Brett Favre Scandal After Retirement Yrs

Favre Won't Fly As A Jet

Brett Favre won't pilot the New York Jets, despite how it might make a fitting end to the quarterback's unique saga.

Sports pundits can show how the Packers, Favre and Jets can benefit from a divorce and marriage for this wily veteran who has everyone guessing. Favre will likely string this out much longer, as it keeps his name and this drama in the headlines. He's making some very big waves and enjoying it all from the behind the scenes. I don't blame him.

Favre needs to show he has the upper hand. But putting the Packers on notice whether he'll appear at training camps has GM Ted Thompson and company spinning their wheels. I'm not so certain the Jets are that interested anyway, since the rumored asking price (1st round draft pick) is too high for someone who may not be committed to playing any longer than one more year.

While Thompson has his sleeves rolled up and head coach Mike McCarthy watches to see if his now number two quarterback arrives by Monday, Favre can put his feet up. Sure, he can file for reinstatement and show up for practice, but why bother. He doesn't need the paycheck and doesn't need reporters hounding him. He can sit back in the shadows and watch everyone else struggle.

Scenarios with the Jets and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are just a ruse as he attempts to tire out the Packers with the Brett Favre watch. If things cool, he could make another headline splash to keep this thing going, to keep Packer nation vigilant. He may want to be devisive at this point, because his true desire to me is to don a Vikings uniform so he can haunt his old team.

Why does he want to do this? Hasn't anyone whose ever been scorned by a former employer wanted a chance to get back, get even? Favre didn't have any bargaining power with Thompson, to keep or get lineman to protect him from career threatening injuries. He couldn't get Steve Mariucci an interview for the head coaching post, or persuade the GM to get a receiver like Randy Moss who could have put their team in the Super Bowl. And Thompson acted like he didn't want Favre's input and likely wanted the QB to know his input what not desired.

So, it was difficult year-in and year-out for Favre to commit to playing another year. Thompson and McCarthy would try to persuade him not to retire, because they knew they had a better chance with him, that Favre was still money in the bank. But, when they wanted him out of the picture, they stopped showing up on his doorstep. They feigned interest in him after his retirement speech, because they wanted everyone to think they wanted him back when they actually didn't.

No, unlike previous years when they would make him promises of what they would do to persuade him to keep playing, they started putting doubts in his head. For instance, McCarthy telling him what happened to Joe Montana late in his career, like it has any parallels. But, an obvious tactic to get him to retire a Packer, knowing full well that he might have a desire to jump ship because the Packers were jerking him around.

Favre has no desire to be a Jet or a Buc, because that gives him just the smallest chance to prove they made the wrong choice when the messed with him. The Vikings, however, a division rival, presents him the greatest chance to strike back at Thompson and McCarthy. He knows defections of players like Sharper and Longwell to the North Division rival have gotten under some people's skin. But Favre defecting? That might cause mutiny on the Packer's ship of idiots.

So, while the Packers scramble to keep NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Packer nation happy, to get a deal that will keep this distraction out of the headlines so they can 'move forward' like the lemmings they are, Favre can study Vikings highlight films and prepare for his ultimate comeback.

Stay tuned. I'm sure there is more to come in the who blinks first war that Thompson started but won't be able to finish.