Cliff Christl on Retirements, Favre, Gregg, Starr, Hutson
Saturation of meaningless opinions
Media, others making too much of Favre's decision
Posted: April 11, 2006 Cliff Christl
Green Bay - If Brett Favre retires, it will be the biggest news story of this off-season and that's saying a Gilbert Brown mouthful considering the Green Bay Packers have already fired and hired a coach since their last game of the 2005 season.
In fact, it might be the biggest off-season news story involving the Packers since the Reggie White signing in 1993. Yes, bigger than Ron Wolf's retirement or Mike Holmgren's decision to bolt for Seattle. And maybe it'll even qualify as a bigger story than when White announced he was coming to Green Bay. It might be the biggest off-season news story since Vince Lombardi stepped aside as coach in 1968 or since Curly Lambeau resigned in 1950 following a bitter power struggle.
News of Favre's retirement will be about as big as a sports story gets in our little nook of the world.
That alone justifies having so many hard-working, earnest members of the media pursuing the story, including going on a wild goose chase last weekend to Mississippi. And it also helps explain why so many fans are so curious about what Favre will decide and are eagerly awaiting his announcement.
But, as this story unfolds or remains in a seemingly endless holding pattern, whichever way you want to look at it, here are the people I have a beef with both in the media and out on the streets.
One, those who have offered the opinion that Favre is being selfish by delaying his decision or that he's hurting the franchise or that he's holding it hostage.
Retirement is strictly a personal decision. If Favre is thinking only about himself, he should be. He owes nothing to the Packers and the Packers owe nothing to him at this point.
That's just the harsh reality of life in the NFL.
You don't buy that? Well consider this.
Hall of Famer Forrest Gregg retired three times during his 14 seasons with the Packers and was persuaded to return each time for the good of the team. After he announced his retirement for a fourth time and was no longer needed, he was cut and finished his career with the Dallas Cowboys. Hall of Famer Ray Nitschke put off retirement in 1971, was unceremoniously demoted and spent his last two seasons stewing on the bench. Before Hall of Famer Paul Hornung was given a chance to retire, he was exposed in an expansion draft and selected by New Orleans.
Next on my list are those who find Favre's indecision unusual and tiresome.
Twenty years ago, maybe even 10 years ago, nobody would have expected Favre to make a decision before training camp. And there's really no reason why he can't wait that long now.
Maybe it's important that he attend mini-camps with a new coaching staff on board, but it's not essential. Ahman Green isn't likely to participate. Neither is Javon Walker. If the Packers crossed off their roster everybody who isn't going to practice in May, they might not have enough players to field a team come September.
The media has turned this into a feeding frenzy, not Favre. Again, not too long ago, before talk radio and internet chat sites and newspaper overkill, there probably would have been some speculation about Favre's future immediately after the season and the subject wouldn't have been revisited until he made an announcement.
If the topic has become tiresome, it's only because of the constant flow of opinions from people whose opinions don't matter. And the people who are becoming the most impatient with this story are people who aren't part of it.
Here, again, let's use Gregg as an example, this time to show how much things have changed.
Nobody waffled and officially retired more than he did, but it was never a big issue.
As early as 1964, Gregg took a job as an assistant coach at Tennessee. Six weeks later, he changed his mind, resigned and rejoined the Packers. He retired again following the 1968 season, joined the Packers' coaching staff a month later and then came out of retirement a second time in early September. During the winter of 1970, he weighed an offer to join the staff at Florida. Gregg turned it down, announced his retirement again, but said he would stay with the Packers as an assistant coach. In mid-September, he reversed his decision for the third time and played another year for the Packers.
Or how about Don Hutson, the greatest Packer ever before Favre?
He broke into the league in 1935, talked about retirement as early as 1939 and pretty much every year thereafter until he retired for good following the 1945 season. In 1944, Hutson returned to the team on Sept. 2 after announcing his decision to retire. In 1945, he changed his mind and decided to play on Sept. 29, the eve of the season opener.
Admittedly the game has changed and so have the demands on players, but human nature hasn't changed. Hutson took seven years to come to grips with retirement.
Finally, the people who are the most nauseating are the busy bodies who hold an opinion about everybody else's lives - it just happens to be Favre's at the moment - and think they have all the answers about character and motivation, decency and indecency.
Who knows what drives players to keep playing or into retirement? Let's look back at the end of Bart Starr's career.
In 1968, he missed 28 of 56 quarters, or half the season, due to injuries. In 1969, he missed 27 of 56 quarters or just under half a season. Near the end of the 1970 season, after missing the equivalent of more than three games and with the Packers heading toward their worst finish in 12 years, he sounded a lot like Favre.
"I'll tell you there's no fun to it when you're not winning," he said in December of that year. Nearing his 37th birthday and on the verge of throwing more interceptions than touchdowns, he also talked about how he thought he could still play and contribute and that if he didn't sincerely believe that, he'd quit.
In the summer of 1971, Starr underwent two operations on his right arm, but still refused to retire and wound up playing in four of the Packers' final five games. The Packers went 1-3-1 over that stretch and Starr finished with a passer rating of 45.2.
Was he playing for the money those last four seasons? Was he being selfish and impeding the progress of the team's younger quarterbacks? You can be sure a lot of today's pundits and fans would have all the answers.
