By Amir Said
Brett Favre's helmet is too damn small. It looks like the primitive Ridell helmet I had to wear when I played Pop Warner football in the junior high (and that was the late '80s). For the past 5 seasons (I know he's actually played 16) I've watched this sure-shot hall-of-famer play football with a helmet 4 sizes too small, and 20 years outdated. Well, now it finally seems like that tiny helmet has caused a mishap in his brain... or has it?
The average life in the NFL is 3 years. Favre literally scrambled through 16. He's fortunate, to say the least. But does that mean he should now hang it all up? Should he cut his losses and just fade into the hall of fame? One thing I regularly tell my son is that the reason the "club crawler" actors of Hollywood get in so much trouble is because they have entirely too much downtime between gigs. And if they have nothing constructive to do, they will party by default. Well, football IS Brett Favre's gig. For 16 years, his forced downtime was that deceptively long window between seasons. Thus, what "constructive" thing will he do?
I suspect that he doesn't have a clue. And since his helmet still fits (probably), and he's only 6 months removed from an ill-advise throw to the eventual 2008 World Champs, why not play on? But the Green Bay Packers organization doesn't see it quite the same way. Brett Favre is an old investment that peaked and panned out with a Super Bowl title too long ago to remember in today's "right now" world. On the other side of the locker room is Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay's "new" investment; one I should add was a much larger initial financial investment that Brett Favre was. Remember, Favre wasn't as high as a draft pick as Rodgers... Oh, and he was traded to Green Bay, not drafted by them. So now, Green Bay wants their latest investment to pan out, even though their old investment is still capable. In professional sports, they call this process: moving forward.
The ironic thing is that's exactly what I would term as Brett Favre's actions: he's just trying to move forward. He's trying to go into a new part of his life, by exercising a part that's not yet old. The Packer organization's failure to understand this fact, or even worse, their rampant insensitivity in handling this ordeal, is disheartening to say the least. That's why I sincerely hope that tomorrow, at least one Florida newspaper headline reads: "Brett Favre to Green Bay: 'Buc You!'"
Brett Favre
See you later Green Bay, it's been real...
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