METAIRIE, La. ― With 35 days to go before the Saints open defense of their Super Bowl title against Minnesota at home, Brett Favre reportedly decided to retire from professional football.
And no one at Saints camp batted an eye.
“I think that camp has to worry more about that,” Favre’s former teammate and current Saints safety Darren Sharper said. “The uncertainty is more in the Vikings camp. We’re going to know who we’re going to play the week before the game and that’s what we’re going to focus on.”
Should the news ring true, Favre will have retired three times – once from the Packers, once from the New York Jets and now from the Vikings.
To say that the Saints don’t completely believe the news would be an understatement.
“Brett Favre suppose to make 13Mill this year...enough said! We'll see him September 9th in the Superdome!” Reggie Bush tweeted in the afternoon.
“Has there ever been a final chapter?” Sharper said. “We haven’t seen a final chapter yet in that book. It’s still ongoing. Even in the middle of the season it still could be an ongoing thing.”
Added defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis, “I think there’s a lot of chances he might change his mind. He has in the past.”
The last time the Saints saw Favre, they were wrecking his body and keeping him out of the Super Bowl. Defensive tackle Remi Ayodele and defensive end Bobby McCray went high-low on the quarterback, severely injuring his ankle and hampering his movement for the rest of the game.
Favre eventually had offseason surgery to repair the ankle.
But it’s not that the Saints don’t respect Favre. Quite to the contrary, in fact.
“He’s a great player,” Head Coach Sean Payton said. “Obviously, if he’s playing, his presence on the field you have to account for. If he’s not , you have to account for who is playing in his place. He has had a great career and we’ll see.”
“He has had a great career,” Ellis said. “He has done a lot of great things for this sport.”
