Let’s take a look back at just why Brett Favre’s “retirement announcement” is probably not even worthy of any posting by anyone anywhere anytime (this post notwithstanding):

March 2008: Favre tells Packers he is retiring.

February 2009: Favre tells Jets he is retiring.

August 2010: Favre tells Vikings he is retiring.

Personally, while I don’t wish injury on anyone, the only way this blathering “look at me look at me look at me!!!” crap will go away is a major injury that will make a return impossible. Because there is some sucker team out there that will keep taking a chance on an old way way past his prime can’t-perform-in-the-clutch QB.

Here’s the scenario. You’re a pro athlete. One day the coach calls you in and says “son, you’ve been traded to ___________.”

What the worst team you can fill in the blank with? Four leagues, and feel free to elaborate on why if you feel so led.

In thinking about this, a few things jumped to mind right off the bat, but then I stepped back to think more about it. Is this just about a team that I hate (NY Rangers)? Is this about a team that has been mismanaged horrifically but I like them (Knicks)? Is this about a team that consistently has good young talent but trades it away (Pittsburgh Pirates)? Is it about a mediocre team that seems to be around .500 but never inspires the city/fans and has little shot at going deep in the playoffs in the foreseeable future?

In making my decision, I took a combination of the above – since there are a few factors at play here: state of franchise now/last 5-10 years and potential for winning in the next 5 or so, fan base, ownership/mgmt, city life and other sports teams (would be a plus in GB, not so much somewhere else with no other teams) and a few “intangibles” based on nothing other than my own (relatively) uninformed opinions.

With that being said, here is what I came up with and why:

MLB: Kansas City Royals. Owner David Glass has run this franchise into the ground in the 11 years he has owned the team. Only one winning season in the past 15 years. Phenom Zach Greinke is sure to be the next star to leave – following Carlos Beltran, Johnny Damon, David Cone, Mike Sweeney and Jermaine Dye (ok, so Cone was before Glass). The team ownership makes little effort in actually building a strategy for winning and keeping a core together – witness how the Marlins have done it more than once, for example. A depressing team which was once a proud franchise packed with all stars. While I’ve never been to Kansas City (and am sure I’d love the ribs), the only other sports team is the Chiefs which is a minus for me in terms of overall pro sports. And no hope for the future really either.

NFL: Jacksonville Jaguars. Not a horrible team by any stretch. But not a good team and not really an inspiring team either – not by a long shot. Buried in a division with Jeff Fisher’s Oilers Titans and Peyton Manning’s Colts, it is nearly impossible to make the playoffs consistently, if at all – at least not for a while. A few good seasons lately (2 playoff appearances since 2005 and one playoff win since 1999), but almost exactly a .500 record over the past 8 seasons, which won’t do much. No other sports teams in Jacksonville and a city that, while in “sunny” Florida, is fairly cold, pretty dreary and has little else going on. I once took a day trip (flight) to Jacksonville for a meeting, had lunch “downtown” and couldn’t get back to the airport soon enough. Nothing horrible, but very little redeeming – not for the team, not for the city, not for the future.

NBA:Memphis Grizzlies. I almost picked the Indiana Pacers or Toronto Raptors here, but Toronto breaks a few of my rules, given that the Maple Leafs and Blue Jays are in Toronto and it is a great city (from all I have been told). With Memphis, a city that I’ve never been to and probably is a fine city, there is no other sports, I am NOT a fan of NASCAR and the Grizzlies are woeful other than a 3 year stretch a few years ago but have won less than 25 games in 3 of the past 4 years. The potential to not suck is there with a couple of solid players (Gay, Randolph, Conley) so maybe things will turn around. And just in case they do, I’ll put the Pacers as my runner-up, who have been similarly horrific over the past 7 years, are in a city that fits a lot of the profile above (auto racing, other sports teams – except here it is all Colts who likely relegate the Pacers to minor league status nowadays, etc).

NHL: Columbus Blue Jackets. This was the toughest one. I thought Nashville initially, but they have been real good lately. Then I thought Calgary (because I’ve been there in the winter) but they’ve made the playoffs almost every season. And even my Islanders are in NY with a bit of promise, even though the history and ownership over the past 15 years make this ripe for a choice, so there is hope there. I picked Columbus because there is no tradition whatsoever and expansion/team movement has hurt hockey more than any other sport in my mind, because the little tradition they have since 2000 includes one playoff appearance and one .500 record, and because Ohio already has college football, college basketball, Cincinnati and Cleveland for other sports (even though there is no hockey in either city) and I’m not sure that Columbus, Ohio is a real “hot spot”.

