Brett Favre Should Give Emmitt Smith a Call First

Brett Favre has had a change of heart.

Four months after his tearful goodbye to the Green Bay Packers and the NFL, Favre has decided football remains in his system and wants to play in 2008. So the NFL’s all-time leading passer has asked the Packers for his release to pursue employment elsewhere.

Sounds like a good idea. But then signing with the Arizona Cardinals sounded like a good idea to Emmitt Smith at the time, too. The NFL’s all-time leading rusher was past his prime at 34 but believed he still had some quality football in his system when he signed with the Cardinals in 2003.

Smith endured the two worst years of his NFL career at Arizona, rushing for 256 yards in an injury-plagued 2003 season and 937 yards in 2004.

Smith later admitted that playing with anyone other than the Cowboys was a mistake. Just as Favre playing with anyone other than the Packers would be a mistake.

Favre turns 39 in October. He quarterbacked a great team last season _ a team that won 13 games and hosted the NFC Championship Game.

Unless Favre signs with Dallas, Indianapolis or New England in the next month, he will play for a lesser team in 2008 than the Packers were in 2007. Which means his next employer will ask him to shoulder a greater share of the responsibility for success. That’s a lot to ask the oldest position player in the league.

Favre retired and then reconsidered. Now he wants to unretire and resume his career. He ought to reconsider again. He might want to give Emmitt Smith a call.

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