Bye Bye Favre.

Maybe it was the cowardly teammate who anonymously ripped him in print. Maybe it was the absence of a game-breaking wide receiver or running back. Maybe it was the prospect of playing for a fourth different head coach in five years or maybe Brett Favre simply decided it was time. Time to retire after defying age and injuries for 18 seasons in a league where NFL means Not For Long.
This is Favre's second retirement in 12 months. There are those who think he should have stopped at one his March 4, 2008, supposed career-ending announcement with the Green Bay Packers. (Remember all that management nonsense about wanting to protect his football legacy? Sure, just as long as that legacy didn't include Favre's playing for, say, the NFC North's Minnesota Vikings.) But Favre did a reversal, unretired, got traded to the New York Jets, won nine games (three more than the team that traded him), played with a torn biceps tendon, missed the playoffs and 45 days later called it a career. It wasn't the way he wanted to go out an 8-3 Jets start, a 1-4 finish but his legacy survived just fine.
I think he could have played another year. So did the Jets and, I'm guessing, so did Favre. And maybe he would have returned had it looked like the Jets were going to sign linebacker Ray Lewis, or make a real run at wide receiver Anquan Boldin. Maybe, but who knows for sure? Plus, it's not like Jets fans, numbed by 40 years without a championship, were clamoring for his return. It was more indifference than anything perhaps on both sides.