Mike Burke
Y.E. Yang’s staredown? Tiger’s blink? Michael Vick’s new team? Stephen Strasburg’s new money? Those brawling coaches of the Oakland Raiders? The Orioles’ trade of Aubrey Huff?
There were so many places to start today. In fact, there were too many places to start today. It was as Scarlett O’Hara once said: I tossed and turned on my pillow all last night trying to decide.
But then Brett Favre landed. Again. And no matter what we have grown to think of him and his diva needs, he and his latest return from retirement had our attention on Tuesday afternoon.
Oh, he didn’t have your attention? You’re so bored with this movie it’s just not a big deal?
Bull. When it comes to the NFL, Favre, whether we like it or not, is a very big deal. From an individual standpoint, he’s the single biggest deal.
Whether we experienced disgust when we heard Favre reported to the Minnesota Vikings yesterday; whether we felt disdain, discomfort, disapproval or disappointment, we experienced something. Maybe it was dysentery, which would be perfectly understandable, but it wasn’t disinterest.
Come on, did you see how Favre’s arrival was being treated on ESPN and local Minnesota television? You’d have thought Santa Claus had just arrived for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. You’d have thought the Beatles were going to play again at Shea.
(For a moment, I thought I was watching Hyman Roth’s return from Cuba during the final airport scene in “Godfather II.” Fortunately, it didn’t play out the same way.)
So it was a bloody big deal in Minnesota, which I believe the hundreds of lunchbreakers who lined the streets from the airport to the Vikings training site in Eden Prairie, Minn., to greet their former hated rival from Green Bay, not to mention the folks at all of the ticket outlets, would be able to confirm.
Oh, and you think they’re feeling nothing but ho-hum boredom and “Who cares?” in Green Bay? Think again, Bart Starr breath.
Brett Favre is back again and that’s the kind of news that made it possible for Michael Vick’s name not to be mentioned a single time yesterday by any of the so-called insiders. Now do we have to like it that Brett Favre’s back? No, we don’t have to like it, but if we follow the NFL — and, we do — we’re going to watch it, and we’re going to follow it. And I’m sure somebody will even draft Brett Favre for his or her fantasy football team (which is when, my friend Ben says, Favre will probably re-re-retire).
The big question, of course, is why? Why does Brett Favre keep coming back?
For beginners, the guy must really love to play football, even if he doesn’t love going to training camp, and I can’t fault him for either — although some of his new teammates may.
But if you’re looking for some good, old fashioned dimestore psychology, here’s some. To me, Favre is a living testament to what I call The Quarterback Complex. Because of the rocket right arm the football gods blessed him with (thank you, Crash Davis), this guy has been The Chosen One/Golden Boy since he was a little kid. He’s been entitled his whole life, and he really does believe he’s entitled to this entitlement, because he’s The Quarterback, and he wants to be The Quarterback for the rest of his life.
Heck, being The Quarterback landed him one of the funniest gigs in one of the funniest movies of all time, “There’s Something About Mary,” so who out there with a drop of narcissistic blood in him can even blame him for that?
Plus, there is this little issue of being able to stick it to the Green Bay Packers, since now Favre will be playing in the same division with his former team and will have at least two opportunities to apply said stick.
If it were any team other than the Vikings, one of the Packers’ most hated rivals, I believe we would be talking about Y.E. Yang, Tiger Woods, Michael Vick, the Raiders coaches or Aubrey Huff today, because I don’t believe Favre would have come back for any other team, other than, perhaps, the Chicago Bears.
Say what you will about how Favre and the Packers parted ways — his repeated changes of heart on retirement, the fact that he would have to compete for the starting job despite all he had done for the organization — the bottom line was the Packers simply did not want Brett Favre anymore.
Nobody’s ever come right out and said that, but you can be assured both the Packers and Favre know this to be the case.
Ego and entitlement? Sure, they’re both one in the same when you’re The Quarterback. But this long, drawn-out episode is driven by one thing and one thing alone: spite.
So, yeah. You can bet your bottom dollar it has all of my attention.
Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.
