours after being retrieved from his farm in Mississippi by three Minnesota Vikings teammates,
practiced with the team today then met with the media. This will be my final season he said. . . . again.
What’s funny about that comment, aside from his repetition concerning retirement, is that he thought the most common reaction would be, “thank goodness”. He mentioned that his wife and family will be happy that he’ll be out of pads and a helmet after his 20th season and assumes the rest of America will share that same sentiment.
Much has been written about why the 40-year-old slinger finally caved in to veterans Steve Hutchinson, Ryan Longwell and Jared Allen after they appeared on his doorstep this week. Now the question is; is Favre healthy and prepared enough to make a Super Bowl run.
Veterans of twelve-step programs say they are taught that addicts and alcoholics are egomaniacs with inferiority complexes. Both parts of that dichotomy were on display during our third annual “Is He or Isn’t He” summer ritual.
The quarterback is always concerned he’ll disappoint his team of the moment who happens to be the Vikings this season. It’s hard for us to understand that an athlete with Favre’s ability could ever doubt himself.
He admitted he had to grow to believe his teammates when they said he didn’t need to have the same kind of record-setting year he had in 2009 when he threw for a career-best 33 touchdowns and only 7 interceptions.
According to Favre what got the deal done was when one of the three teammates put their pitch in question form asking for a favor. He realized his fear of failure was only dominating his own mind and not theirs and that one little “yes” from him would make them very happy.
While he’s agonizing he puts his own needs above the rituals of a team, the practices, training, bonding and letting teammates and coaches know who to pencil in for first-team play calling. He’s special enough to ignore the fact that any rehab and workouts he was doing in Mississippi would be just as easy to do at training camp. All under the guise of him being afraid he can’t live up to expectations.
Other than the Packers and their GM Ted Thompson, no other team has told him to stick his ridiculous indecisiveness and put it where the sun doesn’t shine. So it’s back to work for Brett Favre and supposedly only one final try and football glory Here’s a video clip from the press conference.
Used with permission of the author.
Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles.
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