So there you have it. Apologies to any residents of these cities that I pissed off – and that’s more because they have to deal with these shitty-ass franchises.

What are your thoughts?

In an attempt to either tell everyone who was pissed off at the selfish arrogant self serving way he handled his free agency that they should go scratch, or to rebuild his image, LeBron comes off looking more like the arrogant prick that very few thought existed. If this is an attempt at redemption or justifying his actions, it flops worse than Bill Laimbeer used to do back in the day on a touch foul under the basket.

If it is something else, then he deserves the scorn and ridicule and the millions of people rooting for him to lose/fail/fall on his face/blow out his knee/whatever else. Asking questions to the viewer like “should I stop listening to my friends? They’re my friends!!” gets right to the problem – sometimes friends don’t make the best people to ask for advice on huge decisions that they have no frame of reference or context for – and also was one of the reasons why his decisions and actions pissed off so many in the first place.

Asking whether he should “be what you want me to be” is insincere and crappy. Nobody was asking him to be something or someone else. Just not an asshole who crafted an image for years, only to shatter it himself in the most self serving way.

Asking whether he should care that he is called a “ring chaser” is telling – yes he should care. The fact that he so quickly and easily decided to become a sidekick to someone who already won a ring without him shows that he isn’t “the chosen one” that he calls himself, nor is he ever going to be “the king” that his nickname implied.

And so on….lather, rinse, repeat.

Fact remains that LeBron has done nothing to change anyone’s thoughts of him – at least not for the better. The ridiculous celebration on Miami with Wade and Bosh before any games were played further cemented why people were so pissed off in the first place.

This ad will only reinforce that. And no amount of rings will change that – at least not until he wins without being someone else’s sidekick.

But he didn’t, and showed for the first of many times over the next 4 years, what a selfish entitled prick he is. His Packers went to the NFC Championship Game, only to see him go “three and out” on every fourth quarter possession and throw an INT in overtime. After the Packers waited for him for months and months, only to move forward without him, he signed with the Jets – a team already on the rise that went 8-3 before Favre suffered an injury that clearly hurt the team’s chances and leaving them to lose 4 of their last 5 games, missing the playoffs. Instead of doing right by the team, Favre continued to play and threw 8 interceptions and only 2 TDs in the last 5 games.

But that wasn’t enough for him. Picking another team on the rise, the Minnesota Vikings, Favre “swooped in” after having surgery and deciding not to play in training camp, Favre somehow had the best statistical season of his career and stayed healthy for the entire season. And no, I bet that steroids had absolutely NOTHING to do with his career year at age 40. Once again, after the already-stacked Vikings made it to the NFC Championship Game, Favre threw an ill advised interception and cost his team the season.

Again.

So this year, when the pattern continued and Favre got off to a bad start along with his 1-3 Vikings, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop and have something conveniently have him call it quits. The embarrassment of his sex scandal (“I don’t do ‘old’” said Stergers), the sudden “elbow tendonitis (insert masturbation joke here) and the prospects of a lost season is tailor made for Favre to start to complain suddenly about his ailments and find a reason to retire before season’s end – in typical selfish “me before team” fashion.

And while he does legitimately have a bad injury now with his foot, this was something that you could have predicted weeks ago. No training camp, a selfish attitude, poor decisions that will ultimately catch up with his team, an aging body and a losing team will make it so that Favre slowly stops showing up at practices, then at games as he may ultimately be “deactivated” and then “retirement”.

Even though he quit on his team weeks ago.

And while Halladay may not quite be a slam dunk just based on his lifetime career totals, he is clearly one of most dominant pitchers of the past decade and should be mentioned in the same breath as Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Pedro Martinez. His masterpiece last night and his perfect game earlier in the year serves to show the rest of America what those who were either hardcore fans, Blue Jay fans or American League East fans have known for a long time:

Roy Halladay is a special pitcher.

