FanNation

It is a spectacle the likes of which we can't off-hand remember seeing before.  A star football player announces his retirement in a lavish ceremony; his number is slated to be retired in the team's season-openng game; the media lavishes with elaborate rememberances and replays of past glories.  And then the superstar decides to come back, but his team doesn't want him, and so he throws a tantrum.  

Somewhere along the way someone needs to remember just what Brett Favre really was as a quarterback.  Drafted by the Atlanta Falcons, he'd been bypassed by several teams, notably the New York Jets who at the time employed Ron Wolf in their front office; the Jets also missed out on a chance to hire Mike Holmgren, who was coming off a stint on Bill Walsh's Forty-Niners coaching staff.  Favre played sparingly for the Falcons and was shipped up to Grenn Bay, a team whose best days were thought long gone thanks in part to some unwise personnel decisions - refusing to draft Joe Montana, for one.  

Favre started as a backup until early in the 1992 season he took over, leading a comeback win over a Cincinnati Bengals team that was beginning a twelve-year slide to irrelevence.  From there Favre began forging a gunslinger reputation, and it got the Packers into the playoffs where they beat the Detroit Lions two straight years before falling to the Cowboys.  

Favre developed an addiction to painkillers that became the big story entering 1996, but the Packers stormed to 13-3 and made Superbowl XXXI.  They faced the New England Patriots, a team that had shocked the favored Pittsburgh Steelers in the playoffs, then took down the surprising Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC Title Game.  The Patriots, though, were torn inside by a head coach in Bill Parcells who during Superbowl week made a ream of phone calls to Hempstead, NJ, arranging to take over the NY Jets in 1997. 

The Patriots fell behind 27-14 in the Superbowl but a Curtis Martin touchdown brought them within six and with Favre now struggling to move the ball.  In stepped Desmond Howard and a back-breaking kick-return touchdown that earned him Superbowl MVP honors and gave Favre a championship.

The Packers made Superbowl XXXII but this time faced a Denver Broncos squad that did what Parcells never attempted - attacked the Packers up the middle.  As a result the Packers played catch-up most of the game and favre cost them the game with an interception.  It was the start of his long slide in playoff games as he lost to the Forty-Niners in the 1998 playoffs, then went two years without a playoff berth before making it to the divisional playoffs in St. Louis in the 2001 season and throwing six INTs in a particularly gory rout.  Favre's game, though, was not getting better, as he was not hitting the film room to the extent the game was increasingly requiring.  Favre then helped author Green Bay's first home playoff loss since before the Second World War as the Atlanta Falcons ran all over Lambeau Field in the 2002 Wildcard round.

Favre would win only two more playoff games, both against the Seattle Seahawks, before coughing up more picks to the Eagles in 2003 and to the Minnesota Vikings in 2004.  But the signature moment of his playoff career came against a NY Giants team that spent the 2007 NFC Title Game bullying the Packers on both sides of the ball while coughing up turnovers and botched field goal tries and thus keeping Favre in the game.  Favre then threw a hideous interception at the start of overtime and the Giants made him pay.  

Favre's playoff record thus stands at 12-10, an inferior winning percentage than the playoff records of Jake Delhomme, Drew Bledsoe, and Donovan McNabb.  His 19 INTs to 16 touchdowns in the playoffs since his one triumph shows a player not only not improving his game but refusing to do so.  What it makes clear is that Favre is not an asset to a team, but ultimately a liability.

Green Bay is right to keep him out; they've been held hostage by him for long enough.  Favre needs to quit football and stay away from the game; we as fans are tired of having to bear witness to him not being able to let go.