I always smiled when I heard people speculating about Brett’s deep, soul-searching times down in Mississippi trying to decide what to do. I don’t think it was ever quite that pensive on his part.
Brett has never shied from the fact that he loves playing football, the emphasis on “playing”. He was easily bored and especially uninterested in the tedium of the offseason, especially those endless meetings. He just wanted to play. And fortunately for him, he has had that option, both last year – which he took advantage of – and this year, which reportedly he will not.
I remember talking with Brett as we watched the ways of Roger Clemens a few years back. I always sensed Brett wanted to be the Clemens of football – sans steroid allegations – picking a team in the middle of the season and riding in on his steed to lead them to glory.
Unfortunately, football does not work like baseball... Clemens could pitch for anyone; he threw the same pitches no matter what uniform he was wearing. Football is about schemes, about reps, about eleven interdependent parts on the field working through checks and reads, etc. It is not the atmosphere for a player to magically appear midstream and make things happen. Or, as Favre might wonder, is it?
