So I'm watching Sunday night's Minnesota-Green Bay game when I had to excuse myself from the television.

I needed a towel -- to wipe off the drool coming out of the TV from the mouth of Cris Collinsworth.

The Brett Favre love-romp was making me sick. Collinsworth might be brought up on charges of love stalking. That's how bad it was.

Favre was in the midst of a quarterback meltdown that would have lead to nasty verbiage if his name were any other, but all we heard was the usual  Favre-the-gunslinger talk.

It was the same for Jared Allen. The Vikings defensive end was invisible, the same way he's been all season, and then he makes one play. and we heard the love-talk coming again.

It got me to thinking: Why do some guys get free passes and others don't?

Let's be candid here: Favre hasn't been very good. Do I take more shots at him than most? You bet, but somebody has to do it.

If not, we might be waiting to hear from the Catholic Church about a new saint.

Saint Brett.

The reality is he's far from that as his little scandal shows. But that's not what this is about. This is about football, and right now he's not playing well.

He has 10 interceptions for the season, including one that was returned for a touchdown against the Packers and another that set up another score at point-blank range.

But all we hear after the game is how he limped his way to an almost-comeback victory. Did anyone but me notice the big play on the potential winning drive was a short dump pass that Adrian Peterson turned into a big play?

Maybe you were all too smitten like some others. Favre's theatrics with his ankle must have made DeNiro proud.

When he was scrambling around making throws, there was no limp. When he threw the pick, he walked like a 90-year-old man.

Did the same thing with the tendon in his arm a few weeks back in New York.

He's more drama queen than Lady Gaga.

Some thought it scandalous when Vikings coach Brad Childress said after the Green Bay game that he considered benching Favre. Scandalous? Why wouldn't he have at least considered it?

Now comes word that Favre has fractures in his ankle. He's in a boot. The drama lives on.
If it were that bad, why didn't he come out? It was more Favre selfishness.

As for Allen, he has one sack in six games. Chad Clifton ate him up Sunday night. He hasn't been close to the same player he's been in recent years.

Yet he gets a pass, too.

Why, because he's good pals with a lot of people in the media, the laugh-it-up guy who is always quick with a joke.

Here's a joke that isn't funny: Minnesota is 2-4. If they lose this week at New England in the Randy Moss Bowl, their season might be over.

If that happens, some expect Favre to pack it in with all his injuries, real or imagined. He might just decide to shut it down.

At least then I won't need to keep a towel close to wipe of the constant drool of the announcers who do his games.

---If the allegations about Brett Favre are true - and he did send pictures of private parts to former Jets reporter Jenn Sterger -- the NFL has to do something. Not because he's a married man and he did so, but because this involves the workplace. This isn't an episode of Mad Men. The workplace has rules on sexual conduct. If Favre violated them, he should be suspended. Period. If not, then he's just an idiot who will have to deal with his wife. A suspension might be easier.

---The season-ending knee injury suffered by Rams receiver Mark Clayton is a big hit for the Rams. He was just starting to develop into the player the Ravens thought he would be when they took him in the first round of the draft in 2005. The Ravens traded Clayton to the Rams this summer, and he was developing a nice rapport with quarterback Sam Bradford. This will set them back this season and maybe next.

---It's interesting to see how quickly the Patriots tried to get out the word that Haircut-gate isn't true. CBS Sports Charlie Casserly reported Sunday that Randy Moss and Tom Brady had a locker-room incident that involved a face-to-face argument about comments made regarding hair and beard. The Patriots got word to their favored media friends that there was no truth to the story. Don't we expect them to deny it? If it is true, what's it say about the sensitivity of Brady and his hair? A little touchy, don't you think?

---San Diego tight end Antonio Gates is avearging 16.5 yards per game, the highest since his rookie season. This guy is getting better with age. He has a touchdown catch in each of the Chargers' five games, the second tight end in history (Wesley Walls was the first) to catch a touchdown pass in his first five games of the season.

---Speaking of tight ends, keey an eye on Jaguars tight end Marcedes Lewis. He has five touchdown receptions and can break the team record of 10. He's also a great blocker. Lewis is entering the final year of his contract, but look for the Jaguars to lock him up to a long-term deal soemtime this season. They have to pay him.
 

What more is there to write about the Brett Favre saga?

He was always coming back to play. Did you ever doubt it? I don't care what he said about his injured ankle and the other things he used as excuses for not being with the Vikings. He was always going to play, and it was always going to be after two-a-day practices.

The man knows what he's doing.

