Favre may call it quits
Green Bay wide receiver Donald Driver said Tuesday he believes Packers quarterback Brett Favre is ready to retire after 14 NFL seasons.
“I think he’s done,” Driver said. “I’m a close personal friend of his. I spend a lot of time with him and I hang out at his house, and I think he’s had enough. I really do.”
Driver’s comments caused a minor ripple at the Super Bowl. But Favre’s former Packers teammate LeRoy Butler scoffed at the suggestion that Favre was quitting.
“He’s not retiring,” said Butler, who retired after the 2001 season. “That was bull. I heard Driver’s interview, and he didn’t say that’s what Brett told him. Brett hasn’t made a decision. I think he wants to wait until he has to make a decision, and that time isn’t now.”
Four years ago, Favre signed a “lifetime” contract with the Packers.
After the Packers’ season ended in a 31-17 home loss to Minnesota Jan. 9 in a first-round playoff game, Favre said, “It would be easy to walk off the field after that game and say, ‘I’ve had enough.’ But I’m going to try to be as fair to myself and to this team as possible. I’ve had a lot of great games. This obviously was not one of them. But I can’t base my decision on this game.”
A Green Bay spokesman said the club had not heard from Favre.
Brady stacks up as more than a pretty face
The dimpled chin, the middling pedigree, the unspectacular stats, the aw-shucks good manners.
Don’t let it all fool you: Tom Brady is a tenacious competitor.
“He may be a pretty boy,” former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw said of Brady, “but I don’t think there’s any lack of fire there. I don’t think he would hesitate to take your face off if he thought it would help his team win. (Joe) Montana was like that.”
The comparison is being thrown around a lot this week as Brady prepares to lead the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl against the Philadelphia Eagles. Brady already has two Most Valuable Player awards from the title game, matching Bart Starr and Bradshaw and one behind Montana, the former 49ers quarterback he idolized while growing up in the San Francisco area.
“(Brady is) the key. He is the heart and soul of the team,” said Eagles defensive end Jevon Kearse. “He doesn’t have really big numbers in any category. He just wins games. He’s got some pretty big numbers in the wins category. He just does what it takes.”
Smith denies he’s retiring
Arizona running back Emmitt Smith denied a report that he will retire later this week.
ESPN.com, citing unidentified “confidants” of the star running back, reported that Smith will retire Thursday in Jacksonville, site of this year’s Super Bowl. Smith spent the last two seasons with Arizona after 13 years with Dallas.
Smith, 35, denied the report in comments to the Dallas Morning News.
“Did you see my year last year? Do you think I’m ready to retire?” Smith said in a report on the newspaper’s Web site.
Smith rushed for 937 yards and nine touchdowns this season. He has 18,355 yards overall and 164 TDs.
He said on Monday night that he wanted to retire as a member of the Cowboys, the team with which he won three Super Bowls.
Williams hedges about return
Ex-Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams was back in South Florida as the defendant in a paternity case, and said he’s unsure whether he’ll play football again.
“I don’t know. Not right now,” Williams said following a court hearing. “I’m still in retirement. I’m enjoying retirement.”
Williams has been studying holistic medicine at a small college near Sacramento, Calif. New Miami coach Nick Saban has said he would consider welcoming back Williams, whose abrupt retirement last July sent the team reeling to a 4-12 season.
Asked about Saban, Williams said, “I don’t know anything about him. I haven’t talked to him.”
Aikman calls for end to Pro Bowl
Ex-Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman wants to do away with the Pro Bowl and said most players feel the same.
Aikman, who once was fined by NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue for leaving the game after the third quarter, thinks the season should end with the Super Bowl. He will announce Sunday’s game for Fox TV.
“Paul Tagliabue won’t want to hear this,” Aikman said, “but nobody wants to play in the Pro Bowl. Everybody wants to be voted and go to Hawaii and be there. Nobody wants to play.”
Aikman suggests holding a skills competition in lieu of the game, believing it will be more compelling for any fans at home who want to watch.
He said it’s especially a difficult game to play in if you’ve just finished playing in the Super Bowl.
“Going to play another game is the last thing you want to do after a long season and the Super Bowl,” he said. “And guys have been hurt over there.”
Aikman nearly was injured in the 1993 game when he was decked by a blitzing Derrick Thomas – even though blitzing is outlawed in the Pro Bowl.