Really, Brett? Is It 4 Real This Time?

Brett Favre says his magnificent NFL career is over now.

Of course, it was about this time last year that Favre announced his retirement — then he decided to come back when training camp opened.

So, with Brett Favre, it's always wise to give this kind of thing a little time.

But I'm inclined to believe Favre when he says this time it's the real thing.

Favre has played for 18 seasons now. That's a long career for anyone but especially for a quarterback. What's really amazing about Favre is that he played in so many games, in spite of being sacked by some of the greatest defensive linemen of his time and in spite of being slammed by those same linemen, whether he threw the ball or took the loss.

Emotionally, it was probably more difficult to leave the Packers and leave pro football at the same time — although, in hindsight and in part because I've been a Packers fan longer than Favre has been alive, maybe I felt that way because I was grateful for what he had meant to the franchise and I was reluctant to see it end.

If I, as a fan — and one who has never been to a game at Lambeau Field, either — felt that reluctance, I have no trouble accepting that Favre himself had difficulties with leaving the game he had played for so many years at the same time he left the city where he played it in the majority of those years.

And he couldn't do it. He returned and worked his magic for the New York Jets as well as he could. But he's 39 years old now, and it's harder to overcome aches and pains when you're about to turn 40 than it was when you were 25. He nearly took what had been a 4-12 team to the playoffs, but he ran out of gas in the last month of the season — and that seems to have been the deal breaker.

I'm sure Favre would have liked to win a second Super Bowl ring, but his last best shot at that came with Green Bay the year before — when his Packers lost to the Giants in overtime in the NFC Championship. In hindsight, it would have been better to leave the NFL after narrowly missing the Super Bowl. Favre had two Super Bowl appearances in the 1990s; some of the great NFL quarterbacks never get the chance to play in more than one Super Bowl, and some never play in one at all.

Favre's spot in NFL history is secure. Green Bay has already asserted its intention to retire his number when an appropriate amount of time has passed. And New York's new coach, Rex Ryan, will never have the opportunity to coach Favre, but he summed it up for everyone: "If he's not the best quarterback ever, then he's certainly in the conversation."