Come on, Brett, just walk away

BY DARRELL MOODY

Appeal Sports Writer

Okay, I've had enough of all this talk about Brett Favre.

My esteemed colleague Joe Santoro weighed in on this more than a week ago in his Friday column, so I thought I would express my feelings on Favre and a possible comeback.

Don't do it, Brett. Why tarnish what was a great career? You don't have anything to win or gain by returning to pro football. Besides, if you felt as strong as you professed to about the game, why did you quit in the first place?

I think back to the comebacks of both Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. Both failed miserably. Both were just a shadow of their former selves. They would have been better off staying retired.

I hope the Packers don't give Favre another chance. How many years can a guy keep holding a team hostage? I know Favre is a first-ballot Hall of Fame selection and I know he is probably in the top five as far as all-time quarterbacks go, but that doesn't give him the right to hold his team hostage on a yearly basis.

Would the Packers be better if he returned this year? Probably.

However, at some point the Packers have to move on. There has to be life without Favre. The team needs to find out sooner or later whether Aaron Rodgers is the guy under center for the franchise. Rodgers got a substantial signing bonus from Green Bay, and the franchise needs him to start justifying that.

No doubt there will be some bumps in the road. Rodgers will make mistakes. Look back on Favre's career. He was always prone to interceptions because he would try to force the football into tight quarters. I think Rodgers will do fine if they ask him to manage, not win, football games right off the bat. That means the Packers' defense must continue to improve, and the team must develop a solid running game. Those two things will take an immense amount of pressure off Rodgers.

Bring Rodgers along slowly like the Steelers did with Ben Roethlisberger, who is now just coming into his own. Big Ben now feels more comfortable with the offense, and he can be counted on to make the big plays to win games. If the Packers do that, I believe they will have a pretty good quarterback in two or three years.

If I'm Packers general manager Ted Thompson, I trade Favre to an AFC team. Favre wouldn't be happy mentoring Rodgers and playing a secondary role. You also don't want Favre to go to rivals Minnesota and Chicago, both of which need quarterbacks desperately, and both of which could challenge the Packers in the NFC North.

Let Favre go to an AFC team, and depending on how the schedule works out, you may only see him once out of three years, and that's if he stays in the game that long. If the Packers make the playoffs under Rodgers' guidance, I doubt that you will hear much whining from Packers fans. There might be a few NFL teams that would be willing to gamble a mid-range draft choice that Favre stays around for more than just another year. Certainly the Packers won't get a first-round pick for him.

Favre strikes me as a guy that just doesn't seem to know what he wants to do. He obviously isn't happy without football, but at times he isn't happy with football, either. Favre doesn't like all the prep time between games, nor does he like training camp.

Grow up, Brett. Football hasn't changed much since you started, and it's not likely to change in the future. It's hard work. If it were easy, there would be a million Brett Favres running around putting up Hall of Fame numbers.

- Contact Darrell Moody at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1281