Andy Richardson
At least once a week, a story comes out that relates directly or indirectly to the future of Brett Favre. If you're in a dynasty league, maybe you're debating whether to trade for him cheaply before he announces his return, or trade him away while he still has some value before he retires.
My advice: don't believe anything you read, because no one -- including Favre himself -- knows what he's going to do.
A few days ago there was a quote from Sports Illustrated's Peter King, who said his gut feeling is that Favre will retire, and that he'll only play again if he can choose his location -- which King believes is Minnesota. Favre and King have had a friendly relationship in the past, so King's opinion has some merit, but it should also be mentioned that King appeared to be out of the loop in most of the Favre circus a year ago, during which most of Favre's side of things was presented through ESPN reporters Ed Werder and Chris Mortensen. King also noted he hadn't spoken to Favre since the end of the season. Personally I think if Favre returns it will be with the Jets; it's unlikely he'd want to go to a third team within 12 months. Favre hasn't sent me any text messages and probably won't, but I'm still not giving King's gut feeling much more credibility than anyone else's.
Today, the NFL Network's Adam Schefter reports that Favre could meet with Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum to discuss his future as early as next week. Schefter, thanks in part to his unique position (and hard work, no doubt) has been right about a lot of NFL-related news lately, but this also seems pretty vague. "As soon as next week" could also mean two or three weeks, or more, before any such meeting occurs. Or the meeting could be Favre saying "I don't want to rush into a decision and regret it like I did last year," with Tannenbaum saying, "Sounds good, meal ticket."
Jets owner Woody Johnson, for his part, said last week that "in a perfect world," Favre would participate in all the team's offseason activities. That's not going to happen, but it doesn't mean the team won't welcome Favre back if he elects to return, either. The Jets want Favre back, if for no other reason than they don't have any better options for 2009. You'll probably hear some positive things said about Kellen Clemens this offseason, but that's just happy offseason talk that means nothing. Odds are they've already seen enough of Clemens to know that they need to get better at the position. They knew that a year ago, they know it now. Clemens will only be their quarterback if they have no other choice.
Best guess: Favre announces his decision shortly before the start of free agency, a month from now. Unfortunately, even if he announces his retirement, again, that doesn't mean he won't play in 2009; it just means we won't know for sure whether he'll play or not until late July or early August. I think it's about 50-50 he comes back; maybe 60-40 against. But that's just a guess; I don't know.
And neither does anyone else.
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