The Pain of a Pampered Celebrity: Behind NFL Superstar Brett Favre's "Unretirement"

When I was a football-crazed kid growing up in Wisconsin, the words of Vince Lombardi would play like a tape loop in my head. "Think of only three things," the disciplinarian coach would tell his players. "God, your family, and the Green Bay Packers."

Despite its narrow focus -- there were, after all, other things to think about back then, like race riots and Vietnam -- Lombardi's admonition hit home for a God-fearing Catholic boy growing up in Milwaukee. Every fall Sunday, I'd listen to the Monsignor drone on in mass at St. Peter and Paul, before racing home to shed the stiff clothes and slip on the green and gold jersey of my hero: quarterback Bart Starr.

Now, another Packers quarterback, even more legendary than Old Number 15, has re-written Lombardi's bromide, adapting it for the celebrity athlete of the new century. "Think of only three things," Brett Favre is saying in his ill-timed comeback attempt, four months after his tearful retirement in Green Bay. "Me, myself, and I."

Yes, times have changed. We can't and shouldn't expect athletes to follow their coaches around like worshippers. And Lombardi probably wouldn't survive a week with today's stratospheric salaries, seven-figure endorsements, and special contract riders to coddle its top players. After three years of playing the NFL's Hamlet -- each new off-season brought reruns of "to play or not to play" -- the old gunslinger finally retired.

He cried. We cried. But at least, this time, it was a real goodbye. No more drama; no more skipping out on minicamps as our pampered hero searched to rekindle that inner fire.

Oops. In his stumbling attempts to come back, Favre is showing his adoring masses that he really does think, "it's all about me."

Shouldn't a legend have the right to change his mind? Sure. Yet repeatedly since March, Favre had that chance, but didn't act. Days after the drama in Green Bay, he started speaking about the "itch." According to Packers' general manager Ted Thompson, in late March Favre even told the team he wanted to come back -- only to change his mind yet again, just as Thompson and head coach Mike McCarthy were planning to fly to Mississippi to work out the details.

So the Packers moved on, drafting two quarterbacks in April's college draft, and planning to retire Favre's jersey at their Monday night season opener against the Vikings in Green Bay. This was to be the handoff to the protégé, Aaron Rodgers, who had patiently waited his turn for three years, even after Favre pointedly refused to be the younger man's mentor. (That alone should have told us something.)

Favre's selfishness is even more apparent in his whining to Fox's Greta Van Susteren, herself a Wisconsinite and Packer stockholder, and part of Favre's celebrity team pushing his comeback. Favre is outraged that Thompson, while acknowledging the importance of the quarterback's legacy in Wisconsin, actually had had the nerve to say, "Aaron Rodgers is our starting quarterback." The petulant superstar moaned to his pal Greta, "how does it protect my legacy to be the backup?"

Release me, Favre now dramatically insists, so I can be free to sign with any team I want. Including the hated division rival Bears or Vikings? (The Packers recently filed tampering charges against the Vikings.) Not only would Packer fans burn Thompson in effigy, Favre's number 4 would also be in flames.

I know it must be hard. You can only mow so many blades of grass from the seat of your Mississippi tractor before you start going loony. But, sorry, Brett: After years of watching your own highlights reel, you now seem to believe you actually are larger than life. Sadly, your narcissism keeps you from seeing what the rest of us already know: the sun does not rise and set just for Brett.

There's an easy solution. The Packers and Favre could agree on a list of teams they'd both be okay with him playing for. And then they could trade him. But Favre, despite lecturing past teammates about the need to honor their contracts, wants more special treatment: Free agency with two years left on his contract.

As the PR battle rages, the fawning sycophants from Fox and ESPN, ever striving for access to a once (and future?) NFL megahero, are piling on Thompson as if he's a small-town amateur. But what Thompson knows, but is too smart to say publicly, is that Favre is fading. Despite his great first three-quarters of a season last year, he froze in the playoffs, bowing to a younger man, Eli Manning, as he threw yet another interception -- breaking his own all-time NFL record -- right into the arms of a New York Giant.

This image -- a Favre interception that dooms the season -- has become a recurring nightmare for Packer fans, who tend to forget that the last time Brett took them to a Super Bowl was more than a decade ago. Unlike my old hero Bart -- who brought five world championships to Green Bay, and once had the record for consecutive passes thrown without an interception -- Brett's record-setting "picks" are the main reason why he has but one Super Bowl ring.

So the normally stoic Thompson, clearly shaken by the national media's rage, and the divisions within Packer Nation, is right to move on. For it is Thompson who is actually carrying on the work of Vince Lombardi.

Unlike Favre, he's actually thinking about the team.

Sandy Tolan is author of the baseball memoir, Me and Hank: A Boy and His Hero, Twenty-Five Years Later. He is associate professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California.

Comments

[JimR]

Oh please, it's a business. I honestly do not understand all the vitriol against Favre. Bunch of fair weather fans, sounds like to me.

Green Bay has decided to move on without him? OK, fine. So either cut him or trade him. Otherwise, they are just being colossal a-holes.

[gettysburg]

Favre has used the Packers and their fans. If I were one of them, I'd be outraged! It's obvious from his phone calls to Brad Childress and another Vikings coach, he has orchestrated this whole episode in order to come back and play for the Vikings. He never had any intention to play in Green Bay. What he has done and is doing is devious and just plain wrong. He wants to come back and play, but on his terms and with his buddies in Minnesota. What a jerk.

[Fletch17C]

Favre had a chance to walk off into the sunset with a sense of class. He has made a deliberate choice to come back as bratty, arrogant slob.

We know the Packers will eventually trade Favre. Having him hold the clipboard is a drain on the salary cap. Right now, they are merely showing the prima donna how it feels to be held hostage -- just as Favre has held the Packers hostage for the last few seasons.

Farve will not agree to go to a team that will not use him as a starter. What he is apparently too dumb to realize is that the only teams that would have a use for him as a starter are REALLY BAD teams.

Brett Farve will leave the NFL as a loser -- and he has no one to blame but himself.

Karma is a bitch.

[ptillen]

This story has completely dominated the news in the Milwaukee area, and I don't just mean the sports news, I mean the news news, to the exclusion of all else, including last week's PGA event and the fabulous run the Milwaukee Brewers are enjoying. If I was a member of the Brewers' organization right now I'd be good and pissed.
Favre talks about his precious "legacy" but he's doing his level best by his current actions to destroy it. What a shame, cause up till now he's always been a positive influence and a model of how to be a class act in the sports world.

[Grissom1001]

Poor baby must be missing all the attention.
You hung it up Bud and your time has passed. You either be remembered as a has been or someone who left when the game was over.
Your game is over. Hear that buzzer? YOU pushed it. Now go away.

[Nommo]

What's stuck in his craw is the last play of his career. Did anyone think that he was really retired? One more "in the flat".