EL HOMBRE KNOWS SPORTS

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell decided earlier this week to jump into the fray and encourage the Green Bay Packers to settle their situation with Brett Favre, for the good of the game and all that. He encouraged the Pack to find a location for the iconic quarterback, preferably in a cold-weather spot, so he can throw snowballs that will convince sycophantic sportscasters of his unbridled love of the game and boyish dedication to playing ball.

After being nearly perfect thus far in his pronouncements and actions, particularly in the law-and-order department, Goodell whiffed on this one. By trying to manipulate a player-franchise dispute, he set a bad precedent that some will expect him to continue in the future. And don’t give El Hombre the “Favre is an icon and important to the game” malarkey. NFL commissioners haven’t made it a habit of trying to influence negotiations, and by stepping in here, Goodell puts himself in the position of having to do the same thing when other top-tier players are in conflict with their teams. He should stick to labor negotiations, slapping miscreants down with some serious justice and making sure TV networks continue to pay the equivalent of Bigmacistan’s GNP for the right to air the Falcons-Raiders showdown.

The danger of a precedent’s being set by Goodell’s behavior was overshadowed by his enabling of Favre’s self-centered act. If his recent antics have revealed anything about the QB, it’s that his focus is entirely on himself. If he were truly interested in the “good of the Packers,” he would have either A) Stayed retired or B) Committed to playing back in March, when GM Ted Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy were ready to welcome him back for another season. Being intelligent men, they understand Favre gives them a better chance to win right now than does Aaron Rodgers, no matter how patiently he has waited or how conscientiously he has prepared. Instead, Favre waffled.

As El Hombre wrote a couple weeks back, it is extremely difficult for a man in the prime of his life to stop doing that which he loves most. The cruel facts of professional sports mandate that players must leave before their minds and hearts are ready to exit. Just ask Gavin Grey about that. The old “Grey Ghost” never quite did get used to life without football. Seems Brett Favre is struggling, too. It’s entirely understandable. But he should have been more honest with himself and the Packers back in the spring, before they moved forward with Rodgers. In fact, had he said he wanted to play and then retired in the summer, the Packers would have had less trouble, because they could have at least had an excuse if things had gone badly.

Now, Favre wants back into the game. Or at least he wants to have people begging for his return. espn has certainly complied by making his dramatic circumstances the centerpiece of every program on the network. NASCAR shows are discussing it. It’s a wonder they didn’t break out into a Favre debate during that “brawl” that took place late in the WNBA mess between I Don’t Care and Who Knows Who. Just when it seemed like America couldn’t take another breakdown of the Chiefs’ passing problems, along comes Favre and his built-in ratings bonanza. Expect a fruit basket or two to find its way to Kiln, MS, courtesy of the four-letter folks.

Rodgers, Thompson and McCarthy will probably send the Bolivian hit squad down there. So will the starting quarterback of any other team that has been mentioned as a potential Favre landing place. By putting himself back into play, Favre not only sticks it to the Packer crew; he also makes fans of other teams – Jets, Bucs, Ravens, etc. – begin to salivate that America’s oldest sandlot star will come to their town and rescue the home team from the doldrums – until he throws a crippling playoff interception, that is.

Imagine being Tampa Bay’s Jeff Garcia. You’re 38 and the starter on a playoff team, but all of a sudden, you stink, at least compared to Mr. Two-Days’-Growth. If Favre comes to Buctown, he’ll supplant Garcia. Not that he cares, since his signing with Tampa Bay would allow him to continue chasing further personal glory. If it comes at the expense of Garcia, or any other NFL QB for that matter, so be it.

Before you launch the counterargument that the NFL is about talent and has never been particularly kind to players, remember that this isn’t about legitimate competition. This is about an old hero who wept before us last winter when he announced his retirement, thereby spawning a fortnight of media veneration that would have made a Soviet dictator blush. He has now decided it’s time to get back into the game and expects the professional football world to welcome him warmly.

It’s not going to happen in Green Bay, and the Packers should be applauded for their stance. He had several chances to play for them, and he declined, despite their expressions of interest. So, when he decides to walk back into their lives, after they have clearly moved on, he has to wait. And he had better not think his earnest relating of “his side of the story” will get him a free pass to play for his buddy Darrell Bevell and the Minnesota Vikings. On the contrary. Favre’s reaching out to Bevell and coach Brad Childress could result in a tampering charge that costs the Vikes a draft pick. Once again, Favre doesn’t care about the ramifications of his actions. He just wants to make sure Chris Berman will be deifying him for another season.

It’s fine if Favre wants this to be about Favre. Just say it. He shouldn’t try to convince us that he’s about winning and the Packers. Some have said that his presence in another uniform will tarnish his record-setting career and his image. That won’t happen. Admit it, you don’t think of Joe Montana in a Chiefs uni when you conjure memories of his greatness. No, what will hurt Favre is that this latest behavior paints him as selfish and brings into question everything he has done to this point. Was he just a good old boy from southern Mississippi playing ball for fun or a calculating schemer whose every move was designed to craft an image America would devour?

These days, it seems as if the latter is true. Favre should have thought about that when he decided to go down this road.

EL HOMBRE SEZ: Minor-league baseball fights? WNBA skirmishes? This stuff has to stop. Professional sports needs a commissioner with the fortitude to decree that anybody who fights on a field or court will be suspended for half a year. That’s right, half. Think that might stop the silliness? Damn right…It’s borderline hilarious that people are furious over American’s companies’ Olympic sloganeering in foreign countries. McDonald’s says “We love it when China wins,” and all of a sudden we’re betrayed? Americans have been lied to in advertising for decades, yet when a business tries to cater to its market, it’s unpatriotic. It’s called capitalism, folks, and its basic tenets had better not be blurred by jingoism…LeBron James has guaranteed a gold medal for the U.S. men’s basketball team in Beijing. Guess he’s been practicing his three-point shots. He had better be right, or the NBA brand of hoops is going to be ridiculed as a sorry substitute for the real thing. Talk about your conflicts of interest. Of course El Hombre wants to root, root, root for the home team, but that means backing Coach K. Holy Conundrum!…Speaking of Batman, or at least the old-school version, don’t rush out to see “The Dark Knight.” It’s long, a bit tedious, and the acting isn’t quite as great as reviewers have been saying. When a flick like this gets three-and-a-half or four stars, it’s time for everybody to go out and see “On the Waterfront” again.

AND ANOTHER THING: The Phillies celebrated Tuesday night’s come-from-behind win over the Letsgoes, in which they scored six ninth-inning runs, as if they had just found definitive proof BALCO Bonds was juicing. They naturally bounced back the next two days and lost to the fetid Mets, losing their grip on first place in the process. Before the season began, Jimmy Rollins forecast a 100-win season for the Phils. Now, he’s showing up late for games, failing to run out pop-ups and not hustling enough to score from first on long doubles. It’s not all his fault, though. The whole team is without heart and lacking leadership. The Phillies aren’t out of it, by any stretch, but they need to grow up in order to subdue New York.