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Brett Favre: Can't Avoid Retirement Blitz

Brett Favre: Can't Avoid Retirement Blitz

By all accounts this has been the most arduous season in Brett Favre's 14-year career. Normally, sporting a 3-4 record would be enough to keep Brett Favre awake at night. But being a football player has become far more complicated for Brett Favre in the wake of a tragic accident and a serious family health concern. Favre is a true competitor and true family man and never before have these two components of Brett's life been tugging so hard in opposite directions.

Favre isn't saying (when he'll retire), but he did ask his youngest daughter, 5-year-old Breleigh, for her thoughts as he drove her to kindergarten on Wednesday. "We were just talking on the way," Favre said. "I've always tried to pick her brain. I said, 'Are you ready for Daddy to quit football?'...'Yeah. I'm ready for you to quit playing football, so you can live with us full-time in Mississippi.'"...I said, 'If I quit playing, there's no more football, there's no more games, no more cheering.' She said, 'No, I'm ready for you to do that.' "If you want the truth a lot of times, go ask your kids. - CNN/SI

And yet in the face of Favre's genuine off-field worries he is not tipping his hand as to where his mind is really at with respect to his football future. Favre has made himself a legend by exhibiting toughness and a will to win second to few, if any before him. Pushing Favre in any one way is bound to be met with an even stronger push back in return from him. That's the street-fighter mentality in Brett that we have all come to respect and cherish.

Do I think about it? Sure, I think about it, especially during times like this," Favre said during his weekly news conference at the Packers' administration building. "But every time something happens, people want to jump on the retirement bandwagon. The more people ask me, the more I want to stick around just to stick it to 'em. But, as I stand here before you today, it will not speed up the decision. Now, a month from now, who knows? But I think it was three or four years ago that everyone was rushing in here to hear me retire . . . and here we are, still talking. I'll keep you guys [reporters] hanging." - Washington Post

It's not that fans and the media are trying to rush Favre out of football. That couldn't be further from the truth. If anything, it is more of a conditioned response when you know you're about to lose something treasured. At age 35, the end is undeniably near. People just want to see the punch coming before they get hit in the heart with it. But no matter the 'why' or the 'when', it's going to hurt just the same.

Favre's kindergartner wants her daddy to quit [CNN/SI]
Favre Pushes Emotional Anguish Aside [Washington Post]
Photo: [Getty Images]

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