Deluded, faded, jaded, Favre shows he's lost his grip

Brett Favre has completely lost it.

The first thing to go was his game. Then he lost his mind. And now he's lost his spine.

Talent, brains, guts -- gone.

Damage control? Brett Favre talks with Packers coach Mike McCarthy at minicamp. (AP)

Time to retire? Maybe. Time, at the very least, to shut up and stop making a spectacle of himself? Definitely.

Favre, who has a tad too much Roger Clemens in him for my taste, needed less than one week to bungle an entire offseason -- discrediting his general manager, insulting his teammates and weakening his ability to lead Green Bay out of the mess he helped create.

Favre's week from hell started with his pointless dissertation on Randy Moss. Through an interview with a Memphis television station on May 12, Favre let the world know the Packers could have had Moss for the same price the Patriots paid to get him from Oakland. Favre let the world know Moss' preference was to play for the Packers. Favre let the world know, in essence, that Packers general manager Ted Thompson is an idiot. That assumes the world thinks like Favre does, that the Packers would have benefited from the addition of a scientifically proven knucklehead on the downside of his career, gifted supernaturally only in his ability to tear apart a team's chemistry.

One day later Foxsports.com reported that the Packers' inability to acquire Moss had pushed Favre to the brink of insanity: Favre had his agent call Thompson to ask for a trade. Which is hilarious considering Favre's propensity to channel Clemens and hold the franchise hostage while he dithers on whether to return. After all that, he wants out?

The Packers declined Favre's trade request.

But wait -- there was no request, according to Favre. Well, that's what he's saying now. That's not what he was saying immediately after the Foxsports.com report came out. On May 14 he issued a statement through the Packers acknowledging everything but his trade request. He admitted to being "frustrated a couple weeks back when Randy Moss was traded to New England. I never wanted to be traded and I don't want to be traded. I want to be in Green Bay. I want to finish my career as a Packer. Sometimes when I get frustrated I let my emotions get the better of me."

Translation: Favre asked for a trade but didn't mean it.

Anyway, that was Monday, May 14.

On that same Monday, the Biloxi Sun Herald was reporting that Favre had said he wouldn't attend the Packers' mandatory minicamp later in the week. Favre was no longer upset over the Randy Moss thing, he told the newspaper. He just wasn't healthy enough to participate after offseason ankle surgery, and besides, his daughter was about to graduate from high school. There were parties to attend, you know.

Seriously. That's what Favre had said on Monday. Graduation parties.