FAN: Favre Retiring Again...No Wait

Great. It's January 24th. Favre threw a pick which cost the Vikings a chance at the Super Bowl. With their front 7, the Vikings had a better chance in my opinion of beating the Colts than the Saints do. Oh well.

Now all we have to look forward to is Brett retiring and unretiring all spring and summer. We have about what, six months now of "will he" or "won't he"....which is six too many for yours truly and I like the man.

I was going to write a sort of parody of him already retiring and un-retiring 3 times since the game ended around 10:30 but what would be the point? I'm not sure it qualifies as a parody. He was brought there specifically to win this game and even though he had a spectacular season with only 7 picks, his never say die attitude which plagued him at times in the second half of his career came shining through today. If he takes off running with that ball and steps out of bounds they kick and win.

I think he's going to want that one back tomorrow. Next week. Next month. 10 years from now. In the end, he couldn't stop himself from being Brett.

DOG: Favre Announces Leave of Absence

I'm sure you've heard by now that Brett Favre is taking a leave from his job as a professional football player for the next several months... again. He calls it a retirement but since he's had a press conference each of the last 3 seasons to announce his "retirement," let's just acknowledge it's a leave of absence for now and leave it at that. Favre is just one perfectly timed reminder that Vinny Testaverde played QB well into his 40s from being back slinging passes for some NFL team next September.

Here's my slanted take on Favre's deal. He still wants to play football, of this I have no doubt. He had a good time playing for the Jets last year although they faltered late in the season and failed to make the playoffs. Who wouldn't have a good time throwing 6 TDs in a single game?

But he wants to play for the Minnesota Vikings. He wanted to play for them when he left Green Bay but the Packers pretty much blocked his path. Now it's another year later. The sanctions the Packers put on him moving to a team within their division are lessened greatly. He asked for an outright release from the Jets but they refused. So he retired again. But that's not the half of the story.

The other half of the story is that he would have been fine staying with the Jets under Eric Mangini. But now the Jets head coach is former Shitbird defensive coordinator, Rex Ryan. I don't think Favre has any particular problem with Ryan. The problem lies in the fellow Ryan hired to be the Jets new QB coach, Matt Cavanaugh. Cavanaugh is a knucklehead coach, plain and simple (with the emphasis on simple). In no way could I see Favre playing for Cavanaugh.

Matt Cavanaugh is the guy who ruined Brian Billick's reputation as an offensive guru while he was offensive coordinator on Billick's staff in Baltimore. Matt Cavanaugh is the guy who could not get an offense moving under a myriad of QBs both high draft picks and high profile free agents. So when Billick and Cavanaugh got the boot out of Baltimore, Cavanaugh ended up on Dave Wannstache's staff at Pitt as offensive coordinator. He was universally hated by Pitt fans. His offense was so powerful that Pitt lost their most recent bowl game by a score of 3-0! Word in the 'burgh is that Shady McCoy, who represented 99.4% of Pitt's offense last season, would have stayed for his senior year if he had known Cavanaugh was leaving for the Jets.

And that's the Steel City Slant on this story, friends.

Adios, Brett

You know how when somebody mentions a specific play you remember - you can bring it up in your mind? It's almost like your memory recorded it and you're playing it back DVR style. Watch enough football games over the years and all those memories start to overlap. It's like your brain is a 80gig drive and you really need half a terra. Dan Marino used to be my favorite player who didn't wear the black-n-gold. That changed one day as I watched Brett Favre play. He made any game I was watching interesting.....and fun. As an NFL Ticket subscriber, after the 1:00 PM Pittsburgh game ends, all I can hope for is that Green bay plays at 4:15 so I can watch Brett play. I've seen so many crazy Favre plays that if pressed, I probably couldn't describe any of them to you. They're all scrambled together like green and yellow eggs covered with Wisconsin cheese. The face of Favre included here, however, is the one that will continue to pop into my head any time anyone ever mentions him again. After that TD pass against the Patriots in the Super Bowl - when he ran around with that smile on celebrating - how couldn't you be happy for him? Today is not the day to question his legacy - as Dr. Z from Sports Illustrated did. Today is the day to say "Thanks, Brett" for all the exciting games he gave me to watch after my team had played for the day. Dr. Z went off on his interceptions and claimed he could have been much greater. Every player could have maybe been greater. I wonder if he's aware who the all time leader is in fewest interceptions per passes attempted? Neil O'Donnel. Yup. Look it up. As a Steeler fan, sometimes I would have preferred O'Donnel to show some heart and faith and cut loose instead of going down in a fetal position untouched. If Brett played by the book, he wouldn't have been Brett. If Brett didn't try to win those games by himself 5-6 years ago when he was the entire team, they may not have won any games. To me, he's always seemed like one of those crazy artists once on the field. Don't question him - just enjoy his work. I'm going to miss watching him play and I rarely say that about people, especially non Steelers.

Pro Bowl, Who Cares?

Can we please cancel the Pro Bowl this year and for every year after that? It's a sham anyway with the vanilla offenses and blitzless defenses. The stars are already pulling out. Troy Polamalu and Brett Favre pulled out today. Anyone with even a hangnail is going to cancel. Nobody wants to go, especially folks who have been done playing for weeks - it's not like they're still in game shape. They should continue to name the Pro Bowl players, but not play the game. Donovan McNabb was added to the Pro Bowl multiple times after someone bagged (dropped out, not barfed). That doesn't stop it from showing up on his resume though. I would be embarrassed to call myself a Pro Bowler if the only reason I made it was because someone else couldn't go. It's stupid. It's meaningless. It's boring. Not one person I know watches it. Bag it.