Brett Favre Soap Opera Wears Thin on Fans

There are many reasons for San Francisco fans to boo Brett Favre (for coverage of the game itself, see my companion piece on Sports Haze. For coverage on Favre's old team, check out my piece on PackerChatters).

No quarterback has had as much success against the 49ers. Favre has eliminated the Niners three times from the playoffs, including twice in San Francisco. He has only one career playoff loss (1998 in San Francisco), and it only happened because officials inexcusably called a Jerry Rice fumble dead.

Favre also has double-digit career regular season wins against the Niners. He has only one regular season loss, in San Francisco in 2008 as a member of the New York Jets, and it only happened because Brett played with a torn biceps in his throwing arm.

And of course, most of the country is tired of Brett's need to be chased into returning. The number of Brett Favre stories in the offseason exceeds any other single story inside or outside of sports.

His insatiable need to be chased dates back to his time with the Green Bay Packers, when he often stated the team did not want him because they did not court him enough publicly, make the moves he wanted, and dared draft a quarterback of the future.

He wanted a special schedule from the team, getting to miss mini-camp and then to be taken back when he had not been with his team all offseason and they had moved on.

With the Vikings, he has missed not only all of mini-camps and organised team activities, but training camp and even the first preseason game. He needed public courting by head coach Brad Childress both seasons and three teammates this season. The owner showed him he was wanted by offering him $3 million more this season with the chance to earn between $4 and $8 million more than that.

Finally, he decided to return.

Why arguably the greatest quarterback in NFL history needs to have everyone fawn all over him to feel wanted, no one knows. Why someone who plays a position that requires decisiveness cannot make up his mind every offseason, no one knows.

Why a guy who has known himself over 40 years cannot figure out what he needs as well as the rest of the country (after the latest report of his retirement, an ESPN poll showed the vast majority of fans were not fooled), no one knows.

So like many fans around the league, Niner fans have had enough of this soap opera. They used their freedom of expression to let him know.

Good for them. They said what most of us are thinking.