Brett Favre: Such a Distraction

It seems every time we can calm down with the Vikings, something new pops up. Whether it is Randy Moss returning to his first team, or whether it's their 1-3 record, we can never move on from them, and what surrounds the team. They've always been a source of distractions for a long time. And, we can now add another one to that list. That is the Brett Favre textgate saga, crazy as that sounds. Wherever Favre has gone since leaving Green Bay, he seems to bring more distractions than promise with him.

How crazy is this story. Allegedly 2 years ago, Favre sent tons of racy texts and images to a former New York Jet sideline reporter. At the beginning of this saga, Favre addressed the report by saying, "I'm not getting into that. I've got my hands full with the Jets and am trying to get some timing down with our guys, so that's all I'm going to discuss." At the beginning, it seems like it won't become a major distraction for a Vikings team who just acquired Randy Moss. But then, as the week progressed, things got worse and worse for Favre and the Vikes. It was not known of the connection between Favre and the texts, until recently, when Favre dodged the entire issue in his press conferences. What to make of these statements is up to everyone to interpret for themselves. It got worse when the league announced it was aggressively investigating these allegations, and if it was true that Favre was found guilty, he'd be suspended.

What a way for Favre to break his ironman streak, a suspension. He has played through almost every injury under the sun, and started every game since Don Majowski got hurt in 1992, and he'll lose his streak, by a suspension. What a hit to his career. We still have no clue as to if this is true or not, and it may be awhile until we find out. But, this is just another of the distractions Favre has brought along with him since his Michael Jordan moves in August of 2008, 2009, and 2010. The tearful press conference when he retired the first time could melt your heart with sadness that we would never see this legend play again. And then, he comes back to play with the Jets, and it didn't go as well as the Jets had hoped (it cost Eric Mangini his job). Then, he retires again, and tempts the Vikings until the end of training camp in Mankato, until he shows up. We endured another entire offseason of wondering if Favre would come back again. He did, and we know how that ended up.

And this summer, we went through the same shtick again. We waited patiently for his answer, and it seemed he was actually going to hang it up. But of course, that wasn't true. And then, the Vikings started very poorly, and it seemed that Favre may have overstayed his comeback. And finally, this comes up. He's been taking questions from the media for it seems all of his life, and he dodges this question. What has this done to everybody who has done it before? It only made the situation worse. Brett Favre's supposed breakdown in the locker room prior to the Jets game has only heightened the suspicion surrounding Favre. He broke down because he was sorry for being a distraction and yet in the game where he passed the 70,000 yard passing marker, and threw his 500th career TD pass to Randy Moss of all players, the biggest story was textgate.

Brett Favre has done many amazing things in his career, many shocking and stupefying things (He did what?), and those which we've never seen before in the NFL. This is one of those shocking things. Whether it is true or not, this whole story never ceases to amaze me. Even in Brett Favre's ultimate triumphs outside Green Bay, he still is brought down by his own actions. Last year, it was his ankle, this year, Textgate. Maybe Favre should have retired after all.