It's been quite a ride, Brett ... See you next season

The tears were real, the intention virtuous and the end result will seem oddly familiar.

Brett Favre will be back. You can count on it.

Such a scenario doesn't seem possible now. Favre's emotional goodbye was sincere, greatly eloquent and profound even if the entire Favre retirement has been vastly over-covered by all of us in the media; seriously, you would think from the amount of coverage Favre has received in the past 48 hours he just walked on the surface of Mars.

Is Brett Favre already pondering a comeback? (AP)

While his retirement has been dripping in accolades usually reserved for a dead head of state, it has been equally interesting to watch how most media members and fans actually believe that Favre will stay retired, which is a really, really stupid thing to do.

Tears or no tears, we've seen this before from great athletes. We've seen this a hundred times before.

Retire, unretire. Retire, unretire.

Cry, come back. Weep, make a return.

It's the old athlete two-step; should be put to a Johnny Cash song.

Maybe Favre will stay retired, do more blue jeans commercials and fish his ass off. Maybe months from now you Packers fans will write me and say: You were wrong knucklehead. Again.

That could all be quite accurate.

But I've been fooled too many times by the old athlete two-step, and I won't be suckered again.

For every Barry Sanders, John Elway and Jim Brown who stayed retired, there is a Michael Jordan and Junior Seau.