So, it’s August again. The time of oppressive heat, baseball playoff races, hot dogs, swimming and cold drinks.

Oh, and the time of Favre-watch, the annual will he or won’t he for the NFL’s most prolific run-and-gunner.

Will he retire? Will he play? Will the new $20-mil offer be enough? Will the ankle hold up?

Will anybody really care?

After so many consecutive offseasons of the drama, is it just me who has grown desensitized?  Is the football nation still riveted?

Don’t get me wrong, I love the guy. I love what he does for the NFL and I especially love his kid-like passion for the game. A passion that has led him to become the leader in almost every quarterback category in the NFL’s record books.

But really, hasn’t this gone on long enough?

And I’m not blaming Favre himself. I don’t think he sits at home and wonders how he can make ESPN run even more coverage of his indecision. I don’t think that he loves all this attention, in point of fact, I think he hates it. See how hard it is for a reporter to find him. It took Ed Werder, ESPN’s NFL guru, all day to track the guy down. And that was only by cornering him after his daily workout with high school receivers in his hometown.

After finally getting to Favre, Werder asked the same question that everyone else is asking: has he made a decision?

Favre laughed and said no.

Of course the answer was no. If the man had made a decision, I’m pretty sure he would have told someone. If had decided to play, I have a strong feeling that he would want to sign his contract, get with the team and get ready to try for a title.

I doubt that Favre would have made up his mind and not told anyone, just to keep us interested. One of the all-time greatest quarterbacks doesn’t really need anything extra to keep us interested.

I genuinely think the guy doesn’t know yet. It’s hard to sign up for another season of getting beaten up every Sunday, especially at 50 years old (or thereabouts). In contrast, it’s also hard not to come back after having the most successful statistical year of a career. Especially falling just one game from the Super Bowl.

So ESPN, chill out. Take a breath. Relax. If you were balancing your health versus millions of dollars and another shot at a title, don’t you think you’d take a little while to figure it out? 

We’ll know soon enough if Favre is going to play or not and no amount of speculation or hounding or career montage-ing will make the decision come any sooner. And the more you speculate and hound and cover the issue, the less and less the rest of us actually care. 

After all, aren’t the Jets supposed to win it all this year?

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