Brett Favre, the quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings during the 2011 season, has retired for the second time in the last 11 months.
Yes, you just saw me write that he's the quarterback for the Vikings in 2011.
Of course, I'm kidding, but I'm not so sure that won't happen.
As things stand right now, as long as the Jets don't release his rights, there is no danger of him reaching the NFC North.
To me, it would not be a shock if he stays retired for 2009.
But perhaps there's the thought in the back of his mind that in 2010, the Packers are set to go to the Meadowlands and take on the Jets on top of Jimmy Hoffa's corpse.
I guarantee you the thought of turning the Packers into a corpse and burying him next to Hoffa has crossed his mind.
Then, he'd be a free agent.
I'm not convinced the Minnesota Vikings will find a better quarterback to fill their needs over the next two years.
It wouldn't take much to convince me or anyone else that if they haven't, Brett Favre would, at age 41, jump to the land of the annoying horn and the worst dump of a stadium in the NFL, the Humpty Dump.
Then again, that 2011 season, perhaps he might make the ultimate in Benedict Arnold moves and become a Chicago Bear.
After all, the Bears haven't had a consistently healthy quarterback of an above-average level since Sid Luckman.
(For those of you under 40 who aren't NFL historians like me, he last played in Chicago in 1950.)
But hang on a second...let me be a little kinder to the guy.
He did give Green Bay 16 spectacular years and did turn into one of the five greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.
He did earn a Super Bowl championship for a Packers franchise that had gone through a 29-year Lombardi trophy drought.
He did make me want to be Brett Favre in so many playground games back in high school and college, as young adults turned into little kids idolizing the guy.
And more so, I'm not so sure that he isn't like nearly every other human being on the planet and won't learn to forgive, to warm up to his green and gold heritage.
Does time heal wounds? Sure.
Just ask Bart Starr.
The guy was one of the most mediocre coaches in Packers, or perhaps, NFL history.
He proved it by never getting the Packers above 8-7-1 in any non-strike shortened season during his nine-year tenure.
But Bart is one of the most outstanding, most genuine, most faith-filled, most compassionate hearted sportsmen you'll ever meet.
That, on top of the fact that he delivered five NFL championships to Green Bay.
For a while, he was persona non grata in Green Bay.
That changed in plenty of time, and he's - now again, after the Favre saga - the most beloved of Packers players past.
In time, given forgiveness which tends to happen later than sooner, that will happen again.
The question is when.
Does it occur this year? If so, we know he's finally done.
Does it occur in 2012, after his one year with the Vikings when he gets slammed to the ground too many times by bloodthirsty guys wearing green and gold jerseys?
I have no idea. He doesn't either.
I just hope for that day to come. Then all will be well in Green Bay again, and we finally close this most insane chapter of Packers history.