Coleman's Commentary: Long Ago and Favre Away

I have a number 4 jersey. I received it about six years ago as a Christmas gift. This was the Packer years. The Brett Favre that I remembered was the 20 something superstar running around the Superdome with the childlike smile during Super Bowl XXXI. Favre was thought of as a common man superstar. A good old country boy from Kiln, Mississippi who seemed just as likely to be drinking a cold one at the neighborhood tavern as he would living the typical sports superstars upscale lifestyle. Fifteen cars, eight houses, private jets, and limousine escorts wasn't his bag baby. He was blessed with the proverbial "Cannon" for a arm and he executed plays as if they were drawn up on a grade school playground. "Just Get Open on One....Ready Break." This style may not be the desired approach but in the NFL of yesteryear those interceptions were often overcome because the Packers of those days were loaded. Besides the good of Favre greatly outweighed the occasional "What the hell." moment

It's now 2010. In the years since many layers of Brett Favre have surfaced. The last six years have been filled with retirement talks. Many of those years Favre's uncertainty has kept his teams in limbo. Should they look for their QB of the future or should they just wait until number 4 leaves them high and dry. After a bitter divorce from the Packers, Favre went to the Jets for the simple reason it was the easiest path to the Vikings. Favre wanted to go to the Vikings for two reasons: they were a contender and they were a contender who played in the NFC North which would give Favre two chances to stick it to the Packers in one season. After a fairy tell season in 2009 which ended fittingly with the bad side of Favre in the NFC Championship, it was another offseason with only one question surrounding the Franchise will Favre return for another season? In typical Favre fashion he waited and waited robbing the Vikings of a chance to acquire another veteran QB such as McNabb. Finally Favre surprisingly decided to return once again for another season in Minnesota. Perhaps it was just merely a coincidence but as soon as Training Camp ended Favre decided to return. Another tactic that Favre has patterned over the last 6 years or so. Now off the field issues have surfaced. It's not like Favre was shooting coke at some nightclub but the events with Miss Sterger have put another chink in the Favre armor if nothing else.

I still have the number 4 jersey in the closet. However it is buried in the back behind a Mark Prior Cubs Jersey and dress shirts from my teenage years. Through the years my perception on the Kid from Kiln has changed. No longer do I see the big smile with arms in the air running around the Superdome. No longer do I see the wounded warrior playing through pain. I see the kid that is in every grade school in the country. You know the one I'm talking about. The one who may no doubt have some pain but the intensity of the pain may be a 5 but it's played out as a 10 to build up the legend. I see a typical Superstar who needs his ego to be stroked time and time again. The game is no longer played for the love of the game it's about the cheers and jeers, the love and hate, the adoration of Fathers and sons. He no doubt still enjoys the game but the desire to work and improve is no longer there. I can understand how players of Favre stature find it unnecessary and void of value to spend nights in some dorm in the middle of July. But I find it hard to fathom that nothing beneficial comes of it. It's another example of putting Brett over team. The storybook still doesn't have a ending. The final chapters sure don't point to a happy ending. I will not claim that my feelings of today will remain until the end. Even last night in the closing moments Favre threw a bullet from 35 yards into the back of the endzone that was nearly brought down by Harvin for the win. It was one of those "Get Open on One" moments. It is those moments that are becoming increasingly distant as the sun begins to set.