Zero2Cool
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http://www.jsonline.com/packer/news/sep05/356819.asp
JSOnline.com said:t has been, what, 10 minutes since the issue of Brett Favre's retirement has come up?
Well, Green Bay Packers fans, another 10 minutes are up.
The conditions were perfect Sunday on national television for Favre to talk about his retirement again. He was coming off a bad game against the Detroit Lions in Week 1 and a network reporter, in this case Lesley Visser of CBS-TV, asked him about it.
Favre has talked about his retirement freely since September 2002, when he mentioned it to Peter King of Sports Illustrated. Since then, it has been kind of a National Football League parlor game: So when do you think Favre will retire?
The parlor game's still going.
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Favre tends to be honest about the topic when reporters ask and that hasn't served him well, because the thing gets momentum in direct proportion to his willingness to discuss it. Sometimes he's prompted by the media to talk about it, sometimes not.
This time, in a taped piece aired Sunday on "NFL Today," Visser asked him if he was closer to retirement.
"Absolutely," Favre said. "This may be it. This may be my last year. Fifteen years is a long time. I'm just trying to get by week in, week out and not look into the future."
Favre said Hurricane Katrina had taken his mind off football.
"Part of the reason I came back was to just enjoy the season and before the season even starts, you know, here we go again," referring to the fact his boyhood home in Kiln, Miss., was destroyed, another in a series of personal challenges Favre has faced.
"I'm in a position to help people. At least that makes me feel good. I know at times it probably takes away from my football. I'm not always 100% focused on football. But I'm helping other people get their lives back together. The bottom line, that's way more important than football."
Shannon Sharpe, the outspoken CBS studio analyst, questioned the wisdom of Favre talking retirement in recent years.
For effect, Sharpe exaggerated the number of years Favre has been talking about it.
"I really wish Brett would stop talking about retirement," Sharpe said. "He's been talking about it since 2001 and here it is 2010 and you still haven't retired yet."
Sharpe sees no Super Bowl for Favre at the end of his career.
"If you're sticking around for a Super Bowl, then you are further away from a Super Bowl than you have been at any point of time in your career," Sharpe said. "I don't see help coming on the horizon. Just enjoy the moment. You don't worry about it. When it happens, it happens. You don't need to continuously talk about it and try to make it happen sooner than what it really is.
"I think he wants to feel complete by getting back to another Super Bowl and I don't see help. I don't see that."
Sharpe's colleague, Dan Marino, said like Favre he dealt with the retirement issue often at the end of his career.
"I think it happens to any great player, a guy that has done the things that Brett Favre has done," Marino said, referring to questions about retirement. "When you start talking about it, that R word, retirement, when you start talking about other things in life, other things that are more important and how you are struggling from week to week, that means it's probably pretty close and you ought to consider that.
"But I would say don't count Brett Favre out. I know people were down about the first performance. Last year, they went 1-4 and he brought them back and they made the playoffs."
One figures the Packers' loss to the Cleveland Browns is the kind of game that moves Favre closer to retirement rather than one that helps postpone it. According to Sharpe, over the last 10 seasons, 85 teams have started 0-2 and of those only nine made the playoffs.
Calling on Favre
ESPN's Michael Irvin said on "Sunday NFL Countdown" that Favre should lobby Packers management to give Javon Walker a lucrative long-term contract.
Irvin said Favre should do that because Favre played a key role in Walker's decision not to hold out of training camp and the regular season in order to get a better deal.
Favre criticized Walker for considering holding out for a new contract. Walker suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first game of the season against Detroit.
"(Favre) put himself on the line when he said something," Irvin said. "That's why you stay out of another man's business. I talked with Javon and I hope he doesn't mind my saying this, but he agonized over his decision, so much so he asked me, 'Michael, what should I do?' I know what he thinks of Brett Favre. He's the father of our league and (Favre's comments) had big implications on him coming into camp.
" 'Mort' mentioned that he talked to people in the Green Bay organization and Brett had not come in and said anything about helping Javon get a new contract and I think Brett should."
Irvin is referring to ESPN reporter Chris Mortensen.
"(Walker) did everything right," Irvin said. "He respected the game. He respected Brett. He put all of his own stuff aside. He came in and what do you think they are going to do for him?"
Favre has said Walker's contract renewal is something that would take care of itself as long as Walker continued to play and play well.
Measuring loss
Steve Young and Tom Jackson of ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown" both said the loss of Walker would have a bigger impact this season than the loss of Carolina defensive tackle Kris Jenkins.
"I think you can hide a defensive tackle," Young said. "You cannot hide what Javon Walker brings to that outside game. It's going to make their running game tougher, (facing more) eight-man fronts."
Said Jackson, "Green Bay was in so much trouble already that the loss of a Javon Walker is so much more meaningful, instead of a team that might be able to make up for the loss of Kris Jenkins."
