You may remember (sure – like you actually remember reading it) my thoughts back during this years Spring Training.  Grand pontificating about how I could give two shits about the steroid controversy in sports, particularly baseball. I like to be entertained and I like to follow my favorite teams. It’s a nice form of escape. I don’t want to hear about what these high priced athletes do off the field, or their contract negotiations, or the illegal substances they’re shooting into their ass. I’m interested in what happens on the field. Period.It’s sort of a topic along those lines that’s bugging me today. Matter of fact it’s about some old guy looking to continue getting out between the lines that’s got me perturbed.

Brett Favre is older than fucking dirt – and frankly – I just wish he’s go away already. I know – I’m old too – but you don’t have to read about me in the sports pages every damn day (I’m usually in the dumb criminals section).

No denying – he was a great quarterback, and a fantastic gamer in his prime but his final pass really should have been the one he completed to Corey Webster of my beloved New York Giants. That fateful overtime interception in the 07-08 NFC Championship game that basically sealed the deal and set up the winning field goal that sent the Jints to their win in Super Bowl 42. That game is a great case in point as to why Favre should have just gone away then. Nobody thought the Giants could beat the Packers in frozen Lambeau Field – it was ice, snow and about one hundred below. But the Giants defense made Favre look like Abe Vigoda in a cheesehead helmet – he really should have carried through with his multiple threats to hang it up after that game.

Instead, he decided to fence sit for most of the off-season – holding up the Green Bay Packers in their plans for moving forward and formally awarding the starting quarterback job to incumbent Aaron Rogers. He spent way too much time wondering if he wanted to retire or not – being wishy washy with the media and his team. When the Packers finally had enough of his prima Donna bullshit they simply handed the job to Rogers, offered Favre a gold watch and some ice fishing mittens and hoped he would gracefully retire – almost on top.

Nope – old Brett then felt slighted, and began to whine loudly – demanding that the Packers allow him out of his contract so that he could negotiate a deal to play for the Bears or Vikings – arch division rivals of the Packers. Nice way to show Packer fans just how much of a team guy he was. The Packers of course would not allow it, but did however manage to trade him to the New York Jets for a case of Ben Gay and three bottles of Viagra. Yup – seems it was official – Brett was coming back for another year – to shine in the lights of Broadway with the Giants sad ugly stepsister – the Jets.

Favre certainly did have some good games for the Jets – and they cleaned up with merchandise sales of #4 Jets jerseys and denture cups with the Jets logo and Favres lifetime interceptions records on them. Hell, he even may have had something to do with the odd sales increase of Wrangler Jeans in the New York metro area. However, the year did not end well. For while Brett continued his ironman consecutive games streak, a rumored elbow ailment seriously curtailed his late season effectiveness, and with it dashed the playoff hopes for the team.

So as the Jets set off early back to the proverbial drawing board, the media covering the circus that Brett Favre had now become began the annual speculation as to weather he would or wouldn’t retire. Brett, as had become his custom – went off to the woods of Mississippi to hunt – because the killing of innocent creatures for sport apparently helped Brett decide if he wanted to bother NFL fans for yet another season. Somewhere along his trip however, he most have gotten lost – because the Jets were trying to move on. Brett would not give them a clear answer as to what he wanted to do, and the Jets, to their credit, were actually somewhat lukewarm to him returning. They’d just hired a brand new head coach whose basic motto is simply “don’t take shit from anyone” and they decided not to put up with Favre’s annual indecision condition. They told him to take a fucking walk, and drafted a hot shot quarterback in the first round of the draft.

So what did old Brett do? Now effectively a free agent – he decided to once again keep some young deserving quarterback out of a job in Minnesota – as he has been rumored to have signed with the Vikings. Of course, he’s said he’s staying retired, and they haven’t as yet had the proverbial press conference with thousands of reporters and John Madden fawning over the great Brett Favre – but Favre actually underwent surgery to remove the age spots from his elbow that sunk the Jets this past season and has attended team meetings where he went incognito by wearing bifocals and a hunting hat. I just can’t wait for the same damn media circus that has surrounded his decision for what seems like the last ten seasons, that Brett Favre has decided to come back for one more year.

Go the hell home already – nobody cares about your unfounded vengeance against the Packers – the organization that you obviously helped win many games for with your reckless style, but let’s face facts – you also cost the team plenty of games with your…reckless style.

I think why this situation pisses me off so much is that like anything else – you get tired of hearing and seeing the same old stories over and over. Let’s hear about the games and the players who are performing currently – and quit spending so much time on a washed up player who’s more interested in keeping himself in the spotlight than truly helping a team. His me-first behavior has severely damaged his reputation as a warrior and legend – and that’s sad. Lots of players have hung around just a little too long – but very few have made themselves more annoying than a mosquito buzzing in the ear of a guy with no arms.

Just go away Brett. Go far Farve away.