Brett Favre Apologists, Meet Roy Halladay, the Genuine Article

"I think I'm done talking about it for a while. You have a responsibility from time to time to address different situations. I feel like I've tried to do that to the best of my ability. At this point it's out of my hands."

Write it down, take a picture, etch it in freakin' stone, and then get the word to your boy Bert.

Those were Roy Halladay's words in response to yet another question about the maelstrom of trade rumors that have been swirling around his Toronto Blue Jay baseball cap—and I do mean maelstrom.

Ever since J.P. Ricciardi announced he was fielding offers for arguably the Show's best artist on the bump, the rumor mill has been grinding furiously, and over the All-Star break, it ground out of control.

These babies have become so random and haphazard that I think I saw the San Francisco Giants' name pop up—something about Madison Bumgarner and others going to Canada with the Ace of Aces heading to the City.

Wow.

Somebody had to be drinking a lot of coffee and working on zero sleep to reduce that gem to writing.

The Gents currently have one of the strongest starting rotations in Major League Baseball, their fifth starter just threw a no-hitter in a pseudo-emergency start, and Bumgarner is one of the most coveted prospects in all of baseball.

Not to mention San Francisco's offense is iron deficient to the point of being several steps from a run-scoring coma even in the best of streaks.

Why, in the name of Joe Nathan, would Brian Sabean leverage a potential ace, under control for years, for a current ace finishing up his contract in the relatively near future? When his team desperately needs offense and has young, dominant hurlers coming out of its ears?

The lunacy of that particular example should give casual fans a good idea of how amped up the hysteria has gotten.

Unsurprisingly, it's gotten to be too much for Doc, one of the Majors' classiest offerings on his worst day.

His words prove it—both parts.

Whether they work or not is beside the point because he said them. Once they passed his lips, those of us arguing for Brett Favre to stop the insanity had our smoking gun.

I've always agreed that the media is partially to blame for the (unbelievably) still-ongoing Brett Favre Saga. Some of its members are tireless, shameless, and lack creativity—those unfortunate souls will hammer a story until there's nothing left, not even a beaten corpse.

However, most members will stop asking a question if they don't get a juicy answer.

That is the very nature of the business and why jackasses like Terrell Owens and Curt Schilling become such media darlings. It's pretty tough to turn "no comment" into a sexy story, so the reporters focus on those unlikely to regurgitate clichés.

Since this is the general rule, the brunt of the blame for the mind-numbing morass is landing on No. 4's shoulders. He's kept indulging the charade with his flirtations and come-hither fence-sitting.

Never once has he played the card Roy Halladay just played.

Favre has never mounted a sincere campaign aimed at stopping all the whispers because he adores the attention, pure and simple.

I'm not saying he absolutely could have stopped this monster in its infancy; I'm saying the fact that he never tried proves he never wanted to.

The right-hander's words are all the proof I need to confirm what I've expected all along: Brett Favre has become a diva.

Doc Halladay is the real gunslinger.

**www.pva.org**