Link: http://greenbaypressgazette.packersnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080306/PKR01/80306118/1989

The transcript of Brett Favre's retirement news conference in Green Bay is now online here. Leaving aside all of the football-related traffic and commentary elsewhere on the web, what strikes me reading the transcript is how compellingly authentic Brett Favre seems to be as a person and a communicator. Despite pulling down a multi-million dollar salary for a long time, he comes across as quite unaffected by the fame or the money aspect of being a professional sportsperson.
He quite cheerfully admits how hard the decision was, and also that he really has no idea what he will do next. Most retiring players tend to talk up their futures like no tomorrow, possibly because they are frantically trying to cope with the reality that nothing can match what they have experienced in their athletic careers. Favre appears to be under no illusions that his life will be very different. He also admits what many athletes often do not get around to admitting; that the biggest challenge is not always physical, but mental. You can only give so much mental effort before the tank becomes empty. The line "I can still play. I'm not sure I want to" is the clue that for Brett Favre, the mental effort was about to become too much.
The good news is that unlike some other iconic quarterbacks such as Joe Montana and Dan Marino, both of whom played on beyond the point at which they had become physically sub-standard, Brett Favre leaves at the top of his game, on his own terms, and with his physical health seemingly intact. In that respect, he demonstrates a high degree of wisdom; he understands more than many of his fellow athletes when it is time to move on. The NFL and the Packers will miss him more than they know. The rest of us will miss him mainly because, unlike so many other NFL players, he always looked like he was having fun out there. Perhaps that is the underlying key to his retirement; he sensed that if he wanted to stick around, the game was no longer going to be enough fun.