Favre’s retirement hits hard all over

The stock market took another hit Tuesday.

Experts blamed the drop on the mortgage mess and lower earnings expectations from Intel. And while there’s no doubt more than a few shares worth of truth are in that theory, I believe there’s a far less complex reason. I believe the whole thing collapsed over Brett Favre’s retirement.

You just don’t lose the most charismatic quarterback since Joe Namath and not feel the shock waves throughout the country. So the NFL’s loss is also Wall Street’s loss. And Main Street’s loss. And right here in the Scenic City, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga reserve quarterback Sloan Allison’s loss.

“My son is in absolute mourning,” said Sloan’s father Rodney, the UTC head coach, with only the slightest of grins. “He didn’t want to get out of bed when he heard the news this morning. He’s devastated.”

Admittedly, the Allisons know Favre better than most. Rodney was the future Hall of Famer’s position coach at Southern Miss long before Favre became everybody’s favorite Green Bay Packer. Sloan probably has caught enough of Favre’s spirals to earn an NFL pension.

“I need him to build us a football building,” Rodney added, his grin growing wider. “I’ve got a call into him right now.”

Favre’s been to Chattanooga before. So he knows Allison is telling the truth. He has also always believed that Allison’s candor during his days at Southern Miss was a key reason he could retire holding NFL career records for most touchdown passes (442) and most passing yards (61,655). Of course, Favre’s absolute belief that his arm could zip a ball past any defender is why he also exits with the most interceptions (288) in NFL history.

“Brett,” Allison said, “did everything to the extreme.”

You could argue that it was extreme good fortune that he reached the NFL. Despite that howitzer arm, Favre wasn’t much recruited by Southern Miss as a quarterback.

“As I understand it, because I didn’t come on staff until the next year, they took him in a linebacker’s (scholarship) spot after a linebacker they wanted went elsewhere,” Allison said.

But it didn’t take Allison long to realize that Favre was the best QB on the team.

“He was so smart and so talented that you had to continually challenge him,” the coach explained. “He could get bored very easily.”

Just how bored? It seems that one day in a meeting, Favre took two magic markers and began drawing checkerboards on his shoes.

“The equipment manager was pretty upset,” Allison said, “because we didn’t get a lot of pairs of shoes. It was kind of like it is here: One pair needs to last a long time.”

But no one ever grew bored watching him, even in those early years.

“We went to practice one day and they wanted Brett to wear a red jersey or green jersey or something so he wouldn’t get hit,” said Allison. “He wouldn’t wear one. He wanted to get hit. He didn’t want to be treated any differently than any other player.”

That may also be why he owns the most consecutive starts by a quarterback in NFL season at 253 (275, if you include playoffs). He was always happy to take a hit.

Well, almost always. Allison still winces at the phone call he got late in the summer before Favre’s senior season at Southern Miss in 1990. The quarterback had been in a car wreck.

“He was literally about dead,” Allison said. “At the end of July they were fighting to save his life.”

The situation grew worse less than two weeks later. Doctors had to cut out nearly five feet of Favre’s intestine. Most believed he would miss the first of his senior season, if not the entire year.

“We were scheduled to play Alabama early that year,” Allison recalled. “It was Gene Stallings’ first year there. After the intestinal surgery, we were sure there was no way he could play. Even two weeks before the game, he couldn’t throw a football 20 yards. He was just so weak.”

But come the Alabama game, Favre played. And Southern Miss won.

“Brett willed us to victory,” Allison said. “His perseverance and gamesmanship were the difference.”

For 17 NFL seasons, Favre was the difference in a game being exhilarating or exasperating. He might not always win, but he always made the competition fun, whether he was throwing underhanded, on the run or both.

No pro quarterback ever jumped higher for joy or slumped lower in defeat. If Namath was the anti-hero of his generation, Favre was everybody’s hero, always worth the cost of admission.

So why walk away after leading the Pack to this past season’s NFL title game? Why quit after a season in which he threw 28 TDs, just 15 interceptions and a career-high completion percentage of .665?

“I know I can still play,” Favre told ESPN. “But it’s like I told my wife, I’m just tired mentally. I’m just tired.”

As News Channel 9 sports reporter Dave Staley sagely noted Tuesday evening, “We’re all tired, but that’s another story for another time.”

And at least one retired NFL quarterback believes Favre might reverse his decision.

“As the season gets closer,” Fox analyst and Dallas Cowboys great Troy Aikman told The Associated Press, “I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he changes his mind.”

Let us hope so. The stock market needs all the good news it can get these days. And if he’s ever going to turn UTC football around, Rodney Allison needs Sloan to get out of bed.