Brett Favre's School of Math

In normal mathematical situations two plus two usually equals four.  If you divide a number by one, you get that number.  And regardless of the technicalities, there is nothing greater than 100 percent.   But it seems that occasionally certain athletes bend the age old rules and principles of math and confuse everyone in the process.

The Brett Favre saga is like a horribly designed math problem on the SAT meant to cross up young college hopefuls.  At first glance it seems like a relatively easy question.

Here's the math problem:

If Brett Favre holds a tear felt press conference, stating after 17 years that he wanted to leave gracefully i.e. not creating a media circus in the process like last time, what is the probability that he will return?

Answer: Zero percent.

Correct, Brett Favre has expressed zero desire to return to the game of football as of early June, but then one faithful night, while doing whatever it is that retired football players do, Favre contemplates a return.  What is the likelihood of Favre staying retired?

Answer: 99.9 percent

Thus, you have reached the Pythagorean Theorem of Athletics.  A Professional athlete can retire at the top of his game, and the triangle per se.  And can then go down two paths.  One side of the triangle allows the player to stay retired; the other is represented by the .1 percent chance of return that all athletes are given to come back.  Brett Favre, Roger Clemens, and Michael Jordan call this the "itch".

Now I'm not a math scholar by any measure, but .1 percent is not that high of a value yet it seems to be enough to get these great athletes to risk their credibility and make a return back to their respected professions. 

With that said you have to consider that there are other things factoring into the decision to come out of retirement, more so than the nonchalant portrayal which is usually given by these athletes.

So we go back to the original question:

If Brett Favre holds a tear felt press conference, stating after 17 years that he wanted to leave gracefully i.e. not creating a media circus in the process like last time, what is the probability that he will return?

And keeping in mind that the Packers were 13-3, and that Brett Favre left the game of football a field goal away from his third Super Bowl appearance and as of now has done nothing to squash these rumors 100 percent as false. 

Answer: Only Aaron Rodgers will still be saying zero percent.