“Yesterday morning, the world once again stopped spinning on its axis as Brett Favre (cross your fingers) announced his second annual retirement. Before my breakfast burrito ends up in the Buchtelite trash can, let me explain why this ESPN soap opera has pushed me past the brink of exhaustion for the better part of the past 11 months.”
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Yesterday morning, the world once again stopped spinning on its axis as Brett Favre (cross your fingers) announced his second annual retirement.

Before my breakfast burrito ends up in the Buchtelite trash can, let me explain why this ESPN soap opera has pushed me past the brink of exhaustion for the better part of the past 11 months.

First, though, let me say that I will be one of the thousands in Canton to watch Favre don the yellow jacket in August 2014. We all know Brett Favre’s accomplishments: he holds the records for consecutive starts by a QB (262), completions (5,720), and touchdowns (464).

This man has also passed for a record 65,127 yds in his 17 NFL years. That’s over 37 miles or the width of Rhode Island.

But his credentials and good ol’ boy image do not excuse the circus he helped create the past year.

Put yourself in any Jets fan’s shoes. At the beginning of the season you had big dreams. You had a seemingly youthful and enthusiastic Brett Favre at the helm. Your GM spent $140 million on free agents. The media loved it. Who needs Chad Pennington, right?

Fast-forward a few months. After Brett’s dramatic drop-off in week 12, he threw 9 INTs to 2 TDs and lost 4 of 5, Ruining the team’s chances for the playoffs. Even a few New York players criticized Favre and called for the demigod’s benching.

As a Jets fan, you cringed as Pennington lied through his grin that it’s not a revenge factor, after his storybook Dolphins staged the biggest turnaround in NFL history and defeated your team to clinch a playoff spot.

Now, Favre leaves the Jets an utter mess. They lost a key draft pick in the Favre trade and already have a quarterback controversy brewing between several mediocre signal-callers. Head coach Eric Mangini got the boot after the collapse and took a job at the coaching purgatory that is the Cleveland Browns. Goodnight, New York, you’re back to where you started- the bottom of the AFC East.

Favre may radiate the happy-go-lucky Wrangler commercial image, but he is smart: he got a cool $10 million from last season without tarnishing his reputation or HOF status

The worst part of the whole frenzy, though, dating back to March 2008, is the frenzy itself. The insomniac sports media machine has devoured the story since Favre’s first retirement and regurgitated the drama all over sports fans across the country for a year.

Search Brett Favre retirement on ESPN.com and you get over 800 results, more than twice that of Michael Jordan retirement.

The media has even criticized its own unbearable coverage of the saga to the point where redundancy itself becomes redundant.

The last thing I want to see in the morning is Stephen A. Smith on Sportcenter yelling about the media’s unending coverage of Favre.

Please, just let it be over.

Hopefully, after this week, Favre-related headlines will be a thing of the past, at least until his HOF induction.

Unless, of course a big-name quarterback goes down…

Call Sports Editor Ben White at:

330-972-7395

To comment on this story, go to:

https://www.buchtelite.com

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