Move Beyond Favre.. Please!

There are three certainties in life here in Milwaukee. Death, taxes, and Brett Favre talk. No matter what the scenario happens to be, someone (most likely a radio host) is going to talk about Brett Favre, even when it doesn't make any sense to.

Look, I'll be honest here. I did the same thing, especially when the football season got started. Then I did an unscientific poll asking if listeners (callers and emailers) were as interested in Favre now as they were when Favre-gate was in full swing. The result was resounding. Most people (fans) had moved on. Based on that, so did I (or at least tried to). Once the Brewers got into the playoffs, the only time there was Favre talk on my show was after the whole Tony Romo thing, and I only did that to actually defend Favre (not something I normally did dating back to the July comeback attempt).

Now, the Packers face an almost do or die matchup this Sunday at Lambeau Field against the Chicago Bears. Lose, and then you go down by two games in the division. Since both wildcards in the NFC are likley to come from the East, the Packers have only one path to the playoffs. Win the NFC North. So, I figured I'd turn on the radio and actually hear some talk about the upcoming game. Boy was I wrong.

Instead, I got Brett Favre talk. Would the Packers record be any better if Brett Favre were still the quarterback? That was the question that was being asked. I turned the station off.

I can't understand why the question would be asked. It's a hypothetical for starters. Favre's not the quarterback of the Packers. He's the quarterback of the Jets. Everyone - media and fans included - needs to get over that. Deal with the cards you've been handed. Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback. Not Favre.

Not only is it hypothetical, but who is to say Favre would have beaten some of the teams that the Packers wound up losing to this year. Not for nothing, but Aaron Rodgers has played exactly one bad game all season. There have been other factors contributing to the Packers 4-5 record (defensive problems, playcalling, running game, and injuries). There's no guarantee that Favre would have been able to overcome those deficiencies. I'm not saying he wouldn't have been able to overcome the problems. I'm just saying there's no guarantee he would have been able to do it.

What was on the radio yesterday was an example of the 'Let's talk Brett' mentality that goes on. The Jets played Thursday night and won, so someone thought it'd be a good idea to talk Favre since he was in the news.

Two problems there. One - the game wasn't on in Milwaukee, and how many of us actually went to NFL.com to watch a three plus hour game on a computer (I'm the exception rather than the rule)?

Two- Favre fever has been dying in Milwaukee. You don't need any further proof than this. The rating for the Packers-Vikings game this past Sunday was 34, which means over 307,000 households were tuned into the game in Milwaukee. The Titans game a week earlier had a rating of 35.7 (323,000 plus households). The Jets-Bills game, which aired opposite Packers-Titans, got a rating of 3.0, which means just a little over 27 thousand households were tuned into the game. In fact, ratings for Jets games on the local CBS affiliate in Milwaukee have one down steadily since Week One.

That's a pretty strong signal that the fans have moved on. Talk radio should as well. After all, there's a battle for first place coming up on Sunday against the Packers' main rival. That's the situation at hand. Favre is the past. Leave the past in the past.