On Toronto – a team that was never all that good during his tenure, and having to play at least 2 teams every single year that won 90+ games for a very good percentage of his starts. His stats against the Yankees are even better than his stats against everyone else. He was an all star for the 7th time in 12 full seasons this year, will likely win his 2nd Cy Young Award this year to go with one 2nd place finish, one 3rd place finish and two 5th place finishes. He has 3 seasons of 20 wins or more. His 169 wins are twice as many as his losses (number one among active pitchers), he has a lifetime ERA of 3.32, pitching predominantly against the toughest division in baseball for the past decade. His WAR are first or 2nd in 8 years. His 58 complete games are first among active pitchers, and he has led the league 6 times (with one second place finish). And he is routinely amongst league leaders in innings pitched.

He can easily win 300 games with the way he pitches and his relative youth, which would be unheard of after the retirement of Johnson, Maddux and Glavine.

But just as important – he instantly gives his team an excellent chance to win every single time out in a way that few pitchers over the past 15 years have – even the ones with overpowering fastballs.

Maybe his numbers aren’t as gaudy as others on the ballot, but if his career ended this postseason, what is the argument against voting him into the Hall of Fame?

Reason 1: The Money

Quite frankly, if it was only about the NBA contract, LeBron would have resigned with Cleveland and taken the extra tens of millions of dollars. But it isn’t nearly about the tens of millions for playing in the NBA – it is the additional hundreds of millions (or more) in endorsements, other marketing and other deals. So to that end, what can make LeBron the most money overall? Endorsements, business deals and “branching out” to set himself up as a global icon. Much of this revolves around the money and some revolves around the fame – which I’ll get into in a minute.

New York would make the most sense just looking at the opportunity to make money outside of endorsements, even though a name as big as LeBron’s would make tons of money either way – especially if he were to sign with Chicago. But the “Russian Mark Cuban”, as the Nets new owner has been called is a multi multi billionaire and can make LeBron a billionaire with the various business deals he is involved in. Jay-Z (who LeBron loves) can do the same.

Reason 2: The Fame

Yes, LeBron is the biggest or one of the biggest names in the NBA, and yes, everyone is waiting to see where he goes. But Prokhorov and Jay-Z can make LeBron an international icon – not just here in the US. I don’t think that any other team or owner can do that; outside of what LeBron can otherwise do for himself. Granted, this isn’t the 2nd most important reason, but it is a reason.

Reason 3: The Players and Coach

While the Bulls probably offer the best supporting cast right now, that may change in a few years (see below). The Knicks have an intriguing pair of players in Danilo Gallinari and (if he stays) David Lee as well as cap space next year for someone like Carmelo Anthony or another big name. The Cavaliers can add another piece or two as they have a very solid core and can add pieces as LeBron sees fit. And the Nets have Brook Lopez (one of the best centers in the Eastern Conference), Devin Harris and a top 3 draft choice, plus a ton of cap space as well.

On the coaching side, Avery Johnson is a very respected coach and makes the Nets attractive. D’Antoni is more of a plus but has one nagging question that most will never know the answer to, and the Bulls’ Tom Thibodeau is a new coach for the Bulls but pretty respected in terms of defense.

Reason 4: The Owner

With respect to the Bulls, in a couple of years, they have to pony up for big time contracts for Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose. Knowing that Bulls owner Reinsdorf is a bastard and has shown in the past (post-Jordan/Pippen) to trade big name players instead of paying out the big contracts. Now that may change with LeBron, but who knows.

As for the Knicks, let’s just leave it as Dolan is a moron.

Cleveland’s situation is a mess, although LeBron could probably get the owner to do whatever he wants.

The Nets have an owner who would spend countless millions on marketing alone, let alone putting a winner on the court year in and year out. For example, someone I work with told me earlier today that the Nets put a huge banner up across the street Madison Square Garden with Jay-Z and Prokhorov’s faces on it – right in the Knicks’ backyard. There is little doubt that he would be like Cuban and Steinbrenner when it comes to dedication to consistent winning. Oh yeah, and Jay-Z is a minority owner as well.

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So of course, there are things in favor of LeBron signing with the Bulls, the Knicks, the Nets and the Cavs – and there may even be other teams in the mix (like Miami but I don’t think that happens for many many reasons). But all in all, the Nets give LeBron the bright lights and big city of NY (and Brooklyn is his favorite Borough), the worldwide fame, the billions in annual income, a solid core, a good coach and a chance at multiple titles.

