The flip-flop isn't necessarily a character flaw.
Changing one's mind gets a bad rap sometimes because we've become conditioned to believe that it reflects internal weakness. Staying the course -- even if it's the wrong course -- somehow echoes a sturdiness of character, even though the path potentially leads toward the edge of a cliff.
Brett Favre is now officially a self-absorbed diva, transforming in a matter of days from the Contented Warrior to the Conflicted Egotist. On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that the former Green Bay quarterback who retired in March would petition the NFL for reinstatement to the Packers.
But Favre is guilty only of career uncertainty. If that's a crime of depleted integrity, then we'll all stand convicted of a similar charge at some point in our lives.
Favre has every right to his indecisiveness in something so personally important. But so, too, do the Packers have every right to their decisiveness in something so professionally important. The Packers cannot commit unlimited time to a superstar who can't quickly and firmly evaluate his own level of commitment.
Everybody wants a villain in this soap opera, but one doesn't exist.
There will be lasting lines drawn in the sand between Favre and the Packers' management in the coming days, but emotions inevitably will give way to common sense within both camps. There will be a shift in direction, and they'll find a suitable resolution that likely will bring back Favre as Green Bay's starting quarterback for one final season.
And then they'll part ways in 2009.
That's the wisest course.
That's not management caving in to public pressure or the distortions of a megalomaniac athlete. It's simply a matter of not allowing ego masquerading as toughness to cloud reasoned judgment.
The political animus currently coursing through this nation resulted from a stubborn unwillingness in those elected to acknowledge prior mistakes.
But often, the best judgment isn't steadfastly clinging to the emotional whims of the immediate moment.
There are worse things than being branded a flip-flopper. Would wearing the tag of "hard-headed loser" feel any better?
The Packers' best chance of returning to the Super Bowl this season is squeezing another year of what remains in Favre's arm and guts. They know that. They appreciate that, even though they have one of the league's younger teams, there remains a win-now urgency in the NFL.
And there's also a local fan base that genuflects whenever it sees No. 4.
But it's never easy for the individual or the team when a brilliant career approaches its twilight.
Barry Sanders seems classy and dignified now because he walked away from football and never looked back. But he was initially painted a quitter when, 10 years ago, he bolted from the Lions on the eve of training camp after giving mixed signals for months about whether he would retire.
Like Favre, Sanders was dismayed with team management. Like Favre, Sanders believed his automatic Hall of Fame credentials liberated him from the constraints of a specific team-orchestrated timetable. And like Favre, Sanders retired knowing that he could still perform at a Pro Bowl level.
But it doesn't necessarily profess a stronger character that Sanders kept his word.
It just made him a lesser competitor.
Give me the flip-flopper, because buried beneath the indecisiveness burns a strong desire to win.
Contact DREW SHARP at 313-223-4055 or dsharp@freepress.com.
