Calling it quits hard for many great QBs

The once-revered quarterback was wearing an unfamiliar uniform and looking old and beat up.

Surely this wasn't how the quarterback wanted to be remembered, a teenager in the crowd thought. A player once known as a gunslinger now just holding on.

This memory stayed with the young fan into adulthood, serving as a cautionary tale. This was one mistake that wasn't going to be repeated. Not by Brett Favre, at least.

For it was Favre who was in the Louisiana Superdome that day watching Kenny Stabler -- a name synonymous with the Oakland Raiders -- finish his career with the New Orleans Saints. It was Favre who saw what can happen when great things are expected of a quarterback placed in a foreign environment. And it was Favre, entering his 14th season with the Green Bay Packers, who recounted all of this in 2005.

"I couldn't wait to see Kenny Stabler come out of the locker room," Favre told the Wisconsin State Journal, remembering the trip he took to see the Saints with family members in the early 1980s. "He came out and his hair was all long, his uniform was hanging off of him -- his better days were behind him. I just remember, to the fans, he was just the savior. Boy, once they got him in New Orleans, he was going to turn them around. Well, that didn't happen.

"I'd hate to go somewhere else and have everybody say, 'Hey, we've got Brett.' I mean, too many great things have happened for me here [with the Packers]. And if it ends tomorrow, it ends tomorrow. But I don't need to go somewhere else and prove anything."

It has been four years since Favre told that story. Yet, as Favre gets ready to play his first regular-season game today as a member of the (this still seems odd to write) Minnesota Vikings today in Cleveland, it seems more poignant than ever.

Less than a month from his 40th birthday, Favre can only hope he's never the subject of a similar tale.

How did we get here?

So much has happened to Favre since 2005. His head coach in Green Bay changed from Mike Sherman to Mike McCarthy. He believed Ted Thompson, the Packers general manager, forced him to make too quick a decision about his future after the Packers went 13-3 in 2007 but lost in the NFC Championship Game to the New York Giants.

Favre retired in a tearful news conference at Lambeau Field in March 2008 but changed his mind and asked to return a few months later. When the Packers told him it was too late, the sides ended up going through a bitter divorce that ended with Favre being dealt to the New York Jets. He retired again after last season, only to return to the Vikings on Aug. 18 after a summer of flirting with the Packers' archrival.

At his introductory news conference, Favre was asked about how he would respond to all of those who were tired of his inability to walk away.

"Don't watch," he shot back. "Like my old [Packers] roommate and center for a long time, Frank Winters, who is from Hoboken, N.J., and has a funny way of putting things, [said], 'Dude, it's America. You know, it happens all the time.' "

What makes it so interesting is that Favre was so sure this wasn't going to happen to him. Maybe some other dude. Favre wasn't going to continue playing just for the sake of it. He wasn't going to put himself in the position of being someone else's savior. And, one would think, he certainly wasn't going to ever wear purple and don the horns.

But Favre overestimated his ability to walk away from the game. It's almost certainly the same thing that happened to Stabler and numerous other great athletes who looked so odd playing their latter years in another uniform (think Unitas, Montana, Aaron and Mays).

"It is tough" to retire, Favre said last week. "To say it's part of my life is an understatement. I think more than anything when you feel you can still do it ... there's a lot of guys who would love to [keep playing] but can't, either from injury or just ability. I still feel I can still play at a high enough level. ... Two years ago, I felt I had the best year in my career. If anything, that may have reinforced to me that I still could play at a high level."

They know the feeling

His waffling already has turned many against him, but plenty know exactly what he's going through.

"It's ridiculous how hard it is [to quit]," Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino said. "Especially when you play at a certain level for so long and have had such success. It's something your whole mind and body is attuned to be ready to play in the fall. That first year after I retired it drove me crazy. Not playing."

Marino spent all 17 of his NFL seasons with the Dolphins, establishing numerous passing records, but he toyed with the idea of joining the Vikings or Steelers in 2000 before deciding against it, in part because he felt physically he could no longer continue. Marino, who will turn 48 on Tuesday and is now in his eighth year an NFL studio analyst for CBS, said the scary thing is that your mind might never convince you of what your body knows.

"It's funny, too, like I go to a couple of Dolphins preseason games and you get down on the field and you're around the players, and it's like you feel like you're ready to go," said Marino, who was 38 when he quit. "It almost never leaves you, you know?"

Steve Young certainly does. Another decorated quarterback, Young was NFL MVP in 1992 and 1994 while playing for the 49ers. He retired after playing only three games in 1999 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame alongside Marino in 2005.

"It's a very difficult thing," said Young, who was forced to retire at 38 after suffering four concussions in three years and is now an analyst for ESPN. "Think about any profession, any highly skilled profession, surgeon or whatever, you are world-renowned, and at 38 or 40 they say, 'You can't cut it anymore.' And you say, 'But I'm great at this.' Forget about being great at anything else; you're not even good at anything else.

"That call you keep hearing, that doesn't go away. Retiring is like falling off a cliff. There's a lot of damage done, and you have to get up and recover. Brett's kind of opened the book on the difficulties of making that decision. At times it's comical, at times it's heartbreaking, and you're watching it play out right in front of you. The longer you play, the harder it gets."

The health issue

Marino's and Young's physical conditions at the time of their retirements meant they had little choice but to file their papers with the NFL. Former Vikings QB Rich Gannon, who was named the league's MVP in 2002 while playing for Oakland, also was forced to retire because of a serious injury. Yet, Gannon admits he gave thought to trying to return.

"I had broke my neck in 2004 and the following year I had a phone call from Jon Gruden down in Tampa saying, 'Hey, come on, we can do this thing,' " said Gannon, an analyst for CBS. "My mind started wondering and thinking, 'You know what? I might like to try that.' This was after breaking my neck.

"From Brett's perspective, it's completely different. Here's a guy that's healthy, that's hardly ever had any injury problems. He has been very durable."

Favre will play in his 272nd consecutive regular-season game today, putting him 11 games from breaking Jim Marshall's long-standing record for a non-kicker or punter. Favre also has made 269 consecutive starts, a streak that dates to the fourth game of the 1992 season.

Yet, Favre was bothered in the second half of last season with the Jets by a torn biceps tendon in his throwing arm that required surgery in May. He admits he's playing with a partially torn rotator cuff in his right arm and speculated he might have cracked a rib while taking a hard hit in his first preseason appearance.

Favre remains healthy enough to play, but at his age, he is certainly at risk to suffer an injury that leaves him no choice but to give it up.

"Once you stop, you can't come back," said Vikings offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, Favre's quarterbacks coach for three seasons in Green Bay. "I think probably the guys that he talked to, all those guys told him that. Guys like Jim Kelly, John Elway, Steve Young. Once you're done, you're done. All those guys still would love to play, and I'm sure when they watch games they say, 'Shoot, I could make that play right there.' I think that will always be there."

But eventually, that almost Peter Pan-like outlook has to be overcome with a decision that, while extremely difficult, is also realistic. Although that might no longer be the case, Favre certainly knew that in 2005.

"I don't see myself like a Kenny Stabler," he told the State Journal. "No offense to him, he had a great career and he was a great quarterback. But I see myself as a Packer, and that's it. I don't ever see myself in another uniform. And when it's time, I hope I know."