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Favre: 16 years at the top

We were treated to a media barrage about one person which (briefly) threatened to eclipse the mind-boggling coverage of the US Presidential Nomination Race.

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View from America: US-based British sports-writer Simon Veness offers his thoughts from Over There, looking at the reaction to Brett Favre's retirement

I was all set to wax lyrical this week about the impact of the opening salvos in the great Free Agent Scramble, when a serious bombshell landed in the middle of the American sports media.

Brett Favre had announced his retirement from the NFL after 16 consecutive seasons leading the Green Bay Packers.

Panic. Pandemonium. Chaos.

Every TV station, newspapers and radio DJ scrambled like never before to report the story and, for 48 hours, we were treated to a media barrage about one person which (briefly) threatened to eclipse the mind-boggling coverage of the US Presidential Nomination Race (a huge deal over here, with round-the-clock coverage of Barack Obama v Hillary Clinton).

In many ways, it was a fitting tribute to the great 38-year-old quarterback, who induced equal amounts of panic, pandemonium and chaos in opposition backfields (as well as, occasionally, among his own team-mates, with his propensity to throw the slightly-more-than-occasional interception).

Legacy

Brett Lorenzo Favre is undeniably one of the greatest players ever to pull on shoulder pads and helmet in the tough, unrelenting gridiron world, and he is to be applauded for knowing when to stop and take a graceful bow from the game he so clearly loved.

The pounding his body has taken over some 275 consecutive games - a record that is likely to stand for some considerable time, if not forever - makes you wince even from the lofty heights of the 600 Section of icy Lambeau Field (an elevation severe enough to warrant its own sub-climate, with frostbite an ever-present danger).

It was in the confines of this forbidding corner of the state of Wisconsin and an otherwise insignificant city with a population of barely 100,000 (just 28,000 more than the Lambeau Field capacity), that Favre plied his tried with equal mix of gunslinger and surgeon, slicing open defences with a mixture of outrageous precision and sheer bravado.

With the lack of a Royal Family in the US, the Favre family were the next best thing to the good folks of Wisconsin, and the retirement of their living legend was a moment of truly heart-stopping drama.

From the bleak Apostle Islands on Lake Superior to the even more inhospitable wastes of Afghanistan (see below), the Cheesehead Nation was shocked into a state of mourning for their beloved Brett.

And how the media piled in, going full throttle to record every hint and whisper of it, trawling through hours of No 4's back catalogue of highlight footage and igniting hours of studio debate on the Hows and Whys of the great man's decision.

Legend

It was astonishing to see. For, while some programmes treated it at face value and simply recorded a heartfelt tribute to Favre and his immense NFL resume, others became near-rabid in their desire to find a scapegoat for him turning his back on the league. Or, even worse, to insist he had made the wrong decision and he would surely, nay certainly, change his mind before the start of the 2008 season.

Some talking heads turned their fury on the Packers organisation, insisting it was their dogmatic resolution in refusing to court free agent Randy Moss (who has decided to stay in New England for the small amount of $27million); others blamed head coach Mike McCarthy for not pursuing Favre himself and finding a way to chain him to the Lambeau furniture.

Then, when it came to the debate over 'Has he done the right thing,' the tone of the debate went straight past hysteria and on to gibbering imbecility in one bound (do none of these so-called pundits realise that the more they shout and posture in ever-strident terms, the more the vast majority of us reach for the 'Off' button?).

U-Turn

On ESPN, you could practically see the spittle flying as first The Sports Reporters and then Around The Horn sounded off about how Favre would live to regret his decision; how it was terrible timing and he was leaving his team in the lurch; and why we would still see him lining up in a Packers uniform again this autumn (yeah, right!).

Fortunately, both for the sanity of the viewing public and, more importantly, out of respect for the player himself, not everyone jumped on the super-hyped bandwagon of blame and second-guessing.

Out in the dangerous wilds of Afghanistan, Peter King, the thoughtful and articulate Sports Illustrated writer and NBC pundit who is on a special meet-the-troops mission along with NFL stars like Mike Rucker (Carolina), Luis Castillo (San Diego) and Tommie Harris (Chicago), sent back a hurried but brilliantly gauged dispatch.

Few writers know Favre as well as King and, from the far-off depths of Asia, he summed it up briefly but perfectly to the point: the strain of being an NFL icon was just too much; he is ready to step out of the limelight, pure and simple.

And, even in the desolation of US Air Force base, Bishkek, King found some genuine members of the Cheesehead Nation to pass on their thoughts - and gratitude - about Their Hero as they absorbed the stunning news so far from home.

USAF Airman First Class Lyle Tonnon Jr insisted: "My God, my legs are weak. I want to cry. I just heard and, when I did, I put my head down on the pool table. I'm saying 'No! No!' It's a shock. But I do know this: Wherever I'm stationed, when he goes in the Hall of Fame, I promise you I'll take leave and be there for his induction. He was the toughest SOB at the quarterback position, ever."

There are a million words you could write about Favre, but you would still not fully capture the style, character and sheer joy-of-living delight he brought to the game.

But I'm sure if he had to choose his own footnote in the NFL annals, he would be pretty happy with 'One tough SOB.'

The league will certainly be much the poorer without him.