Brett Favre: Just Another Selfish Athlete?

That Brett Favre will be a first ballot Hall of Famer is a given. 

However, watching Brett in the final weeks of the 2008-09 NFL season, one surely has to wonder how much of his reputation has been tarnished. While it is unfair to blame all of the Jets collapse on Favre, he certainly is due his fair share.

To put it bluntly, he was awful during the stretch run of the Jets. This time of year—and this kind of weather—was supposed to be the reason the Jets acquired him in the offseason.

After a good start to the season and that wonderful flourish (beating the Titans and the Pats) in the middle, Jets players, management, fans, and even the media were giddy. Who could blame them? But, when it came to crunch time, they could not count on the one person they had invested so much in: an aging, self-admitted sore-armed QB. 

The messiah could not lead them to the promised land.

Was the decision to trade for Favre a bad move? 

Or, was Brett's decision to come out of retirement for one more grasp at the gold ring the real bad move? 

Me personally, I think Brett should have gone home and spent more time with his hunting dogs, rather then to try and squeeze one more year out of a broken down body. Surely he had to know what the Packer management knew: that his better days—not even his best days—were a thing of the past. 

Yet, Favre either couldn't or wouldn't see the writing on the wall. 

Great athletes are nothing if not a mass of monumental ego. In fact, this is probably the one trait required to achieve any level of greatness. But, this ego is often the reason they cannot walk away with their dignity intact. 

Favre will go on with his life, the Jets will move on, but in the end this season was nothing more than a giant tease, and ultimate let down for all of the faithful Jets fans. 

Brett, you should be ashamed of yourself.