Favre Does Us, Himself a Favor By Staying Retired

I'm old enough to remember Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath, both the good and the bad.

Unitas was well past his prime when I started watching football, but he was still savvy enough to riddle and confuse opposing defenses. Then, in one swift moment, the Unitas I knew was gone. In his place was an old man with no arm and legs that couldn't support him.

Ditto for Namath. The ladies' man with the quick, powerful arm almost overnight became an immobile figure unable to connect with wide open receivers streaking down the field.

They were sad sights to see, and I'm afraid that we may witness it again should Brett Favre come out of retirement. Fortunately, he seems to want to stay on the sideline permanently this time. Good choice for both him and us.

A year ago, Favre, fresh from retiring from the Green Bay Packers, decided he wanted one more season on the gridiron, and it was the New York Jets who gave him that chance.

What we and others saw was Michael Jordan with Washington Wizards, Kareem Abdul Jabbar in his later years with the Lakers, or Pete Rose as player-manager of the Cincinnati Reds, all men well past their prime who had just enough left in the tank to provide glimpses of their former greatness. Yet we all knew their time had come.

Fortunately, those three decided to get out before they totally embarrassed themselves and started resembling an old Willie Mays falling down while chasing a routine fly ball. That is where I think Favre is headed should he put on a helmet and shoulder pads one more time, regardless of where he does it.

Had Favre retired permanently after the 2007 season, he might have joined the likes of Rocky Marchiano, Sandy Koufax, Jim Brown, John Elway and Barry Sanders, each of whom departed their respective sports at the top of their game. We never saw them on the downhill side of their careers.

We unfortunately got a good look at that last season with Favre, as Father Time started catching up with him.

Let's hope that's all we see, because should he decide to come back one more time, then we'll likely be watching this generation's version of an old Unitas or Namath.