The numbing affect of No. 4

Matt’s Take:

Mr. Favre,

For many years you have continued to amaze me with your “never say die” approach to playing quarterback. You have always lived by your arm, and died by your arm.

I enjoyed watching you sling the ball, sometimes successfully, sometimes not, into a space big enough for a dart. But after two consecutive years of throwing your teams chances away with INT’s, I think it’s time to hang up the cleats.

From this point on, all you can do is tarnish what has been a stellar and Hall of Fame career. I want to remember you for the guy who after defeating the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI, ran and jumped around the field like a 12-year-old boy.

All I see now is a soon to be 41-year-old man with a gray beard, who doesn’t know when to let go. I understand football is all you have ever done, and all you may know, but STOP IT PLEASE!

You know it is time to hang it up when your own agent, Bus Cook, says publicly that you are a “drama queen.” Cook went on to say that he is tired of Favre and his “play, don’t play” attitude.

Wow! Thanks Bus for just saying what every single person in the United States of America is thinking.

I guess we should all forget about the comment you made after you ended the Vikings season against the eventual world champion Saints last season, when you said that you were going to make your decision “earlier” this time around. We all know how this is going to play out. You are not sure you are going to play, then about two weeks into training camp, after the team has attempted to move on, you will decide that you are ready to go.

Andrew’s Take:

So Brett hasn’t decided whether or not he will be suiting up this fall. And if you’re not sporting purple and yellow, you shouldn’t care.

If the Star Tribune turns the gunslinger’s indecision into front-page news, that’s fine. Minnesotans need to know whether or not the most important piece to their offensive puzzle will secure the Vikings’ spot as a legitimate Lombardi Trophy contender, or not.

And make no mistake about it. Brett Favre is the most valuable player on the Minnesota Vikings’ offense, which was proven in a close-to-heroic NFC championship game that was literally handed to the New Orleans Saints by Adrian Peterson. (Shut up about the interception. There was more than one play in that game.)

But, nationally, the story is a broken record.

As a football fan in the offseason, you should assume that Favre’s future is in limbo, and then move on. This has been going on, literally, for half a decade.

I do think it’s a bit ridiculous that he leads these teams on, but I’m used to it. And I think that, in the end, all of this will be a freckle on the face of his legacy. Just like his abuse of painkillers has become, if you even remember it. He has just done too much.

As for my feelings on the guy, I’ll let you deduce.

I have been a Green Bay Packers fan since I could speak. By the time I was seven-years-old I had memorized most of the roster, and I was watching when Don Majkowski went down with an ankle injury in 1992, and this “nobody,” Favre, stepped in.

I was also in attendance, 17 years later, as he won his last game at Lambeau (as a Packer), in the divisional round of the playoffs against the Seattle Seahawks.

And now, there is a green No. 4 jersey in my closet, collecting dust.