By JIMMY D / Favre retirement saga great for fantasy football | Jimmy's archive

Everyone is a winner in the Brett Favre saga, so why doesn’t everyone just shut up and enjoy it?

“Favre is a traitor for leaving Green Bay!” we heard one football fan opine?

News flash – he didn’t want to play there anymore and the team said they didn’t want him. They even offered him $20 million to stay retired. Sounds like neither wanted anything more from the relationship, so they made the best of an awkward divorce.

“The Jets were 4-12 – what the hell are they thinking in trading for a 38-year-old codger?” yapped another with an equivalent.

Fans should be thrilled that the Jets – who invested heavily in free agents – have a marquee QB to challenge the Patriots. Hell, maybe the 2007 edition of Favre returns in 2008 and the Jets knock off the Pats in the AFC East.

How great would it be to shut up all those insufferable Patriot fans? The Jets were 10-6 in 2006 before falling off badly last year. Watch them bounce back with a playoff spot.

Fantasy GMs can add Favre back on their list of A-list quarterbacks. Everyone who picked up Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay get to keep their new-found starter and Chad Pennington – cut from the Jets as they signed Favre – gets a chance to prove his value in Miami. And Chad Pennington gets to face Favre twice in 2008 in AFC East tilts. Sweet!

Should Favre have waited longer before announcing his teary-eyed, girly retirement? Sure. The Packers gagged against the Giants in the playoffs after the script was written to have warrior relic Favre challenge Handsome Tom in the Super Bowl.

He was upset. He was tired. Athletes should never say ‘never again’ at such a time. He should have admitted his mistake earlier and not refuted all the reports circulating that he was reconsidering. The truth shall set you free, Brett. (And we thought you were brilliant in There’s Something About Mary by the way.)

And the Packers? A little PR discomfort in July turned into a possible second-round draft pick for a retired guy, whom they peddled out of the conference where they never have to face him. Seems brilliant to Jimmy D.

So here’s the list of winners in the Favre saga: the Jets, the Packers, the Dolphins, fantasy GMs who own Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre or Chad Pennington, Jets fans, Patriot haters, NFL fans who are usually bored in July.
And here’s the list of losers in the Favre saga: whiney, out-of-touch fans who believe players should stick with the same team forever.

71 wins

Ten seasons in the Majors and never once had the Tampa Bay Rays won more than 70 games in a season. Only once had they not finished last in the AL East.

Today, they sit 4.5 games ahead of Boston and 8.5 ahead of the Yankees, giving them huge cheering sections the world over among Yankee and Red Sox haters.
Their rise all but ensures that the Yankees won’t be in the post-season. If Minnesota and Chicago can continue to win big, it might mean the Red Sox are out too.

The networks won’t like that but it would be great for baseball.
They don’t have a .300 hitter, a rookie leads them in homers and RBIs and Matt Garza and Andy Sonnanstine are suddenly well-known fantasy performers. Their best player – and Jimmy D’s second pick in the draft – is now hurt, but will they even miss Carl Crawford.

The speedy CF has stolen just two bases since July 8 and hasn’t hit a HR in 33 games. Right on cue, Rocco Baldelli arrives on the scene for his first game of the season. The oft-injured Baldelli hasn’t played since May 15, 2007 and arrives to give the Rays some replacement pop.

Fantasy GMs looking to take a flier on an outfielder with high-risk, high-reward traits should check the waiver wire in their leagues. Guaranteed Baldelli is there.

Jimmy is giving triple-position-eligible Casey Blake in that OF slot this week, after picking up two additional starters last week in a desperate move to chase down the leaders in strikeouts and WHIP categories.

Freelance writer Jimmy D is a fantasy sports expert living in Halifax and can be reached at jpoole@herald.ca His column appears every Tuesday, check out his archive of more than 200 columns at www.JimmyDSports.com .

Jimmy D
jpoole@herald.ca