Bent Corner

WTMJ-TV Channel 4 in Milwaukee is reporting that the Green Bay Packers offered Brett Favre $20 million paid out over the next 10 years to stay retired. Could they know something that the rest of us don’t? I think most people believed that the reason Brett Favre wanted to un-retire and come back and play quarterback in the NFL was because he still had the burning desire to compete.

What if he just needs the money?

It seems to me that if a guy just wants to play, offering him money to sit at home and watch Judge Judy would be a complete waste of time. With that said, the Green Bay Packers thought it was worth making the offer.

I would think with all of the commercial endorsements Brett Favre does, money wouldn’t be a problem. Unless of course being the pitchman for heartburn medication and blue jeans sold at Wal-Mart doesn’t pay a lot.

Report: Packers offer Favre $20 million to stay home (Milwaukee Journal Sentinal)

How funny would it be if the rumors were true and Brett Favre was the starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings the night they retire his number?

Comedy gold!

It looks as though the all-time leader in interceptions thrown has second thoughts about being retired.  Perhaps he found out that nowhere else other then in the training rooms of the NFL do they hand out Vicodin pills like Pez candy. The four letter network is reporting that Favre sent a letter via overnight mail to the Green Bay Packers asking for his unconditional contractual release.

The hilarity that will ensue as a result of this is mind boggling.  If Favre were to sign with the Minnesota Vikings or the Chicago Bears, fat guys all across Wisconsin that wear a big chunk of foam rubber cheese on their head and name their first born son “Lombardi” will likely have strokes.

I was reading about today’s NFC Championship game between the New York football Giants and the Green Bay Packers perhaps being the coldest game played in NFL history. They say the temperature in Green Bay will be a a balmy 3 degrees tonight at the 5:30 p.m. CST kickoff.

I’ve never been to Green Bay, but I did watch a football game in the brutal cold. On January 15, 1994 I went to Orchard Park, New York to watch my beloved Los Angeles Raiders lose to the Buffalo Bills 29-23. I was in the Air Force and stationed at Griffiss Air Force Base located in upstate New York. The four-letter network shows that it was the 3rd coldest game played in NFL history. They show that the temperature was 0 degrees with a wind chill of minus-32. I remember it being minus-40, but maybe it’s warmed up 8 degrees since then.

It wasn’t just cold, it was alien planet cold.

The worse part about watching a football game in the brutal cold is that you are sitting there in one spot for hours at a time. It’s not like you are moving around. You are just sitting there. No matter how much you bundle up, you are going to get cold. The number of layers of clothing you put on only helps to delay the inevitable. You will eventually get cold and once you do, it’s extremely difficult to get warm.

We had seats on the 2-yard line, 13 rows up from the field. I remember things sounding different in the cold. The Raiders moved the ball and scored a touchdown. They then attempted an extra point. When the kicker’s foot hit that ball, it made a really bizzare sound. It didn’t sound right. It didn’t sound like a foot making contact with a leather football. The ball failed to go through the uprights and instead bounced off the crossbar. It sounded like a cannon ball hitting the metal crossbar.

I remember a retarded Bills fan sitting in end zone seating taking off his clothing from the waist up leaving him exposed to the elements. Security grabbed him fairly quickly and took him off somewhere. I guess he wanted to get on TV.

I bundled up in multiple layers of clothing. I wore my Los Angeles Raiders coat under my Air Force extreme weather parka. I wore sweatpants and long underwear under my pants. I even brought my Air Force cold weather mummy sleeping bag to sit in while watching the game. I’m glad I did.

I remember it took me about 3 days to get fully warm.

The ironic thing about that game was how it contrasted from the last NFL game I had attended. I was at a Raiders game in the Los Angeles Colosseum where they lost to the visiting Browns. The temperature on the field was 100 degrees and I walked away with a nasty sunburn.

Even though the Raiders lost the game, I was glad that I went. It turned out to be Howie Long’s final game. He was always my favorite player.