COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Monday, January 17, 2011

Brett Favre Files Retirement Papers, Again








Updated: January 17, 2011, 8:31 PM ET

Brett Favre files retirement papers



MINNEAPOLIS -- Don't believe Brett Favre is finally done? ESPN
Well, the NFL's all-time leader of almost every major passing mark has at least filled out the forms.

Favre has made another move toward leaving the game for good by filing retirement papers with the league, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello confirmed Monday.

This is merely a procedural matter, to start the clock on a player's pension and Hall of Fame eligibility. It's worth noting, too, that Favre has done this before, only to change his mind. Retired players can request to be reinstated at any time.

But the news, first reported by Fox Sports on its website, was another sign that Favre's thrill-filled 20-year career has come to an end, as he repeatedly insisted throughout a painfully disappointing 2010 season for the Minnesota Vikings.

The 41-year-old threw for only 11 touchdowns in 13 games and was intercepted 19 times, finishing with a career-low 69.9 passer rating that ranked third-worst in the NFL among qualifying quarterbacks.

His body took quite a beating, getting knocked out of three different games while dealing with injuries to his elbow, foot, chin, neck, back, ribs and calf -- plus the sprained throwing shoulder that ended his all-time record streak of 297 straight regular-season games started. Then he suffered a concussion in what wound up being his last game, on Dec. 20 against the Chicago Bears.

"I know it's time, and that's OK. It is," Favre said after the season finale. "Again, I hold no regrets, and I can't think of too many players offhand that can walk away and say that. Individually and from a team standpoint, it was way more than I ever dreamed of."

Even if Favre were to change his mind, Vikings coach Leslie Frazier said earlier this month that he wants no part of a Favre return next season.

"I cannot think of any circumstance of where I would pick up the phone and say, 'Brett, do you want to come back next season?'" Frazier said at his introductory news conference. "I can't think of any circumstance where that would occur."

After years of waffling, Favre cried as he announced his retirement from the Green Bay Packers in March 2008. With the Vikings interested but the Packers unwilling to let him join their rival, he was traded to the New York Jets.

Following one season there, he declared he was done again in February 2009. The Vikings wooed him back to the field that summer, though, and they rode his renaissance performance -- 33 touchdowns and a mere seven interceptions -- to the NFC Championship Game. After needing another summer of persuasion to return in 2010, however, Favre wasn't the same and the Vikings slumped badly to 6-10 while going through all kinds of drama.

An accomplished rambler, Favre was as skilled at controlling the message in his news conferences as any athlete, his slow Southern drawl masking a razor-sharp ability to turn the conversation. It was on display throughout the 2010 season, especially when he was confronted about allegations that he sent lewd pictures and messages to Jenn Sterger, a former Jets sideline hostess.

In the end, he was fined $50,000 by the NFL for failing to cooperate with the investigation.

So now Favre has headed home to Mississippi, presumably for good as his two-year contract with the Vikings is expiring. Favre's official website even sent out a marketing e-mail blast over the weekend, advertising a "Thanks for the Memories" poster for sale. A portion of the proceeds goes to the Favre 4 Hope Foundation, which helps disadvantaged and disabled children and breast cancer patients.

66 comments:

  1. Multiple retirement announcements.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the EB has some familiarity with one who announces retirement and turns around to suit up again.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Reminds me of . . . the two guys sitting around the campfire, old prospectors, been outthere forty years, I think, and their rattlesnake, Earl (?)

    "You're sitting on Earl."


    "I couldn't live like that."

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sideline hostess?

    Is that for real?

    What does she do? Serve cocktails?






    Groundhog Day has come up frequently in conversation of late.






    Football.

    It's one the things that ails us as a nation.

    The Sunday Plague.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sometimes, for a couple of hours a week you don't have to listen to females whine and bitch.

    It's our only salvation.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mrs Palin, she is a quitter.
    She was elected in a single Statewide election, in a small State, then did not fulfill the term.

    That disqualifies her, for the Presidency.

    Unless the illegals are given diplomatic immunity, they are in the US under the jurisdiction of the US. Those born here, the same.

    If the US does not enforce its' immigration laws and/or defend its' borders, the 14th Amendment applies to those born here.

    Simple as sin.

    If some one paid me multile millions to play football, I'd give it a go. Why should Brett Farve be any different.

    If he sells tickets he should be suited up.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I mean, really, do you fellas propose that the illegal aliens are to be given diplomatic immunity from criminal offenses.

    Subject only to deportation from the US?

    That is what the 14th Amendment's subject to the jurisdiction thereof means.

