Now that Brett Favre is with the Jets, I’m starting to wonder if he’s the fantasy bust of the year waiting to happen. Not because he can't play, but because he might not want to play.
When he decided to unretire, I don’t think Favre ever expected anything other than starting at QB for the Green Bay Packers. If he wanted to come back, the Packers couldn’t stop him. They could try to buy him out, but he wasn’t doing it for the money.
They could claim that he’d sit on the bench, or that he’d have to “earn” the starting spot, but that was just a bluff. He’s Brett Freaking Favre! He wasn’t going to sit on the bench while Aaron Rodgers messed up his team! That would last two weeks at best before fan pressure (carefully stoked by Brett of course) insisted – no, DEMANDED – that Brett start.
They could threaten to trade him, but who wanted to be the Packer GM known as “the guy that traded the legendary Brett Favre”. Ha! Won’t happen!
And in a way the ego-crazed Favre never saw coming, the Packers not only traded him, but made him pay for the pain he put the organization through.
The New York Jets are everything the Packers are not. Favre isn’t in a small-market with a fawning media, he’s in the biggest media market in the nation with a media that routinely attacks athletes with the coordination and compassion of a school of piranha.
Favre isn’t starting for a team built around his arm, he’s starting for a team built around the fact that the QB can’t be counted on.
Favre isn’t playing for a 13-3 team that’s a strong contender for the Super Bowl, he’s playing for a 4-12 team that will be happy to finish 8-8.
Put all of that together, and I wonder if “unretirement” will stop being fun for Favre. I wonder if he will tire of losing games. I wonder if the talk radio shows will start calling for Kellen Clemons to start so “the future” can begin. I wonder how he'll react to the calls that he's souring his own legacy. I wonder if the other Jets will tire of being blamed and overshadowed by the Brett Favre Show.
I wonder if Favre will decide to retire – again – at some point during the season.
Too crazy? Never happen?
Hey, Brett Favre is a Jet. Don't talk to me about crazy.
