Dear Mr. Favre:
I understand you currently have a tad bit of drama in your life. A few months back, you thought it best to retire from the sport you loved, because everyone was chomping at the bit for you to. All of us football fans had been anticipating your retirement for the last eight years, as all of your contemporaries hung up the cleats. But over those years, you still had the skills and desire to play, and fortunately, weren’t racked by debilitating concussions or other injuries that have forced some quarterbacks out too soon (gratuitous Steve Young reference of the post.) So you stayed in the NFL, losing some of your effectiveness as a quarterback and as a leader in the locker room (your teammates grew up watching you play – you’re from a completely different generation as yours) but still leading the Green Bay Packers to respectable seasons.
Then you finally did retire this past spring – with more tears than Jerry Rice while reading his poem to Steve Young at Young’s retirement ceremony (which I swear the only line of that whole poem was “and still, there was criticism.” Rice wasn’t going to be named poet laureate for that effort, that’s for sure. And yes, that was the second gratuitous Young mention of this post) After a few months of retired life, fishing in the bayou got boring, and you must have gotten sick of being the only guy in a female dominated household (especially considering your wife is one tough cookie.) You started practicing – because heck, what else have you been doing most of your life? – and figured out that even in your late thirties, you are still a thousand times better than the Kyle Ortons, Kellen Clemens, and random Dolphins quarterbacks of the world.
So you want to come back to the Packers. No biggie, you thought – I’m kind of a big deal, like the kids like to say. The Packers will throw me a ticker-tape parade for coming back. Then the Packers got all “player development” on you, said that they would rather give Aaron Rodgers the opportunity to lead the team, and stated that they were less-than-pleased with this turn of events. “Really?!” you must be exclaiming. “Aaron Rodgers over me? I’m Mr. Brett Favre! Fifty-year-old sports journalists have huge man-crushes over me! In fact, …On Being a Sports Girl named me one of the hottest quarterbacks of all time! Really?! You must be pulling my chain, Packers front office.”
Mr. Favre, I feel your pain. I mean, I haven’t retired and asked for my job back before. I did transfer colleges and briefly (as in for five minutes one day) consider transferring back. I’m pretty much the committed sort. But enough about me. Mr. Favre, if you want to come back, you should be able to come back and play. Not as a “mentoring” backup to a young gun. Not with a fight in training camp for a spot. No. You should be able to come back and contribute to a team that needs a solid, proven and reliable quarterback. A team that is small market, just like Green Bay. A team whose fans and front office is all about the old school, that will appreciate you for who you are.
Mr. Favre, have you thought about moving to Buffalo, New York?
The Buffalo Bills have a coach you are familiar with – Dick Jauron was defensive backs coach with the Packers during your first few years with the organization. He head coached two of your divisional opponents (the Bears and the Lions.) The Bills are a small market team, just like the Packers, but they also have a regional draw. Buffalo has a fascination with fried foods and cheese, just like Wisconsin – just in chicken wing and blue cheese form. Buffalo also enjoys its fair share of beer – hey, it’s not Leinenkugel, but Honey Brown isn’t shabby. And of course, Buffalo can out duel Green Bay in snowfall any year.
The Bills have their quarterback of the future, Trent Edwards, and as much as I adore the kid, a year or two on the bench watching you wouldn’t hurt him. And Buffalo is just waiting for a legit reason to drop JP Losman like a hot potato, and bringing you on board would totally be it! Just imagine the crazy Bills fans scooping up Farve Bills jerseys like they’re Wegmans coupons and storming St. John Fisher’s field even more than they usually do during training camp. Mr. Favre, Buffalo could completely rejuvenate your career. You could do no wrong in Buffalo!
Mr. Favre, please keep asking for your release or your trade from the Packers. Have your agent contact Ralph Wilson, or the more capable people in the Bills front office. Trent won’t care – he looked up to you as a kid, just like everyone else currently in pro football did. JP will care, but who cares about him. Coach Jauron will thank his lucky stars. You’ll give poor, depressed Western New York something to be happy about! I implore you, Mr. Favre- please come to Buffalo!
Whatever you do decide, I hope you make the best decision for you. But I really hope you make the best decision for Western New York.
With best regards,
Sports Girl Kat
P.S. Oh, and yes, I realize that Favre is misspelled on the Bills jersey above. The custom jersey generator at the NFL Shop website will not let me input Favre, so I used the way I typically spell his name. It must stink if you are really a Bills fan named Favre whose favorite number is 4 and you want an customized jersey.
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The following thoughts don’t deserve their own blog entries, but here they are nonetheless:
– The US Olympic Women’s Gymnastics team has been named. In addition to the previously named Shawn Johnson and Nastia Lukin, Scrunchie Girl Chellsie Memmel, the North Shore’s own Alicia Sacramone, Samantha Pesek and Bridget Sloan made the team. Shayla Worley, a favorite for that sixth spot, broke her fibula during the selection camp and Memmel suffered a mild back injury. And why do they insist on a selection camp again? You just subjected two of your country’s best gymnasts to injuries that might not have occurred if they hadn’t been training full out for three competitions to determine their worth.
– Did I pick a good year to jump on the Milwaukee Brewers bandwagon, or what? Oh, Gabe Kapler, your supreme hotness is inspiring the Brewers to succeed, I am sure.
– This is just about the most controversial thing I’ll ever say on my blog, but I’m going to say it. The majority of USCHO posters do not know hockey. That’s it. They are also driven by the cult of coaches. Not every coach is absolutely right in how he uses every player, and some players are with teams that aren’t perfect fits. Why not look at what a player has done in summer leagues, in the weight room, or in prep school or their development league before making wild accusations about someone’s talent? And gosh darn it, if you are going to follow hockey, learn the freakin’ sport. I have learned that if I want to keep my sanity as an overall hockey fan, I need to not visit USCHO in the off-season. I think their posters go absolutely nuts without college hockey to follow (not that I blame them) and turn their forum into an overrun by trolls bash-fest. Listen, USCHO Fan Forum-ers, there are a lot of people reading those boards, and some of them are probably the players you are talking crap about. Do what you will, but be respectful about it.
– I really am enjoying Scarlett Ice, a blog about the Ottawa Senators, as of late. The discussion of Ray Emery that has taken place as of late there is really thought-provoking. Even if you don’t follow the Senators, I recommend reading it.
– I also thought that this piece about Shawn Thornton by Kevin Paul Dupont in the Sunday Globe was awesome. I really enjoy the Boston Globe’s hockey staff – Dupont and Fluto Shinzawa – and don’t know what my Sunday’s would be without their Hockey Notes page. (I had a brief conniption last week when it was only half a page long.)
– Steve Page’s mugshot – posted on Perez Hilton.com – totally saddened me even more than I was already saddened by the incident. While Perez shows he knows nothing about the band because he exclaims at the end of his post, “Time to find a new lead singer!” – duh, Ed Robertson has been the lead on most of their biggest hits, and Page probably has the best voice in the past twenty years of pop music – he does point out the fact that Page screwed over his band big time. They had to cancel their children’s performances, and who knows what will happen to their plans to record this fall. I hope Page gets the help he needs, and that the band can still continue to perform and make music.
– I am looking for a new WordPress theme, and I am having an awfully difficult time finding one. Anyone have suggestions?