But after his death, the doubts were back.

“Maybe you can’t change” replaced all of the hope that he would get things straight and finally show the consistent talent that fans caught glimpses of once he died last year. But maybe it wasn’t that simple. No, actually, it really wasn’t that simple.

An alarming article that was released today indicated that Henry had a form of degenerative brain damage at the time of his death – something that has been coming up far more frequently than it should, given the state of sports and technology today.

Chris Henry, the Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver who died in a traffic accident last year, had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) — a form of degenerative brain damage caused by multiple hits to the head — at the time of his death, according to scientists at the Brain Injury Research Institute, a research center affiliated with West Virginia University.

—snip—

Researchers have now discovered CTE in the brains of more than 50 deceased former athletes, including more than a dozen NFL and college players, pro wrestler Chris Benoit and NHL player Reggie Fleming.

Repeated blows to the head are the only known cause of CTE, researchers say. Concussive hits can trigger a buildup of toxic tau protein within the brain, which in turn can create damaging tangles and threads in the neural fibers that connect brain tissue. Victims can lose control of their impulses, suffer depression and memory loss, and ultimately develop dementia.

Long lasting symptoms and issues arising from concussions are the dirty little secret in sports, and have been for a long time. Whether it is the “macho factor” that makes someone think that he (or she) has been so good for so long that they can overcome a few hits to the head or whether it is just the fact that coaches, teams and players want to do whatever they can to win that they may “shake off” the dizziness or whether it is something else entirely, it ruins lives – regardless what the sport.

Boxing is the obvious example, where the entire sport is based on how hard you can his someone else in the head repeatedly. And wrestling, where steroids, concussions and other health related issues have resulted in a number of high profile deaths in recent years – Chris Benoit being one of the more well known cases in recent memory.

But football (not just Henry, but remember Al “8 concussions” Toon?) has been a sport where high profile deaths only seem to briefly bring post concussion symptoms and health issues to the discussion (like Mike Webster, among others). Hockey had one of its “golden can’t miss superstars of a generation”, Eric Lindros, have his career marred by concussions, and even the requirement of helmets hasn’t stopped the stream of concussions as a total of close to 760 NHL players were diagnosed with concussions between 1997 and 2008.

While this obviously isn’t limited to sports, since this is a sports blog, I’ll stay in that area. The Sports Legacy Institute, is doing some major research into the area of brain injuries and CTE. The SLI, Christopher Nowinski and Boston University School of Medicine are working together to try and solve this crisis in sports (as well as the military). Hopefully one day, many less players will suffer from these injuries, fans can watch without wondering whether a player is going to “come back from that hit” and players can have a career, as well as post career life that isn’t cut needlessly short.

And with the free agent period due to start in a week, the “where will they go” stories will certainly be plentiful. But one thing that is getting a lot LESS exposure is the 2011 free agent class – one that may not have the biggest of the big names, but certainly Carmelo Anthony, Tony Parker, David West and Kevin Durant are substantial prizes for whatever team can sign or resign them.

One of the biggest mistakes that a team can do (and I fully expect the Knicks to do this as they have proven to be so adept as screwing up over the past decade, making it all but impossible for a fan like myself to stay excited) is spend money just because they have it. On this end, only Wade and Bosh are the game changers, while Boozer, Johnson and Stoudemire are excellent players but aren’t the number one player on a championship team. If the Knicks let David Lee go (one of the most underrated great players in the NBA), only to sign Stoudemire and Johnson (or even Bosh and Johnson), that could be a huge mistake. Why not sign Bosh, keep Lee, trade for a Tony Parker and make a run next year at one of the other big name FAs? But this is the Knicks we are talking about.

I still think that LeBron and Wade stay put. Even though there are compelling arguments for LeBron to go to the Bulls, I’m not sure why he would want to forego all of the millions and the adulation of his hometown to live in the constant shadow of Michael Jordan – a city where “only” 3 titles would be a failure. What makes more sense, and of course the front office upheaval throws a bit of a wrench into this, would be for LeBron to resign with Cleveland, let their 7 unrestricted free agents walk next year and either sign Tony Parker (if he isn’t traded before then) or another point guard to take some pressure off, and get another big man (who isn’t as slow as Shaq) up front. Bonus read: Simmons on LeBron’s decision of “winning, loyalty or immortality”.

