Favre should become professional poker player

I am on the verge of owing $5 to our sports editor, John Kemmeter.
I say I’m on the verge because a bet we made with each other in March hasn’t yet come true to his favor, but it is about to, provided the Green Bay Packers don’t cause him to lose on a technicality.
You see, I bet John that Packers quarterback Brett Favre would stay retired. I was sure of it, after watching the emotional press conference in which he announced his retirement.
John, in a column in the March 7 issue of The Gazette, said he was skeptical. “I just don’t think this one is going to stick,” he wrote. “I’ll only believe Brett Favre’s retired when the season starts and he’s not there.”
John compared Favre to other athletes who attempted comebacks after retiring prematurely – great ones like Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali – and said Favre “has been the NFL’s ultimate warrior, playing through any injury or adversity that was thrown at him. Through a vicodin addiction, injuries that would have kept most quarterbacks on the sideline and personal tragedies, Favre has always shown up on game day to keep his streak of 275 consecutive starts intact.
“I’ve always felt that he would play until they carted him off the field due to injury or when he just couldn’t physically play at a high level any more,” he wrote.
Although I hoped John was right, because I would have liked to see Favre play for the Packers until he literally couldn’t physically do so anymore, I thought he was wrong. At the conclusion of every season, it was always a roller coaster ride as to whether Favre was going to retire or not, but it was always welcome news to hear “not yet.” Eventually, I knew, those words would be replaced with “it’s time to go,” and when he finally said it in March I wasn’t surprised.
However, I was surprised at the emotion at which he said those words, making it seem like he truly had had enough of the game. So when John boldly claimed in print that Favre’s retirement won’t last the off-season, I seized what I thought was an opportunity to make a little money off the foolish thoughts of a hopeful wisher.
I’m not a gambler and rarely make bets with other people. But I do enjoy poker and one of the most important skills a poker player can have is reading your opponent. Although he wasn’t my opponent, Favre seemed sincere about his retirement at his press conference and a $5 bet with John seemed like a sure thing.
Four months later, my poker read was wrong and John is about to become $5 richer. He said he is going to use that money to purchase a Favre poster that he is going to hang in my office to make sure I remember I was the loser of the bet.
I’d happily hang the poster if it meant Favre would play another season for the Green and Gold, but it looks like a “comeback,” if you can even call it that, will probably be with another team. I’m a Packer loyalist, and to see Favre in another uniform would be disheartening, but he’s got to do what is best for him and what the Packers will allow him to do. If that means he plays for the Vikings or some other team I hate next season, I’ll still be a Favre fan.
I may win the bet yet, because the Packers may not allow him to play with them or another team. He has to be suited up in order for John to win, but it would be a hollow victory if I win this way, because John read Favre perfectly.
I don’t know how John was able to accurately predict that Favre would want to return. Maybe he’s clairvoyant or maybe he got lucky. Whatever the case, perhaps he should be the one in charge of running the Packers’ organization. He obviously knew something Packers’ big wigs Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy, who both have better inside knowledge, did not.
But here’s a little knowledge I possess that those two obviously don’t have – the decision to keep Favre out of a Packers uniform will look bad when Aaron Rodgers goes down quickly with an injury and the Packers finish the season 3-13. It’s knowledge most everybody in Wisconsin except those two probably have.