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If … no … when Favre returns, the NFL owes him a heck of a sendoff

Sporting News, The, Jan 28, 2005 by Paul Attner

The NFL does so many things just right, from marketing to scheduling to maximum exposure of its stars. But it doesn't do retirements right. When Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ends his career, the NBA has a seasonlong celebration. In the NFL, heroes seemingly all announce their retirements at season's end. There's a press conference and then, months later, maybe a home-city salute. That is so un-NFL.

We need Brett Favre to change all this. We need him to tell us he is returning for a final season so every team that plays host to the Packers in 2005 can properly show him how much he has meant to the league. Then the final game of his career should be at Lambeau, with a ceremony befitting a player who has given us so much.

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Favre will return next season. Even though notions of retirement entered into his thought process with more strength these past months, he still has more football to extract from his being before he returns to Mississippi and spends the rest of his life trying to lower his handicap to scratch. So one more year, and that's it. We just want to relish it along with him.

Certainly, his combination of skill, showmanship and likability will be missed. No one else playing today comes close to equaling this combination. Even in the midst of his dreadful wild-card weekend performance against the Vikings, he still produced another of his "smile" plays--when he concocts some improvised moment that gives us unexpected joy. This time, it was the lefthanded, underhanded toss into the end zone that would have been a touchdown other than for a technicality. Seems he already had crossed the line of scrimmage. Still, it was so much fun to watch.

You may dislike the Packers, but Favre? Hard not to cheer for him. He gets it in a way we all should appreciate. He has no facades, no entourage, no hidden agendas. He is incredibly funny and unaffected by all the fame that surrounds him. He still plays because he still enjoys it. He loves the competitiveness and the camaraderie and the challenge. That's why he'll be back.

And when he does return, there should be a party that the NBA could never match. That, finally, would be so NFL.

If … no … when Favre returns, the NFL owes him a heck of a sendoff

Sporting News, The, Jan 28, 2005 by Paul Attner

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