Over all, a team like the Nets may be in the best position long term, although the Bulls have tons of cap room and a great core. With Brook Lopez as a budding superstar, a new owner, the third pick tonight, a new arena and gobs of cap money as well, why not take this 2-year approach and put together a deep and stacked team?

My guess, the Knicks crap out with 2 more max deals that don’t make sense (unless Bosh is one of them), LeBron and Wade stay put. Just because there is money to burn doesn’t mean it all has to be spend this year. A bad contract can set back a team for years (just see the Knicks once again). But then again, this is why it will be the NBA’s silly season.

Buying the hype continues for me to this day – drafting players like Chase Utley, Corey Hart, Andrew McCutchen, Tim Lincecum and Ike Davis in my rotisserie baseball keeper leagues while they were still in AA or AAA ball. And I really, really hope this Strasburg kid lives up to his potential – especially since baseball has done a piss poor job of promoting its young, exciting players and frankly, the game itself (thanks for nothing, Bud….)

That being said, reading this article that “makes the case” for Strasburg being an All-Star this season misses the mark in so many ways. Not that he hasn’t had three very solid starts – albeit against barely major league hitters on Pittsburgh and Cleveland, and a then-below .500 White Sox team (his next start will be against the Royals). But this piece of the argument is straight out of the “where have I heard this before?” book:

The only question on him now appears to be: Is he a once-in-a-lifetime pitcher, or a once-in-a-century pitcher?

Admittedly, the forces of stodginess will all be aligned against the appearance of Stephen Strasburg on an All-Star roster at this early date. There are always legions in favor of the baseball status quo. Let’s not do anything different, because, well, it might be too different. And in this case, even the Nationals probably wouldn’t want Strasburg pitching in a situation over which they had little or no control.

But, but, but Stephen Strasburg is a special case. The only negative result from putting him on the NL All-Star roster would probably be that some of the other All-Star pitchers, after seeing him work, would go back to their respective teams with inferiority complexes.

It isn’t about the “status quo” or not doing anything different – if it was, there wouldn’t be a Wild Card or intraleague play, and one Armando Galarraga would have a 28 out perfect game on record. In the case of Strasburg and this year’s All Star game, it is about whether he deserves to be there – plain and simple – not whether the hype mandates that he be there.

Let’s look back just a few short months – to one Jason Heyward of the Atlanta Braves. Chipper Jones comparing Heyward to former Tennessee Titans DE Jevon Kearse and Bobby Cox compared Heyward to Hank Aaron – before he saw one major league pitch that counted. And we can go back further and further – remember when JD Drew was compared to Mickey Mantle and Stan Musial before blowing off the Phillies when they drafted him? He’s still around and has had a pretty decent career – but come on – nothing near that hype. Of course, if you wanted a rookie NL pitcher on the All-Star squad that has deserved it from Day 1, look no further than Jaime Garcia on St. Louis, who only has 70Ks, a sub-2.00 ERA, 7 wins and a 1.21 WHIP through 14 starts.

The list goes on and on. Kerry Wood was compared to Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens. Mark Prior was even better and had the “perfect windup” so as to never get injured. Eric Davis had 2 of the more amazing seasons in 1986 and 1987 and was compared to Willie Mays before a number of average, injury riddled seasons and a bout with cancer (which was one of the best comeback stories) left his career as another “what could have been”. I won’t even get into Doc Gooden or Darryl Strawberry – 2 guys who had very good careers and accomplishments, but nothing near the lofty instant-Hall-of Fame hype that was heaped upon them those first few seasons.

If Strasburg is this good, lucky and healthy, he will have many All-Star games to come. Ditto for Heyward, and maybe even Florida’s Michael Stanton or the Mets’ Ike Davis. But right now, neither Strasburg nor Heyward are even the most deserving player on their own teams. Let’s watch these guys do their thing and maybe blaze their own paths. But there is only one Mantle, Aaron, Mays, Ryan and even Clemens. In the meantime, if baseball wanted to do something that was “for the good of its fans”, then maybe coming clean on PEDs and marketing the players who have already proved themselves as perennial All-Stars or future Hall of Famers would be a better idea.