They say Brett Favre is finally going to retire.

They say Favre has informed the New York Jets' brass that it should probably look in another direction.

I don't believe it. Even with a damaged right arm, even with his 40th birthday 10 months away and even with alienated teammates to pacify, I still see him making a nuisance of himself in 2009.

This football season still has almost a month to go and wounds, both the kind that bleed and the kind that cause remorse, have not yet begun to heal. As for competitive juices, all players are down to the last few splashes in their tanks by this point in the season.

But whatever it is that drives men to play this most violent of games always rejuvenates itself. Just as surely as pitchers and catchers report in February, football players recharge by April.

And my gut tells me that Favre, who is as identified with almost supernatural endurance as he is with performance, is going to want to leave on his own terms.

No torn biceps muscle in his right arm is going to chase Favre away from the game, is it? No way.

Besides, hasn't Jets owner Robert Wood Johnson IV already told Favre he wants him back?

And doesn't it stand to reason the Jets want to try and save face after not only squandering a third-round pick to the Green Bay Packers for Favre's contract last summer, but also by making room for him by cutting ties with Chad Pennington? The same Pennington, mind you, who finished tied for second to Peyton Manning for the NFL's Most Valuable Player award last week?

Common sense keeps tugging at my shoulder as I write this, but I still see Favre wearing No. 4 for the Jets this fall - and looking older and colder than ever by the time November's harsh winds start to howl.

And an already big mistake will become an even bigger mistake.

I suppose I shouldn't be so hard on Favre. Hey, the guy came to play every Sunday since our outgoing president's father was living in the White House. And all the while, he owned up to his shortcomings, beguiled us with his country-boy charm and inspired us with so many emotion-charged moments.

Besides, there are already so many easy targets out there in the sporting world more worthy of our scorn, aren't there?

But maybe it's because he came across as such a model athlete for so many years that Favre has been annoying the heck out of me these days.

It started when Favre willingly accepted former Green Bay coach Mike Sherman's ridiculous invitation for his quarterback to blow off minicamps. What example was being set, what kind of ill feelings were being planted, when the leader of a team took a pass on the drudgery his teammates had to endure?

Those feelings were exasperated when Favre started staging those ridiculous drama-drenched offseasons, when he all but announced his return every May or so by sending white smoke from the Vatican.

Then I completely lost it for him last year when he backed the Packers organization into a corner, especially general manager Ted Thompson, with another stack of waffles. This is the same organization that welcomed Favre back last March after he reconsidered his retirement, only to see Favre reconsider once again.

By the way, I'm still laughing at those fans who were trying to organize a state-wide rally to force the Packers to bring back Favre last summer. Can even Favre's most loyal supporters still make a case that Thompson and Packers coach Mike McCarthy didn't know what they were doing when they consummated this most ugly of divorces?

Meanwhile, poison just keeps spewing from the bottle. It's been reported that Jets players are claiming Favre did almost nothing to win them over. And that he couldn't handle being singled out for mistakes by former coach Eric Mangini - whom some suggest Favre had a hand in getting fired - just as the other players were singled out.

And then there's the rumor that Bill Cowher, who won a Super Bowl as the Pittsburgh Steelers coach three years ago, might have taken the Jets job had he not been forced to deal with the Favre mess.

I still wish it was around this time last year, when Favre seemed poised to walk away from himself and his team after a vintage season.

I could have lived with what excess baggage there was at the time. But I just can't anymore.

Peter Jackel is a reporter for The Journal Times. You can reach him by calling (262) 634-3322, Ext. 323 or by e-mailing him at: peter.jackel@lee.net