Brett Favre is the ultimate Iron Man of the NFL. He has played for four different teams spanning 20-seasons and surpassed Jim Marshall’s record 270 consecutive starts in the NFL. He has won 3 MVP awards, been to the Pro Bowl 11 times, and is a Super Bowl Champion. He holds the record in every major NFL passing category including passing yards, touchdown passes, and career wins. Despite all these accomplishments, Favre will not retire. Although he has ‘retired’ at the end of each of the past three seasons, Favre has quickly jumped back at the opportunity to play again on multiple occasions. Over the past three years, we’ve seen him shipped from Green Bay to New York to Minnesota, where the 41-year old is often injured and failing to live up to any expectations, exemplified by the Vikings’ current 4-7 record and Favre’s QB rating of 71.0, the 4th lowest in the NFL. The longer Favre continues to play, the more he is tarnishing his reputation, and his health.
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| Brett Favre (left), Barry Sanders (right) |
Barry Sanders is widely regarded as the best Running Back in the history of football, yet tops zero all-time rushing categories. Despite making the Pro Bowl every year during his 10-year career with the Detroit Lions and winning one NFL MVP award, Sanders is 3rd on the all-time rushing yards list, and 3rd in the Single Season Rushing Yards list. He never even played in a Super Bowl, let alone win one. After ten years of football, Sanders shocked the football world, retiring when he was less than 1500 yards from breaking Walter Payton’s all-time rushing record. To keep put this into perspective, Sanders was averaging more than 1500 yards a season over his 10 years. Sanders stated he did not care about records and simply wanted to retire. There were never any serious talks of coming out of retirement, and his legendary status on the field has been enshrined.
These two Hall of Fame football players have gone about retirement in completely different ways. Favre has every record, but Sanders has the respect of every single player and fan that has witnessed him play. When it comes to retirement, you only have one chance to do it right.
After the 2007 season with the Green Bay Packers, Favre realized that his tenure as starting Quarterback was being given to the younger Aaron Rodgers. Realizing the end of his era in Green Bay, Favre tearfully announced his retirement from professional football. The problem was that he did not want to retire. Even when announcing his retirement, Favre mentioned, "If I felt like coming back – and Deanna (Favre's wife) and I talked about this – the only way for me to be successful would be to win a Super Bowl." (1) Favre was never fully committed to retiring, but wanted to leave on top should he not find a suitable team to play for. The 2008 season saw the New York Jets finish 9-7 and missing the playoffs, which led to Favre’s retirement announcement. “I have family and friends who are like, 'All right, Brett. Is this the real deal? To me, it is. It is. Believe me. It's been a wonderful career, I couldn't ask for anything more. It was worth a shot for me to go to New York. I wish I could've played better down the stretch. I didn't. It's time to leave." (2)
Favre returned again the next season, this time with the Minnesota Vikings. This time he nearly achieved his goal of getting back to the Super Bowl, but the team fell in the playoffs to the eventual winners, the New Orleans Saints, in the NFC Championship game. Favre, this time citing health concerns, packed it in again: "I didn't feel like physically I could play at a level that was acceptable. I would like to thank everyone, including the Packers, Jets and Vikings -- but, most importantly, the fans." (3) But he came back.
This year, the 41-year old has been consistently playing injured, shown a lack of mobility necessary to be an elite quarterback, and made key mistakes costing his team wins. His reputation will no longer be solidified solely as the man that accomplished all those great things, but also as the grandfather, still playing quarterback, and not knowing when to retire.
Barry Sanders, on the other hand, will forever be missed from football. He was on the verge of all the records, and retired prematurely. Emmitt Smith, the current NFL All-Time leading rusher with 18,355 yards took 15 seasons to reach that mark. Smith has acknowledged that "If [Sanders] hadn't retired, he would have been the NFL's first 20,000-yard rusher.” (4) But Sanders did retire, when the history books could have had his name imprinted at the top forever. "The reason I am retiring is very simple," Sanders wrote in a statement soon after his retirement. "My desire to exit the game is greater than my desire to remain in it." (5) And that’s the way it should be.
Football is a cruel sport. Only a few lucky ones get to leave on top. John Elway retired after back-to-back Super Bowls. Michael Strahan left the game after winning the Super Bowl over perhaps the greatest football team ever, the 2007 New England Patriots. The majority of football players, however, leave the sport with a loss. Retirement isn’t about winning or losing. It’s about whether you want to play and whether you have the ability to play. After the 1998 season, Sanders was still an elite player, but didn’t have the desire to play anymore. He retired. After the 2007 season, Favre still had the ability to be a starting Quarterback in the NFL, and clearly hadn’t lost his will to play. Yet he has retired 3 times since and returned every time, clearly showing his lack of commitment in each retirement.
Barry Sanders will be forever missed from the sport of football. Favre will not, and that’s a shame.
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one of my favorite players, willie mays, also postponed retirement and sadly, a marvelous ball player looked lost as he put in time with the mets after great years with the giants. a player of unique beauty stayed too long and it was a sad spectacle . favre's memory will always include the last few years and will tarnish the memories. how sad.
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