Favre Had To Ruin One Final Thing

No doubt you heard the cheering in the streets and sports bars last night. Brett Favre, who has tried his best to go from NFL ironman to NFL irresolute, finally decided he won't try to make yet another comeback.

Packers fans can cheer because the most popular player in franchise history won't sully his Packer legacy by suiting up for the hated Vikings just because of a quibble with the Packers front office (one brought on by Favre's indecision in the first place.)

NFL fans can cheer because the man who showed us how much fun football can be isn't going to spend another year devolving into a mercenary who plays only to stroke his own ego. At least, we can cheer until the first starting quarterback goes down or the Vikings struggle since Favre's retirement plans have always been apocyphal.

That sad thing is that Favre's "retirement" shouldn't even be the top story of the day. Philadelphia defensive coordinator Jim Johnson finally succumbed to his battle with cancer. This nonsense with Favre somehow overshadowed the death of one of the great NFL defensive coordinators.

How good was Johnson as Eagles defensive coordinator for the past decade? His Philly defenses ranked second in the NFL in sacks, the defense helped the Eagles make the playoffs in seven season and sent 26 players to the Pro-Bowl. And most impressively, the only dominant player on those defenses year in and year out was safety Brian Dawkins.

Johnson created such an exotic set of blitzes designed to pressure and confuse the quarterback, his disciples populate the league today. John Harbaugh and Steve Spagnuolo are both head coaches while San Diego's Ron Rivera and Minnesota's Leslie Frazier are two top defensive coordinators.

He's a man that deserves at least a day to for fans to admire his valiant fight against a nasty form of cancer that started near his spine and for us to reflect on all of his contributions to the game of football.

Instead the top story is a wishy washy quarterback finally deciding to stay retired...for now. It should make Brett Favre nauseous that his inability to let go of the game helped take a little more NFL love away from it's rightful destination.