He's pretty darn calculating for a player who comes across as a good, old country boy.
Favre walks to his own beat, which sounds like this:

Do-Re-Mi -- only without the Do and the Re.

Can he still play? Probably. Does he give the Vikings the best chance to win? Absolutely.

That's why teammates Steve Hutchinson, Jared Allen and Ryan Longwell all went to Mississippi imploring him to return, which he appears ready to do.

Even with Farve's selfish ways, players can turn a blind eye to all that if they think he can help them win.

Bottom line is that players don't care about contracts, holdouts, off-the-field issues, rape allegations, steroid abuses. All they care about is two things: Money and winning, with money having a good lead.

If Rae Carruth could get out of jail and help a team, they'd welcome him. If Plaxico Burress walked out his cell a free man today, and could help a team, they'd open their arms to him. If O.J. Simpson could still run .... OK, so maybe not that one.

But you get the point.

Favre is no different. He can help the Vikings, which is why his teammates can turn give him a pass for his selfish ways.

What happens if the Vikings don't win it all? He came back last year, they sold their souls, and they didn't win.

Getting to the playoffs and winning a playoff game isn't what this is about. It's about winning a Super Bowl.

Anything less, and it's a failure.

The Vikings are selling their souls for a 40-year-old passer who had his last passes in the playoffs intercepted, ending two team's Super Bowl chances.

So go ahead, Vikings players, coaches, fans and even those media members who slobber over No. 4's every move. Sell your soul.

Just remember you did if there is no ring come next February and he's back on the farm riding that damn tractor.

BOURBONAIS, Ill. -- The Chicago Bears, like the rest of us, will believe Brett Favre is retired when he doesn't take the field on opening day.

"No until then," Bears linebacker Lance Briggs said. "When that happens, then I might belive he isn't playing."

Word leaked out in typical Favre fashion Tuesday -- hey, he can keep himself in the news for a while -- when it was reported that Favre told teammates and the Vikings coaches that he was planning to retire.

Again.

This tired, played-out story is vintage Favre. The word this time is that he doesn't feel his body will hold up, that an ankle he hurt in the NFC Championship Game loss to the New Orleans Saints hasn't responded.

Want to bet he changes his mind after the Vikings break camp?

Favre has once again proved his selfishness. Why didn't he do a better job rehabbing his ankle? Why wasn't the surgery sooner? Why didn't he let the Vikings know sooner?

The man is all about Favre.

If this were another player, that player would be getting torched. Instead we have a four-letter network that fawns over his every move like a schoolgirl who sees one of those teen idols from a vampire movie.

Nobody says a word. More precisely: The word.

Selfish.

I asked a couple of Bears players off the record if they felt they could handle having a player do what Favre has done on their team.

Nobody bit.

That would be like criticizing the President it seems. You just don't do it -- except in private.

I bet you there is plenty of anti-Favre talk inside locker rooms all over this league, even in Minnesota. Good luck getting anybody to say it.

If Favre is indeed retired, it leaves the Vikings in a quandary at quarterback. Tarvaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels are the guys. That means the Vikings will go from Super contender to hopeful wild-card team.

How's that season opener look now at New Orleans? Think NBC would want that game is they knew Favre wasn't playing?
.
Then again, maybe he will be there. After all, he's the flip-flop king. And we know how he loves keeping his name in the news.

If he is retired, why not just come out and say it? Have a press conference -- again. Have tears roll down his face. Talk about the emptiness of leaving.

But just leave.

You aren't bigger than the game, although some of his former teammates will tell you Favre acted at times as if he was.

If he's gone, the Packers will be the favorite to win the NFC North, with the Bears becoming more a factor.

"We just have to worry about us, no matter who's playing quarterback for the other team," Briggs said. "It's not our concern."

Hey, Lance. Wait a second. Brett wants to make sure it's all of our concern.

Just wait until the next texts leak out that he's feeling better.

Can hardly wait.

Five-game totals: Two touchdown passes, nine interceptions, no games with a passer rating over 61.4 and one game with a completion percentage over 60.

You want that guy?

I don't.

Add in the fact that he will turn 40 this October and it's a definite stay away. Those numbers belong to Brett Favre in his last five games of 2008 for the New York Jets.

Dreadful.

Yet the Minnesota Vikings are reportedly going to meet with Favre to discuss him possibly signing on to be their quarterback. Wasn't Fran Tarkenton available?

Favre is done. He can't throw the ball down the field anymore. The gunslinger has no bullets left. He shoots blanks.

