John Madden and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell have been visiting training camps, but most of the sound bites have come from the guy who has the keys to the NFL car.
Today, Madden had something to say about one of his favorite players. And the Hall of Fame coach believes that, if Favre doesn’t play, it’s a bad ankle that will keep him out.
“This time I think it’s his ankle,” Madden said, per Matt Terl of Redskins.com. “I really do. I see where he’s gonna see the doctor in a day or two, and I think it’s probably -- and, y’know, I’m guessing this -- the ankle surgery probably hasn’t completed its recovery. Say it’s 80%, I think the doctor’ll say ‘You’re 80% and within a month you’ll be back to 100%' or ‘This is as good as you’re gonna get.’ I think that’s what he’s going through now. I mean, it really, really is about an ankle.”
Madden’s speculation meshes with what we believe Brett’s preferred timetable to be. He’d like to blow into camp in about 30 days or so, on Friday, September 3, and pick up where he left off, preparing for a Week 1 trip to New Orleans.
Then again, it could be that Favre already is a lot closer to 100 percent. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be jumping up and down on the ankle like he did today at Oak Grove High School.
"[H]e always said, ‘I’m gonna play until I get hurt.’ And then if I ever get hurt and can’t play, y’know, that’s gonna be it,” Madden said. “But as long as I feel healthy and can play, I’m gonna play.’ And that’s where he is.”
Boy, we wish it had been that simple. Because if that were the case, Favre wouldn’t have said the following to Peter King eight years ago, at a time when Favre was only 32: “I think about retirement a heck of a lot more than I used to. . . . I miss home.”
Since then, it has been an annual back-and-forth question of will-he-or-won’t-he? Many of us have gotten numb to it.
For us, well, it’s hard to complain too much. Indeed, every time Favre’s name is mentioned, the cash register flies open, and somewhere an angel gets his wings.