Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Fed up with Favre?

Don Banks has had it with Brett Favre:

This is going to get the Favre apologists’ undies in a bunch, but here goes: From my vantage point, Favre, the past two weeks, has come off as just another selfish superstar who wants what he wants, regardless of the consequences to his team or his ex-teammates. Favre’s been great for the Packers. But the Packers have also been great to Favre, and he’s seeing everything as a one-way street about now. Just the way so many of the great ones eventually do, after they’ve been built up and lionized and called legendary so often that it becomes part of their name.

I’ve got no problem with Favre wanting to play again. My problem with him is he put everyone through the charade of his retirement in March, with all its deserved fanfare. If he would have played it out in his head for even five minutes, the havoc he would wreak from un-retiring in early July, he would have realized it would be best for everyone not to make a hasty decision in March.

But that’s what he was feeling then, so he went with it, even though it had huge consequences for the Packers, Aaron Rodgers and everyone in the Green Bay organization. And now he’s feeling something different, so he’s going with that, even though it has huge and potentially destructive consequences for the Packers, Rodgers and everyone in the Green Bay organization.

You can say he changed his mind and leave it at that. I say in doing so he has acted selfishly and ignored the reality his actions affect far more than just himself. ...

Just so we’re clear on this, there’s no way to put this genie back in the bottle when it comes to Favre, the Packers, and the 16-year love-fest that they’ve enjoyed. Yeah, I can still see Favre showing up at Lambeau to have his uniform number retired in a couple years (not this year), and he’ll go into Canton wearing a yellow blazer that can almost pass for part of Green Bay’s color scheme. And he’ll say he was always a Packer at heart, no matter what transpired at the end.

But the warm fuzziness of his final glorious season in Green Bay, and his unique relationship with that town, that team and its special fan base has been altered. Perhaps only slightly, but perhaps significantly more than that.

I don’t buy it. 1) These days people unretire all the time. How many farewell concerts did Fran Sinatra give? How many times did Michael Jordan retire? Or Muhammad Ali, for that matter? So that’s a non-issue.

2) As for the impact on the Packers and Aaron Rogers, football is a business. I remember reading an interview (although I can’t find it on line) in which a sportswriter was interviewing a 49ers player. The player was telling the writer how the 49ers organization had screwed him over (I forget how). Joe Montana walks by and joins the conversation. The writer reported being stunned to hear Montana predict that when the time came, the 49ers would screw him (Montana) over too. And, of course, a few years later, that’s precisely what the 49ers did. Teams do what’s in their self-interest all the time. Why then should we criticize players for doing so?*

* In an ideal world, of course, players would turn the other cheek and follow the Golden Rule even if teams didn’t. And vice-versa.

3) As for Favre’s legacy, did Michael Jordan’s final stint really do his legacy with the Bulls that much harm? How many people remember that Babe Ruth finished his career with the Boston Braves rather than the Yankees? Ruth remains a Yankee immortal to this day. Ali remains a boxing legend even though at the end he seemed to be fighting solely for the money and got his clock cleaned in his last two fights by Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick. When things die down, Brett Favre will still be a Packer legend.