{image1} Brett Favre turned 36 years old this week. He won an NFL game last Sunday. So did Vinny Testaverde. He'll be 42 in November.

What's my point? You know my point. But I'll spell it out anyway.

Brett Favre is too damn young, too damn good, and on a team that is too damn bad to retire.

There. I said it.

And you know I'm not the only one thinking it, so don't shoot the messenger.

Brett Favre playing for a ready-made contender, or a team-on-the-verge next year should not be considered so outrageous. There's direct precedent for it in the form of Joe Montana. Joe Cool playing for another team than the 49ers seemed absurd at one time, but he certainly didn't disgrace himself as a Chief.

In fact, he authored some of his most stirring moments, notably the Monday Night Football comeback in Denver - and instant classic tacked onto a super-sized career highlight reel.

But the problem is, Favre has said all along, he doesn't want to start over somewhere else. Doesn't want to learn a new "system." Doesn't want to tarnish his Packer legacy. Wants to cut grass. Go to high school volleyball games. Yada, yada, whatever.

And I am well aware of the contract situation. He's under wraps until 40 and beyond. He's due tons of cash. Packers would want picks if he left for another team. Fans would revolt. The legacy would be ruined. Yada, yada, whatever.

See, all of this makes sense now. It feels good, it seems right, and you can almost sell yourself into believing it.

But here's another piece of truth. Nobody walks away from this game until the needle is buried underneath the "E.". Certainly not the stars. With the notable exceptions of Jim Brown and Barry Sanders, every guy runs the tank dry. (And don't bring the name Robert Smith in here. Sure he left early, but he's a blip on the league's history.)

Hell, we just recently got rid of old coots Emmitt Smith (36) and Jerry Rice (43). Both guys shopped themselves around to anybody and everybody with a roster spot, until even they had to ask: "What am I doing here?" There was a time when you could never imagine either guy in something other than Cowboy and 49er colors. So what? Do you think less of them now?

Deion Sanders is still running and panting after guys in the secondary for the Ravens. He too thought he was done back in 2001. Ready to go fishin'. Relax. So he quit, got bored, wasted three possibly productive years botching players' names and positions next to Boomer Esiason on CBS, before he finally came back.

And Favre is going to retire? Retire! Balderdash, I say!

Rich Gannon was the NFL MVP at the age of 37 with the Raiders! He threw for almost 5,000 yards, and had 26 touchdowns at a 67% rate! They went to the Super Bowl!

And Favre is going to retire? Retire! Fiddlecock, I say!

John Elway stuck around for years 37 and 38 as a player, and they rewarded him with his legacy. Two brilliant late January moments are now etched permanently on his Hall of Fame career. Aren't you glad he wasn't so eager to play bus driver to his kids?

And Favre is going to retire? Retire! Pish posh, I say!

The only reason that Steve Young and Troy Aikman had to hang 'em up was because their hard-drives had been temporarily erased one too many times by vicious hits. And trust me, both guys were about one more doctor-shopping opinion away from going ahead and suiting up for more anyway. Luckily, Favre hasn't had these chronic bellringers. Or Elway's trick knee. Or Montana's surgically fused spine and tendon-repaired elbow.

And he's going to retire? Sweet baby Jesus in a car seat, why? Why?

I can tell already by Packer jihadists that I have tread onto sacred soil here by even suggesting Favre as a possible Jet, Cowboy or Bronco. Or even a Redskin, Raven, or (gasp!) Lion.

The hate mail and threats of boycott have begun. But don't blame me. As Packer fans, you'll have to come to terms with reality as it exists on the ground. Favre has given your franchise over a decade of thrills, leadership, winning and respect. He owes you nothing, it is you the fans, that owe him.

You owe him the option to leave without regret. You owe him the moral support to go thrill another city's fan base for the two possibly brilliant years left in his body. You owe him the freedom to do what he might really want to do, not what he thinks you would like to see him do.

Some will say that I am half right about the absurdity of retirement now. Only that Favre should come back for a last two-year push in Green Bay, not anywhere else. This way he can save the legacy, while postponing the rocking chair.

Sorry to say it folks, but that ship has sailed. It sailed when Ted Thompson got to start pushing the personnel shopping cart. It sailed when Aaron Rodgers was drafted in the first round. It sailed when you let Marco Rivera and Mike Wahle go via free agency.

I can see a lot of what the waning few months of this football season will look like in Packerland. A talent-drained shell of a team, battered and decimated by injuries, will battle gamely through the early winter with Favre at the helm. Six wins will be an accomplishment.

With each remaining game at home, the cheers for Favre and the prolonged ovations will get louder and more heartfelt. Then on Christmas Day, Santa Brett will probably deliver one last present under the tree by beating the hated Bears. Many, many, kids in Wisconsin will wish in vain that two tickets to Lambeau for that game will be under the tree. They'll be very disappointed, before resigning themselves to watching with awe in front of their glowing TV sets.

Finally, on January 1st, the calendar will turn. A new year. A new direction. Favre starts his 241st consecutive game, including the playoffs, against the Seahawks. Against the coach who launched his brilliant run in Green Bay.

The lead-up to the game will be 24-hour news around the state. Lambeau will be standing room only 3 hours before kickoff. He will be able to do nothing wrong in the eyes of the fans that day, even if the Packers lose and he plays poorly.

Either comfortably ahead, or hopelessly behind sometime late in the fourth quarter, Favre will be in the huddle, getting ready to go, when the whistle will blow from the sideline.

Mike Sherman will call timeout, and motion Favre over for his last curtain call at the hallowed grounds. The roar will be transcendant in sports history. It will sound like one-hundred jet planes at full takeoff throttle.

It will seemingly never end. And if you are a Packer fan, you will never, ever, forget it.

I can see all of this, very easily. I just can't see it being the end.

At some point in the spring, Favre will grow tired of watching the grass grow. He'll feel the itch. He'll talk to other players. He'll read the newspapers. He'll wonder himself - is he really retired? His body will feel really, really good. The phone will ring.

Just promise yourself this: don't be mad at what might happen next.

And don't be mad at me for suggesting it.