The future Hall of Famer Touches down in New York

by Mark Cannizaro

Throughout his Hall of Fame career, we've seen Brett Favre in triumph, defeat, disappointment, and anger. He's shown a full range of emotions on and off the field.

There’s the exuberant Favre, euphoric like a boy at the neighborhood playground after throwing a game-winning touchdown pass, playfully celebrating with teammates by throwing snowballs at them or picking one of them up and carrying him to the sideline over his shoulder.

There’s the intense Favre, focused and firing passes like bullets all over the field like a trained assassin.

There’s the distraught Favre, standing in anguish before reporters explaining how and why he’s just thrown four interceptions after a loss.

There’s the emotional Favre, who remarkably played through the grief of losing his father, delivering one of his finest, most memorable performances five years ago before a national television audience.

There, too, is the tearful Favre, who on March 6 couldn’t convey the words announcing his retirement without breaking down in a waterfall of sadness, his voice giving out like a creaky old wooden chair.

Most recently, we’ve seen a sometimes somber and even irritated and bitter Favre, who went through a shocking, very public and very curious divorce with the Packers, the franchise he’ll forever be associated with. Playing on the frozen tundra for 16 seasons, he shattered the most important quarterbacking records in the game along the way to becoming one of the greatest ever to play the position.

That unfortunate Green Bay split brought out his latest face: a weary and wary Favre, who was traded to the downtrodden New York Jets franchise as the team prepared for its first preseason game against the Browns.

Favre, in his opening press conference as a Jet, conceded to “possibly not knowing what I’m getting into’’ coming out of his retirement of exactly 90 days and doing it with a new team at 38 years old after spending all but his rookie season with the Pack. “Whenever a player is talking about retiring, he’s already retired,” legendary coach Bill Parcells has said. Eric Mangini, Favre’s current coach and a Parcells disciple, has heard Parcells’ comments but has a somewhat more hopeful perspective. “In this situation, does the inverse apply?” he said. “As soon as a person thinks about unretiring, are they unretired? I look at it that way.’’

Some players retire because injury has forced them out of the game. Others stay too long as their skills diminish. The smallest percentage go out on their own terms. Favre appeared to be doing that in March, walking away after playing one of his finest seasons — highest career completion percentage (66.5%) and 28 touchdowns against just 15 interceptions.

But that familiar should-I-stay-or-should-I-go tug of war engulfed Favre as spring began to transition into summer and his inner alarm clock began gearing him up for training camp.

Fifteen minutes after Favre’s first practice with the Jets, we asked him if he even felt as if he had retired at all. “That seems like so long ago, it seems like a dream,’’ Favre said. Asked what the turning point had been that told him he still needed to play, Favre said simply, “Just time.’’

“Throughout the offseason, I don’t know if there was one particular moment or day I said ‘I don’t want to play,’’’ Favre said. But “there were some times in practice [that first day] when I was wondering if I made the right move.’’

He isn’t the only one with that question.

Michael Strahan, the longtime defensive end for the New York Giants who walked away from the game after last year’s shocking Super Bowl upset, doesn’t know if Favre can put the Jets over the hump, let alone past division rivals the New England Patriots. “I don’t know how well that’s going to work out as far as what he can really do to help the Jets, take them to the next level, because I just don’t see it as an opportunity for that team to go to the Super Bowl,” he said.

“The Jets are still in a tough situation,” Strahan said. “Even though he brings a lot of experience, ability and leadership, I don’t know if he brings enough to bring that team over the hump. He can come out and have the same year he had in Green Bay last season, which is great. [The Packers] almost made it to the Super Bowl, but they didn’t do it. He can do the same thing with the Jets and almost make it but not do it.

“In this business, if you don’t win the Super Bowl, then it really doesn’t mean anything. You can’t guarantee any success because of success you had before. I think he’s going to bring a spark without a doubt, solidify that quarterback position, but for how long? That’s the question. Is it a oneyear deal? Two years? Three?”

Other big-time quarterbacks who have taken the plunge into retirement think the Mississippi gunslinger still has a lot left physically.

