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I don’t know who Brett Favre and Roger Clemens think they’re fooling, but it is really driving me crazy that they are putting the fans, their prospective teams, and the media through such an unnecessary circus.
Let’s face it. Both of them want to come back. If they didn’t want to come back, they would have retired months ago - Clemens after taking Houston to the World Series, and Favre after suffering through a miserable season. How many times do you see athletes of their stature (that can still play) contemplate retirement this long? Never. Athletes usually reach a point where they either have no more passion or cannot compete anymore and call it quits without creating such a circus. See John Elway, Dan Marino, Tony Gwynn and Mark McGwire (albeit in McGwire’s case because he wanted to get out before the steroid issue hit full stride). At the point of both Favre and Clemens’ careers, if you don’t have the passion and desire to play, you don’t even think about playing. So it can be said with certainty that they want to play. So come out and say it, guys!
Clemens obviously is waiting for May 1st (the 1st day he can sign with the Astros). If he feels the Astros are competitive by then and can sustain a winning team, he will sign there. If not, I really think he’ll sign with Boston. He has said that he likes Boston’s management team and philosophy, and wouldn’t be opposed to playing there. And he even said that a video prepared for him by Sox chairman Tom Werner brought his family to tears.
So I can kind of understand why Clemens is non-committal, but I still think that it’s ridiculous that he won’t just come out and say he is going to play.
Favre is driving me nuts, though. It is obvious in any statement he makes that he wants to play, but that he doesn’t want to play for an awful team (read, the current GB Packers). Maybe if he came out and said that in December, the Packers would have gone out and spent money with the idea of winning one more for Brett. But what does Brett think? That the Packers can spend money on veterans and trade draft picks, and then take the chance that he won’t come back? No. They can’t do that. Favre has put them in a tough position, so they’re taking the safe way: Not overspending on vets so that they can try to build a young nucleus.
The simple situation is for Brett Favre to request a trade. But he can’t do that if he is still ambiguous about playing next year. (Denver would be an IDEAL fit, by the way. Maybe Plummer, Tatum Bell, and a 2nd round pick?).
Bottom line: Favre and Clemens are creating unnecessary media coverage on themselves. It’s clear they both want to play, so come out and say it instead of giving time wasting sob stories every day. Thank you.
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Date
Sun 04/09/06, 3:01 pm EST
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