It Gets Weirder

As I write, we are about 24 hours from what will surely be one of the strangest spectacles in NFL history: the arrival of recently-unretired Brett Favre on the Green Bay Packers' practice field.

By all indications, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell went to extreme lengths to work something out between Favre and his once-and-current employers. Ordinarily, when a player decide to come out of retirement, a little paperwork gets shuffled and that's it. But this isn't ordinary.

Favre is a legend. Part of his enduring aura has to do with the fact that he always wore his heart on his sleeve, seemingly never more so than when he tearfully announced his retirement back in March. He's a competitor and a warrior, and we probably shouldn't be surprised that he gave in to that little voice telling him to return to the battlefield.

I have no problem with that. My issue is with the way he did it.

If Favre just wants to play football, that's cool. Plenty of teams would love to have him, but he's specifically shot down attempts by two NFL teams to acquire him (the Jets and the Bucs). Of course, neither of those teams is very good, and in playing for them, Favre would probably wind up taking a battering with little chance of success.

What Favre really wants, apparently, is to reset the clock. He wants the equivalent of a do-over with the Packers, an organization he has served admirably but one he has also tortured a bit with his vacillations.

Call me old-school, but decisions come with consequences. Favre retired. The Packers moved on. The fact that he'll be on the practice field should not necessarily be seen as a sign that he's really welcome.

Time waits for no one.