Steve Young, former 49ers quarterback, current ESPN analyst and winner of multiple Super Bowls, said the challenge may be more mental than physical.

“The problem — and you heard him say this the last couple of years and then when he retired — is that he very explicitly said that he was tired mentally and emotionally. I completely understand that,” Young said. “It is a grind emotionally to be one of the better players in the league, to handle the expectations knowing that your team needs you to be great. It’s not an easy grind, and you do wear out.”

And Favre is not in familiar surroundings. “Fans are going to love Brett Favre, but he’s still has to go perform,’’ Young continued.”He doesn’t have as much in the bank with the new fan base in New York as he had in Green Bay. He knows this is a tremendous challenge and there are not a lot of comfortable old shoes around.”

Young said it’s going to be key for Favre to have protection “from an emotional, organizational framework” for when he hits a rough patch. “He’s all in on this. I’m going to be right behind him because I want him to be successful on it.’’

Boomer Esiason, the former Cincinnati Bengals, Arizona Cardinals and Jets quarterback, who retired when a third and final offer to join the CBS Mondayw Night Football crew in the booth was presented to him, supports Favre’s U-turn.

“I think it’s going to be an unbelievable year,’’ he said.”If he is the guy who played two years ago for Green Bay and is careless and reckless with the ball, this will be an unmitigated disaster. But if he plays half as good or three-quarters as good as he played last year, this will be a resounding success.’’

“I’m glad he’s playing and I think he should play,’’ says Esiason. “He has the right to change his mind, just like Roger Clemens changed his mind. Magic Johnson did it, Michael Jordan did it.’’

Playing professional sports is “an aphrodisiac, and I don’t mean in a sexual way,” Esiason says. “There’s a lot you lose when you decide to take that uniform off or when a franchise tells you that they don’t want you anymore.

“Almost all players will tell you, you don’t retire until they kick you out of the game,’’ Esiason says. “You stay as long as you can because you’ll never be able to get it back. And I would venture to say that every player that has ever suited up on a Sunday afternoon or Monday night, there’s nothing in life that can even remotely bring you back to what that feeling is in the locker room before the games.’’

Esiason estimated that “a good 50%’’ of the players he played with have struggled to find their way in a different world after retirement.

“Where’s Johnny Mitchell today?’’ he said. “What’s Ickey Woods doing? Where’s Eddie Brown? The broadcasting thing, while it’s great for a small number of us, a number of other guys I played with haven’t done so well.’’

Facing retirement was a scary thing for Young, who was forced into retirement because of recurring concussions. “I knew it was on a cliff before I retired, and then I retired and realized it was a much higher cliff than I thought ... and there are a lot of bodies at the bottom of that cliff, because they can’t transition,’’ Young said. “I totally understand that. I prepared. I went to law school. I was thinking about it all the time. And when I retired, I realized I had to decide to start over and climb the hill again.

“For Brett, it’s coming, whether it’s after this year or next year. He can put it off, but it’s coming. And I think he got a taste of it this year. And that first year is not fun.

“From an emotional standpoint, it’s stark reality that if you’re going to do something else productive in this life, you have to humble yourself and start over,’’ Young continued.”You can’t just shake hands and tell people about the old days. And when you’ve been riding high as one of the better guys that played, you don’t want to start over.

“Football players love third-and-10. They hate it and they love it. Down by four in the fourth quarter, when it takes everything you have. And there are just not that many places in life that take everything you have anymore. People who try to replicate it get into trouble. It’s not replicable. You have to move on.”

Young, who has forged a successful TV career, is one of the great examples of an athlete who found his way after retirement. But, from experience, he sympathizes with those, like Favre, who are still in the middle rounds of that steel-cage wrestling match over what to do.

“The reality of retirement is very stark, and when you retire, you retire from the thing you’re greatest at, and now you find out that you’re not really great or even good at other things,’’ Young said. “Then the game draws you back because that’s what you’re great at. Everybody who’s a professional and a trained world-class athlete is going to want to do what they’re great at, especially when faced with the stark reality that we’re not really great at anything else.”