Will Brett Favre Come Out of Retirement?

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Blogcasting the National Football League, Blogcasting the NFL

When Green Bay Packers QB Brett Favre announced his retirement from the National Football League last month, I believed him. I knew, physically, he could still play. And so did he. But mentally, he wasn’t where he needed to be. He was burned out and ready to get on with his life after football. When you’ve lost that desire to go through all the pains of preparing for an NFL season, it’s time to do something else. So, Brett Favre called it a career. A brilliant, Hall of Fame career.

More recently, with rumors of whether he might ever consider returning to the game surfacing, Brett said it was the furthest thing from his mind. But, after today’s comments to the Biloxi (Miss.) Sun Herald, it is clearly not the furthest thing from his mind:

“Yeah, I can probably be up there doing that and playing, but again, I don’t know. It’s only speculating. I think the world of that team. I had a lot of fun, not only this year, but over my career ….. But to think that if they called me in October and told me, ‘Hey, we need you this week.’ That would be hard. I’m sure mentally, I would be refreshed. I’d be away from it for a long time. But mentally versus physically, the last thing I’d want to do is go up and it’s ‘Oh this is great’ and all that stuff and me be excited and then just flop. You just can’t show up and play ….. I guess the best response would be, right now, no.”

Brett seems to be suffering from some kind of post-retirement syndrome. He’s at that awkward stage where he’s not sure he made the right decision. He may say he made the right decision, but deep down inside, he doesn’t know if he did the right thing. I think that’s why he hasn’t filed his retirement papers just yet. It’s a difficult situation for Brett. He probably had a certain amount of pressure from the Packers to make some sort of announcement sooner than later because they (rightfully) need to get on with their business. But he still hadn’t recuperated enough from the previous season to get himself fired up to do it all over again. Heck, even I know that feeling. I’m still not sure I’ve recovered from all the work I did last season and I wasn’t even playing. When you pour your heart and soul into something, it takes a lot out of you mentally and physically. Certainly, Brett gave everything he had week-after-week. And when you’ve done it for as many years as he has, each one becomes a little more taxing than the previous.

Ultimately, I believe all the talk of Brett returning to the NFL will blow over. He’ll file his retirement papers and the stories of a return to glory will fade. Brett can ride off into the sunset in peace and the media frenzy can be put on hold — only to start all over again in five years — when Brett Favre is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.