Will Favre ever go away?

What this looks like to me is a desperate attempt by a coach who will likely be out if he doesn't win. Brad Childress needs to make the playoffs, or he's done. So he might think Favre is a better option than Tarvaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels? I don't and that's despite thinking the other two aren't very good.

If the Vikings sign Favre, he'd be the third-best starting quarterback in the division behind Chicago's Jay Cutler and Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers.

At this time last year, many thought the Packers were nuts to go with Rodgers and let Favre go elsewhere. Ted Thompson was right. Favre is done.

He's also not a great teammate. He's aloof. He's distant. He doesn't hang with the guys. He didn't even dress with them in Green Bay at the end.

You want that, Brad?

This screams desperation.  I know Favre said he had a bad throwing shoulder late last year, but is that any better now? Those last five games are telling. The Jets also went 1-4 in them to miss out on the playoffs.

Packers fans will say they'll hate seeing him wearing purple. Don't. It gives your team a better chance to win the division.

Favre to Minnesota improves the playoff chances of the Bears and Packers, not the Vikings.

 

 Brett Favre is retiring?
 
Didn't he do that last year? And I don't mean that tearful press conference he had with the Green Bay Packers before deciding to play again.

I'm talking about actually retiring.

The way he looked last season, he played like a retiree. He looked old, frail, lost and, quite frankly, wasn't very good.

I'm one of the few people in the national media who said his coming back was a mistake. The Packers knew what they had, a quarterback with a fastball that had lost some zip.
General manager Ted Thompson was torched for having the audacity of trying to make his team better, not wanting Favre back when he said he was un-retiring. Thompson had to be gloating after the way Favre played last season and the way Aaron Rodgers played for him in Green Bay.

Sorry, Brett. You aren't bigger than the game. Nobody ever is.

When it's gone, it's gone. And it the skills went quickly for Favre. The Jets were dumb enough to think that bringing in an aging quarterback would be the answer to their team's troubles.

Instead, he became one.

Favre threw 22 touchdown passes, but threw 22 interceptions. His yards-per-attempt, an indicator of a quarterback willing to make chance, down-the-field throws, was 6.7.

The gunslinger couldn't shoot straight anymore.

Favre was a dink-and-dunk quarterback for the Jets, which is why they were a non-playoff team.

The Jets traded a conditional pick for Favre, which turned out to be a third-round pick because he played in 50-percent of the plays.  hird-round picks are valuable. Favre was not.

The good news for the Jets: Since Favre retired after one season they do get back a seventh-round pick in 2010 from the Packers.

Oh, boy.

The other good thing for the Jets is they will be moving on without a quarterback who always seemed to be about himself. Packers insiders say Favre wasn't a very good teammate late in his career with them. When his buddies from the early years left or retired, he became distant with teammates. According to Packers sources, he rarely spent time in the locker room and dressed away from his teammates.

It seemed that was the case with the Jets as well. Several players have taken to criticizing Favre for the way he never embraced them as teammates. They said he didn't try to become one of the guys.

Over the years I've known several Packers players quite well, and they swore by the guy as a teammate.

So maybe age changed him.

It did change him as a player. We saw that last season.

So now he's retiring again.

Let's just hope this time he stays on the tractor on that farm in Mississippi. Old men do better throwing hay to the cows than they do throwing footballs to receivers.

Before they even take the field this season, the Green Bay Packers are already 0-1.

Brett Favre beat them. Badly.

The Packers caved -- what else can we call it? -- and are allowing Favre to not only come to camp but also compete with starter Aaron Rodgers for the No. 1 quarterback job?
Rodgers was supposed to be protected by the Packers. Instead the pocket collapsed and he just took a nasty hit, which begs this question:
Can he get up?

Favre flew to Green Bay Sunday and will report Monday, ending his retirement from the game. The Packers are welcoming him back, but even more surprising is that they will allow him to compete for the starting job.

What happened to all that talk that Rodgers was the starter? What happened to believing in the young guy? What happened to moving on?

Here's what happened: The Packers folded worse than they did in losing the NFC Championship Game at home last January.

So now the 38-year-old Favre is back. Can he re-gain his starting job? Will the competition be fair? Will he leave again?

I've always said no player is bigger than the game. I was wrong. Brett Favre is bigger than the game.

He whined and moaned and complained his way back to the Packers after sitting out four months of off-season work while Rodgers handled it all.

The old man acted like a young kid. Now he can celebrate.

Favre 1, Green Bay Packers 0.

It's not a good way to start your season.