You think he can't do this anymore?
He went to 10 Pro Bowls. He won four Super Bowls. He came out of the CFL to become an American Pro Football Hall of Famer. He guaranteed a Super Bowl win, then actually came through. He's got the most wins as a starter of any quarterback in NFL history.
Sure, he's getting older.
But he thinks he's still got it. He's still Johnny Unitas. He's still Joe Montana. He's still Warren Moon. He's still Joe Namath.
And he's still Brett Favre.
You think he can't do this anymore, that he's too old and too far past his prime, but he thinks you're wrong. He loves this game, he's not ready to leave and he can still play.
Like other aging quarterbacks in NFL history, Favre said he was retiring and America cautiously believed him. That was the smart way to not be totally duped.
He left the game in March at 38 years old. But less than a month later, rumblings that he might want to return surfaced. In July he and the Green Bay Packers, the franchise with which he played for 15 record-breaking seasons, began a remarkably ugly separation.
Favre was not about to compete for a starting job at an organization he defined for more than a decade.
Favre was not about to be treated like he was washed up.
So like a handful of legendary quarterbacks before him, Favre left the team that raised him for a chance to be a starter somewhere else. Montana, Namath, Unitas, Moon, Randall Cunningham - they all did the same thing in the twilights of their careers. Some left as free agents, others were traded. But all moved on in search of one more-or one last-fling with glory.
"It's an incredible game to play and you should play it as long as you can until they actually drag you off the field," said Ron Jaworski, an ESPN analyst and former NFL quarterback. "There's nothing that anyone will ever experience in their life that is quite like playing in the National Football League. Those guys that love to play the game - like Brett Favre, that have that childlike enthusiasm for it - keep playing as long as you can."
Sometimes it works out well. Quarterbacks get a few more years of success before saying goodbye to the sport they love. Other times it doesn't, leaving a pale likeness of previous greatness, dimmed in a new uniform.