    That would be insane.

    Words have meaning.
    If the 14th Amendment does not mean what is plainly written, well then, neither does the 2nd.

    A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

    If one is not a member of a well regulated militia, then there is no "right" to bear arms. It could be easily argued, especially if
    subject to the jurisdiction thereof
    does not apply to law breakers.

    ReplyDelete
  8. If you enter the US illegally, the US has no jurisdiction over your crimes?

    Really !?!?!

    You mean that?
    Say it with a straight face?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I never said she was stupid, rufus, I said she was a quitter.

    Plain as day, an irrefutable truth.

    ReplyDelete
  10. She refused to go the distance.

    Quit when the going got tough.

    That, in and of itself, is a disqualifier, for the Presidency.

    ReplyDelete
  11. It does not mean she is stupid, illiterate or ugly.

    It does not mean she is not an entertainer.

    It does mean she is not to be trusted to fulfill her obligations to the people that voted for her.

    ReplyDelete
  12. It means that she has already failed to fulfill her obligations to the people that voted for her.

    She cut and ran.

    When she came under fire, she skedaddled.

    Bugged out.

    Deserted.

    ReplyDelete
  13. That she cashed in while bugging out, proof that she is not stupid.

    ReplyDelete
  14. "It's our only salvation."

    Um. Divorce?

    Death?

    A good long sit on the toilet with a newspaper?



    Jesus, men are crybabies.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Um. Divorce?

    Death?

    Deployment?

    A good long sit on the toilet with a newspaper?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Doubtless there are conservatives who will thrill to Palin's pugnacity. But voters in the center, where presidential elections are won, don't like the idea of politics as a blood sport.

    ...

    Palin has given them none of those things. She's making her mark as a leader of one faction, but only one.

    She's a genuine cult figure, raising millions of dollars from donors, selling books and starring on television. But she's not going to be her party's presidential nominee.


    Sarah Palin

    ReplyDelete
  17. Never said you did, Rat. All politicians "quit their job" (in reality, at least) when they start their campaign for President.

    She just made it official.

    It's what makes her dangerous. She thinks, and Plays, outside the box. The Left had her pinned down in Alaska, lobbing bogus charge, after charge, at her. Bankrupting her family, and keeping her out of the National Dialogue.

    She fell back, called in the artillery, and executed a Brilliant flanking maneuver. Now, she's behind their lines, and raising havoc.

    She just might make one dandy CinC.

    ReplyDelete
  18. On the other hand, late in the interview, she gave what, I believe, is the first indication that she really might Not run this time around. Just a hint. When she said that, right now, she is going to continue to "support others."

    I think she'll run, but if Obama gets any large degree of good news in the next couple of months I think she will decide to wait.

    ReplyDelete
  19. She signed a contract and defaulted, rufus.

    Failed to fulfill the terms of the agreement with the voters of Alaska.

    Spin it any way you wish.
    It makes no difference to her character.

    She deserted her post under fire.

    Plain and simple.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Come on, Rat. We're judging politicians by their character, now? :)


    Yikes. That's a whole 'nother can of worms.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Mrs Palin, she is a quitter.
    She was elected in a single Statewide election, in a small State, then did not fulfill the term.

    That disqualifies her, for the Presidency.

    - Rat

    Oh, for God's sake.

    In the cult of Palin it's an extra added bonus. Not a bug but a feature. A politician who so hates politics that she fled her only elected office.

    Brilliant!

    Why, she'd have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the Oval Office so much does she dislike Washington and all that it represents!

    Jesus would have to beg her to stay and finish out her term!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Listen to rufus: It just proves her remarkable savvy!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Did Obumble finish out his term? In reality. Did Hillary?

    Does anyone when they decide to run for President?

    ReplyDelete
  24. Fox?

    As in Fox News?

    I'm ashamed of you.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Ah, well, the odds of a "President Palin" are pretty slim; I'll give you that. And, in all reality, it probably doen't matter a hill of beans.

    But, it would be fun to watch. :)

    ReplyDelete
  26. That's the network the gun clinging, Bible-thumpin', fence-fantasizing Republicans watch, Trish.

    It's, also, the channel I watch when I watch the News. A couple of times/wk, nowadays.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I watched it for years.

    I will never get those years back.

    I never watch the news anymore.

    All news'ed out.

    ReplyDelete
  28. "She's a genuine cult figure..."

    But you know what?

    The last president I can think of who didn't have some rather cult-like following was George Herbert Walker Bush.

    And I like him more and more.

