FanNation - The Republic of Sport

I'm sure you've all heard now of the retiring of Bear's Archenemy Brett "the Hated One" Favre, and a bunch of rumors surrounding his retirement. "Green Bay pushed him out." "Bill Parcells is showing interest in signing him." "Jon bon Jovi wants him to play for the Philadelphia Soul."

First off, if you believe the last one, you are guarenteed to believe every single thing you here, so here it goes:

• Kevin Love will win the NBA MVP next season.
• The Indianapolis Colts franchise will move to Dover,Delaware following the 2009 season and change their name to the Dover Dumba*s*s*e*s.
• The Durham Bulls will win the World Series next season.
• The World Series of Poker is a sport.
• Rex Grossman is the best Quarterback in the NFL, and will throw for a 102.6 QB rating next season.
• NFL Europa will return and eventually get better TV ratings then the real NFL.
• O.J. Simpson will sign a 6 year $200 million contract with the Montreal Expos.

I think you get my point now.

Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to focus on how the rest of the sports world is coping with the Packer's loss, and everyone else's gain.

I went around asking random people in the streets of Chicago I've never met how they feel about Brett Favre's retirement. Here's what I got:

55% said they were extremely pleased with his retirement and are looking forward to next season.

23% said they were surprised that he retired and will miss him.

18% were both sad he was leaving but happy he's gone. 82% of these people were intoxicated.

3% said they didn't care.

1% told me to give him my wallet.

Seriously though, will Favre's absence make that big of a difference next season? Only time will tell if Aaron Rodgers can even put up mediocre numbers compared to Favre's. There's no question that the NFC North is up for grabs now, with the Vikings as the new frontrunner, but where will the Packers finish?

We don't have much to base our guess off. Rodgers has only played in 7 NFL games and only had 35 completions off 59 attempts for 329 yards and 1 TD.

It's hard to speculate how he'll do, but at best, I only see the Packers coming in 2nd at best with Mr. Rodgers at the helm. His inexperience will show, and inexperienced/mediocre QB's thrive (or anti-thrive, I guess you would say) in the NFC North. Examples include Rex Grossman, Kyle Orton, Joey Harrington and Tavaras Jackson.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see, but for now, Bears fans, it's time to celebrate.

Damn it feels good to be a bears fan

(above): Me at 6 months