What We Talk About When We Talk About Favre

"3 time NFL mvp reportedly has doctor's appointment next week."

The piece Will Leitch wrote about The Decision applies here. There's an illusion at play 100% of the time in sports - that the players care about more than themselves, than the money, than their health. That they sell out, love the team and the region as much as the fans, care about their legacy and the history of the game. The truth is, Nick Mangold and Percy Harvin don't go home and watch the NFL network - they play video games or golf, go to clubs, try to heal. The game isnt a past time to them, its a profession. Most of the time, players keep quiet because they know theyre lucky to play the game at all, or get paid enough to pretend. We think of athletes as making tremendous sacrifice, when in fact they are pampered babies.

The biggest stories in sports recently have been about players like Lebron and Favre tearing a hole in the curtain, revealing this world for what it really is - the biggest assholes you went to high school with having their egos stroked and their wills enforced, public be damned. The way Favre has acted over the past 2 years (and possible 5, if you're a Packer fan) has been unprecedentedly self-centered, offensive and condescending, both to the media and the public. HE SENT TEXT MESSAGES OUT YESTERDAY ANNOUNCING HE WAS STEPPING AWAY, almost for the sole purpose to get people talking about him. Remember guys, I'm still here, I'm still the big story, this is still all about me. 

Lebron may have acted odiously, may have stabbed the Cleveland fans in the back, but at least we knew he was going to do it. He was a free agent - he was entitled to do whatever he wanted. Favre is under contract to the Vikings - what few people are saying, but must be understood, is that his current actions constitute a holdout. Here is a man at the tail end of his career, making 13 million dollars a year, who is staying away from camp not even for the money, but so his coach, his owner and his fans will come crawling back, begging for him to return. Montana, Unitas or Namath this ain't. Favre is not burning out or fading away. He is shooting his guns straight into the air, demanding attention like a deranged English king, hoping everyone will notice and bring up his glory days again. This guy won 1 super bowl, the same as Phil Simms, Brad Johnson and Mark Rypien. Time to go away.