Brett Favre and The Dilemma Of Pre-Mature Retiring

It must be the middle of summer. You want to know how I know? It's simple. Fox News...oops, I mean ESPN has the spin machine working. ESPN has the daunting challenge of filling a full hour for Sports Center with only one true sport in season. After they give you all the baseball highlights, they still have about twenty minutes to fill.

So what do they do? One word: Filler. It's like your favorite recording artist who doesn't have enough good songs to fill an entire album so they throw in a couple of songs that even they know are no good. That is what ESPN is doing with the "Brett Favre Saga."

So after the completely pointless " Title-town" feature they are running, they feel the need to throw Bret Favre under the Green Bay Packers Team Bus.  I feel that if Brett Favre would have claimed to feel his "itch" during the NBA playoffs this wouldn't be the debacle it has turned out to be.

Players of Favre's stature have done this before without the scrutiny that he is facing. When Michael Jordan retired then un-retired then retired again then un-retired it was not this "TMZ" coverage that Favre is facing.

It was just a story in between highlights on Sports Center. ESPN in recent years has become a tabloid sports news station. Everything from Alex Rodrigueiz's divorce to Roger Clemens' affairs has become top headlines taking away from real sports news.

It doesn't help that the Packers themselves have been feeding the fire. When superstars like Jordan, Clemens, Mario Lemieux, and Ryne Sandberg decided to un-retire, their respective teams haven't aired every detail in the media. The Packers are as much to fault for this fiasco as ESPN is.

They could have quietly negotiated this dilemma without getting the Stewart Scott's of the world involved. It's as if the Packers are doing to spite Favre. It seems to me that if a Hall of Fame quarterback who has led you to numerous success would be welcomed back with open arms.

The Packers have a better chance to win this season with Favre than without him. So why are they making this process so difficult?  It's like a parent who told a child that if they did something there are going to be consequences. In this case, it seems that the Packers told Favre when he retired that it had better be the real deal because they were moving on no matter what.

What if Favre never did retire? He would still be the quarterback for the team and Aaron Rodgers would still be the backup. There wouldn't have been any quarterback controversy. The Packers and ESPN seem to be punishing Favre for changing his mind. Why Favre? Jordan, Clemens, and Lemieux were not punished.

Even when George Forman un-retired to fight again he was almost loved by everyone. Is there something we don't know? If there is I have no doubt that ESPN will tell us, even we don't want to know.

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