The general consensus among all the sports TV and radio pundits is that this time it just might stick. Why? Sure sounds as if Brett found out that his body was finally giving out after 18 years being the gunslinger.
You may recall reading comments after the end of the season that Jets' sources were strongly suggesting to Brett that if he wanted to return that he should have surgery to fix the elbow/shoulder problems which basically became very apparent down the season stretch. Brett just wasn't able to throw the ball with the zip and accuracy for which he was famous. And it didn't appear as if Brett was too anxious to go under the knife and re-hab just to essentially get one more year of play in to spite Packers' GM Ted Thompson. He'd already done that. Heck, in Favre's interview with ESPN's Ed Werder (see yesterday's post for link), he said that he really didn't care whether his stats were better than new Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, he just wanted to have the Jets win more games than the Packers. He succeeded in that latter goal. He got his personal revenge on Thompson that way, at least.
So, how are we going to know that Brett actually stays with his decision? As one Green Bay sports reporter noted, a clue will be as to whether Brett does decide to have surgery or not. If so, that might be a precursor to yet another comeback. How likely is that? Based on Favre's comments, this time it sounds like he might actually have realized it's time to hang up the cleats for good.
But we thought once before.
Judge for yourself. You can listen to a bit of Favre's teleconference below.
If you want to read Brett's retirement non-press conference comments, you can do so here. You can also see lots of links to lots of other related comments.
One of the better clips is a "burn" from sports guy Jim Rome about how Favre blew it with Green Bay, not vice versa. Watch for yourself.
Statement from the Packers
The Packers took a good portion of yesterday to come up with their official statement. It's short and sweet, which is probably for the best.
Congratulations to Brett on a remarkable career. The Packers organization wishes him and his family well. Brett always will hold a special place in Green Bay Packers history, and we remain committed to retiring his number at an appropriate time in the future.
