Brett Favre Walks Away After an Inspiring Career

Over the past few months, the talk of New York football fans has been the future of the Jets quarterback Brett Favre.

Favre is one of the NFL's most beloved players to ever pick up the pigskin, but some say he had been doing damage to that reputation by retiring from the Packers, coming out of retirement last spring and then going to the Jets for one season.

Others see him as a selfish fraud who plays for himself and not his teammates, and the Jets season is an extension of that.

Regardless of where you are on the spectrum, it appears the time has come for Favre to hang up the cleats for good. Favre announced through his agent Wednesday that he will retire.

While some have been very critical of athletes who don't retire when they should, the reasons for the athlete's behavior are understandable. Most people begin their trade after high school or after college. Professional athletes, for the most part, have been playing their particular sport or event their whole lives.

To these select few who have the opportunity to play sports for a living, their life has developed in the locker rooms, at practices, and in games. When they leave their sport, they leave more than the roar of the crowd, more than the home in the locker room.

They leave a lifetime of memories. It's not easy to walk away.

As we have seen from the likes of Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong, Wayne Gretzky, and Roger Clemens, masters of a sport find no comfort in vacation away from the game.

So when people say Brett has disgraced his legacy by retiring as a Jet, I ask them to hold their judgment. Athletes have a hard time walking away.

Clearly, this was not an easy decision for Brett, who has played football in both back yards and Super Bowls. I would like to extend my congratulations on a great career. Favre left the NFL in a better condition than he found it. He will be missed.