Spring Loaded

Can everybody please shut up and let Brett Favre play football?

Can you kill the criticism?

Can you stifle the derision?

Can you put a lid on the sarcasm?

Nobody is asking you to root for Favre or put him on your fantasy team. Just judge him the way he has always been judged, the way he has always asked to be judged, by what he does on the football field.

You’ll finally get your chance. He’ll be on the field Sunday, starting the Minnesota Vikings opener against the Cleveland Browns.

If he looks like the Favre of old, he’ll deserve your grudging praise. If he looks like the sore-armed old man he was in the second half of last season for the New York Jets, he’ll deserve your scorn.

What Favre doesn’t deserve is the ridiculous ridicule hurled his way in the weeks since he joined the Vikings.

He didn’t murder any dogs, didn’t kill anybody while driving intoxicated.

His crime?

He came out of retirement. Twice.

If he was a boxer, nobody would have even paid attention.

Yes, they were teary-eyed retirements. Yes, he showed a lot of passion.

Yet many, without knowing what is in his mind, or his heart, quickly labeled him a phony. One talk-show host made fun of a conversation Favre said he had with his ten-year-old daughter about retirement.

Many of these same critics spoke glowingly of the passion Favre showed when he was in his prime. They described in hushed tones his return to the field a day after his father died for a Monday Night Football game in which he threw for 399 yards and four touchdowns.

And yet when he now wishes to return to the field once again, he has somehow become a selfish, ego-driven player who deliberately delayed his return to avoid training camp. A sign, surely, of a poor work ethic.

Ego-driven? Guilty as charged. It takes a sizable ego – some might more politely call it confidence – to survive in the NFL for 19 seasons and produce league-record numbers in touchdown passes (464) passing attempts (9,280), completions (5,720) and yards (65,127).

And, a record number of interceptions (310) as well.

But poor work ethic? You’ve got to be kidding me.

Sunday’s start will be his 270th in a row, tying the all-time NFL record held, ironically, by another Minnesota Viking, defensive lineman Jim Marshall.

Favre’s mindset was on display earlier in the preseason when he threw a crack-back block on Houston Texan defensive back Eugene Wilson, resulting in a $10,000 fine for Favre.

Here’s a player nearing 40, playing with sore ribs, going after a defender in an exhibition game. Yeah, poor work ethic.

The facts are, Favre retired after the 2007 season because he honestly believed it was time, only to discover, as last season approached, that his juices still flowed.

He retired again following last season after a torn biceps tendon had caused him to self-destruct over his final five games with the Jets, games in which he threw nine interceptions, but only two touchdown passes as the Jets lost four of the five.

Favre underwent surgery to repair the injury with the idea of coming back, only to learn he also has a torn rotator cuff.

That convinced him he had too much to overcome. But, after learning the rotator-cuff was an old injury he had played with for some time, Favre reconsidered, even though training camp had already begun.

Should he come back? Why not?

Can he come back? We’ll soon know, starting on Sunday.

So just sit back, be quiet and watch.