August 3, 2010

The Nineteenth Retirement

ESPN ought to thank Brett Favre for providing fodder for a round-the-clock, non-stop coverage item.  You can be sure that coverage of this, Brett Favre's most recent announcement of his retirement from professional football, will be the only thing discussed in any sports media today.  When the Vikings offer to raise his salary to squeeze just one more year" out of the 40-year-old 19-year veteran, Favre's fourth unretirement will receive the same level of coverage, as will his post-unretirement re-retirement announcement.  This will all happen before the regular NFL season begins.

Come to think of it, most of Favre's previous retirement, un-retirement, re-retirement, re-un-retirement, re-re-retirement, re-re-un-retirement, re-re-re-retirment, and re-re-re-un-retirement announcements, just like today's re-re-re-re-retirement announcement, all seemed to happen during pre-season training camps or otherwise in the few weeks leading to the beginning of the formal NFL season.  Cynics might suggest that it is all to jockey for additional money, but I would not agree.  Favre makes way more in endorsements than in salary, so salary isn't the big issue for him so much as ability to play and maintain visibility and thus make his endorsements valuable. 

No, my thinking is it's good old-fashioned narcissism, which ill-suits someone whose record speaks for itself and places him indisputably and forever in the pantheon of "greatest ever" contenders -- and may there never be a clear winner.

1 comment:

Matt Parker said...

Nah. He just wants to avoid training camp.