I don't want Brett Favre to leave Green Bay

(Sorry, I have to say, before I get into my whole Brett Favre spiel, let me just say that watching Miss USA fall on her ass pretty much made my night yesterday. Thank god my friend told me it was on because it would have sucked major eggs to miss that. Pure comedy. Oh, and Miss Venezuela was about as dumb as a bucket of hammers.)

Just minutes after Brett Favre announced his retirement shortly after the 2007-2008 NFL Season ended, everyone wondered whether or not Favre would actually stay retired or would he want to come back for another season after being just one game away from the game’s ultimate prize with a young talented team. After months of telling journalists across the nation that he was finally done for good, Favre decided just about a week ago that he still had that “itch to play” and asked his former team for one more shot. After not feeling like he was welcomed to come back to Green Bay, Favre has asked to be released so he can let another team in this league (gasp!) take advantage of his services. After hearing the story, I have to say that I’m more than disappointed in the Green Bay Packers. Not that I don’t understand their wanting to move on as franchise, but their not being open for Brett Favre’s return just makes no sense (to me) on so many different levels.

Reason 1: Brett Favre is a better quarterback than Aaron Rogers
The Packers are extremely confident in Aaron Rogers, and as a franchise, I like to see them having so much confidence in their young quarterback who had to know it would take a life time before he actually got the starting job after being drafted to Green Bay, but the fact remains that, when Brett Favre is on your roster, he is your best quarterback. Of course, the Packers need to start developing the youngster, but why not do it with Brett Favre on your roster? What’s wrong with going a little NCAA on these NFL teams and letting Rogers take a few series ever game to give him that much needed game time experience? Especially knowing that when he fucks up, you can always go back to Favre. No pressure for Rogers and Favre gets his last hoorah. Without Favre, you’ll see a whole lot of Rogers handing the ball off to Ryan Grant until he gets use to the speed of the professional game.

Ultimately, this comes down to the whole ‘we’re in this to win Super Bowls’ thing, and Favre gives you a better chance right now. The NFC is going to be as tough as it’s been in a long time in this upcoming season, and if I’m a Packers GM, I’m going to want to put out as competitive a roster as I can next season, and replacing Rogers with Favre just takes away from that competitiveness.

Reason 2: It’s going to be weird seeing him in another jersey
I’m not a Packers fan in any shape or form, but I do not want to see Brett Favre in another jersey. Ever. Can you imagine him going to Minnesota? The number four and the name Favre on a fucking purple jersey just doesn’t seem right. What about Favre in Baltamore or Tennessee or San Francisco? That shit would be gross. I just don’t see him throwing touchdown passes to Benard Berrian. Nor do I see him throwing them to mark Clayton or Justin Gage or Bryant Johnson, not if they’re not clad in green and yellow jerseys. No one wants to see that, no real football fans at least. It’s sickening, and it’s a phenomenon that football fans from other teams have experienced before, and we never like it, we never get used to it, and we never want to get used to it. A few recent (since the turn of the millennium) examples of record holding players moving to another team after spending their whole career with one include, but are not limited to, Jerry Rice traveling across the bay to catch passes for the Raiders (even as a Raiders fan, I could never get used to that shit), Emmit Smith going to the desert to take handoffs in for the Cardinals and the worst of all (well, the worst for me) was when Tim Brown traveled across the country to play for the fucking Buccaneers after losing the fucking Super Bowl to John Grueden’s fucking team (more on this later). What I’m trying to say is, it never works for the fans of the game, and it’s just not fans of the said team who don’t like when this happens. I don’t think it’s good for football, especially when some dirtbag ass fan wears the jersey of the player for the new team. It’s disgusting.

Reason 3: The Packers Fans
It’s hard to imagine any sports franchise loving a player more than Brett Favre is loved in Green Bay. Only transcendent players get love like Brett Frarve gets loved. We’re talking the Magic Johnson’s, the Larry Bird’s, the Michael Jordan’s, the Joe Montana’s, the Wayne Gretsky’s, the Babe Ruth’s, the Ozzie Smith’s and the Cal Ripkin’s of the world. We’re talking about some of the most loved athletes to their respective teams, and Favre is definitely in that class. There, I’m guessing, is nothing much to do in Wisconsin except to cheer for the two colleges (Wisconsin and Marquette) and to cheer for Brett Favre while they gnaw down on their fucking cheddar. When you take Favre away, you take away the best thing to happen to the state since Vince Lombardi. For a lot of the younger citizens in Green Bay, it would be taking away the only quarterback they’ve every known and letting him throw a football to some receiver unknown to them wearing a jersey that isn’t green and yellow. It’s hard to fathom for me, I can only imagine how the Packers fans must feel (and I know it’s terrible because of this story on ESPN that says that the fans want him back). I’ve experienced this twice in my life (the first time was when Al Davis fucked Marcus Allen and allowed him to play football and retire in Kansas City, but I know this is a different situation, I just write about it every chance I get because I'm still bitter as shit, I wasn’t old enough to solve for variables yet, but I sure as hell was old enough to understand that my favorite running back of all time would never put on a fucking Raiders jersey again. The second time, as mentioned earlier, was when Tim Brown, the greatest Raiders receiver of my lifetime, and a top 3 of his generation (I only rank Jerry Rice and Chris Carter above brown as far as receivers from the late 80s and 90s go, and I’ll argue point for point with anyone who disagrees with that shit, anyone, even you Rich Eisen!). I almost cried watching him catch is 100th mother fucking touchdown pass, for the fucking Buccaneers – against the mother fucking Raiders!! In the fucking Coliseum. 99 with the fucking Raiders, the mother fucking 100^th with the fucking Bucs (Sorry, bad times garner bad language). No one in Green Bay is going to want to experience that, especially is Favre succeeds. There is nothing worse than watching the best player to ever grace your franchise (or at least the best in your lifetime) play for another team – and do well. I feel bad for Packers fans, I really do. They’re losing a legend, a football icon, a first ballot hall of famer who just want’s one last hoorah. Give it to him. Please, give Favre one more season. Not for me, not for football, do it for Green Bay.

Stay Hideous
-PB

(Word count to date: 37,679
62 days and 62,321 words to go)