    Gene Healy coined the phrase "the cult of the presidency."

    The office itself would seem to attract the type as much as create it.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Cult indeed; Pharaohs, Kings, Dalai Lamas and Caesars never had it so good. We are sheep, oggling oogling fawning star-struck twits in their presence.

    ReplyDelete
  30. I know I've said it before, but Jonah Goldberg had to remind NRO readers that "the sun does not shine out of George W. Bush's shirtsleeves." (A couple of years later, of course, no one would need to be reminded. But in 2003 they still did.)

    The same has to be said to Obama supporters (or the WATB as they're called at that other site) all the time.

    The Cult of the Presidency. Indeed.

    In this sense, Sarah and her followers would not be an aberration, but very much the norm.

    ReplyDelete
  31. The same has to be said to Obama supporters (or the WATB among them...

    ReplyDelete
  32. Years were never meant to get back, perishable spendable and vaporous that they are. Better to to news'd out than lif'd out.

    Count your perishable blessing.

    ReplyDelete
  33. We live in a binary universe. One instant you are, the next you aren't. Digits come and go, data accumulates. With the internet there is no indication that anyone will ever leave again.

    With that, you are still perishable but your data is not. Surely if there was a real god and redemption possible, your data would at least be expungeable. No mercy no peace.

    ReplyDelete
  34. It is no wonder Favre refuses to go, go, or at least remains ambivalent.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Nite nite, another day of data does not actually end.

    ReplyDelete
  36. "Years were never meant to get back..."

    No? Because I thought the way it works, you know, is that when we die all the time we spent doing those things that later we wished we hadn't (like suffering through Saving Private Ryan or Deuce Bigelow, Ace Gigolo, or freshman algebra, or whatever) was added up and refunded to us.

    "Here. Go back for, let's see, five years. Have a nice and productive and personally satisfying time this time whydoncha. And here are some coupons for free drinks."

    No?

    I've been wrong all this time?


    *rolls eyeballs*

    ReplyDelete
  37. In the future I think I will refer to you as KW-7 if you have no objection.

    ReplyDelete
  38. What was the worst part of Private Ryan?

    ReplyDelete
  39. Mom, washing dishes looking at the dust trail kicked up by the speeding staff car?

    ReplyDelete
  40. I'm going to hell and Bob is going to be there to give me my briefing.

    He'll be delighted to finally meet me in person.

    "I thought you were taller."

    "I thought you were a man, Sarah."

    "It's FFB."

    "Right."

    ReplyDelete
  41. "What was the worst part of Private Ryan?"

    D-Day.

    In a walkaway.

    Fuck, fuck, fuck that was horrendous.


    And you know what? I like my name just as it is.

    KW-7?

    Why?

    ReplyDelete
  42. It never occurred to me that could be my fate, just punishment for creating and abetting the EB, he who must not be mentioned waiting at the gate.

    ReplyDelete
  43. KW-7 just popped into my head. I used to dream about feeding a KW-7 an IBM punch card and trying to sync it to the next machine up the line.

    It was urgent and I always damaged the card.

    That was usually accompanied by guns with ammunition that misfired or was mismatched, or barrels that fell off when I picked up the weapon.

    I have since moved on.

    ReplyDelete
  44. We need to do a post on dreams, but don't worry, we probably won't.

    ReplyDelete
  45. I really mean it. gnite, this time. lock up on your way out. thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  46. You have a fate?

    Gee, I thought you were Fate.

    ReplyDelete
  47. "It was urgent and I always damaged the card."

    Oh, dear God.

    You're leaving on that note?

    Well thank. you. very. much.

    ReplyDelete
  48. You said awhile back that you are determined never to retire.

    From the Bar maybe. But not retire-retire.

    ReplyDelete
  49. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Some difference, you ass.

    Some fucking difference.

    And I hope to hell the perfectly wretched world that your syphilitic brain has authored goes up in flames.

    I'll be more than happy to go with it - hell, to throw the match - as long as it's you and me both.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Syphilitic man-child brain.

    If there is no God, I rather think well of us for inventing Him, knowing somehow that someday FFB would show up on the scene and that at that moment the Idea would come in...handy.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Thank you for expressing what I was reluctant to write.

    ReplyDelete
  53. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  54. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  55. But that is totally stupid, and denies the deepest part of human experience.

    But you will know one of these days.

    Deuce, really, you are smarter than that.

    Even my daughter gets it.

    And Trish will too, someday.

    Though she is a tough sell.

    Quirk, bless him, gets it, and Melody is thinking, and struggling.

    ReplyDelete