Brett Favre, who perhaps meets the definition of someone “overstaying their welcome” the best, has finally decided to retire from the NFL. Or at least, so we think.
↵This won’t come as a shock to many who saw his dismal performance this season — he finished with a rather lackluster 69.9 passer rating — but it’s welcome never-the-less. After the theatrics three years ago that resulted in Favre leaving his longtime home of Green Bay for the New York Jets, NFL watchers had to endure another two years of all-Favre all the time in the media as he just kept on playing. It seemed that no matter the locale (or even the time of year) there was always a story on SportsCenter about Brett Favre. In fact, I think they covered Favre more over the last three seasons than they covered the Red Sox – Yankees rivalry. So I doubt I’m alone in rejoicing in the end to all that… after the breathless “will-he-or-won’t-he” coverage of whether he’ll return yet again later this year happens, of course.
↵It is useful to keep in mind that we’ve been here before. This isn’t the first time that Favre has filed retirement papers and he could always choose to withdraw them and ask for reinstatement, again. But I like to think that perhaps the tarnish that his legacy has accumulated this year — with allegations of sexual harassment and improper workplace conduct, resulting NFL fines, and a reputation that is increasingly characterized more for being a difficult team presence than an NFL legend — will keep him off the field at last.
↵Maybe if Brett Favre goes away for a while we can finally start liking him again. Or not.