Burgos: Time for Favre to retire, time for Vick to shine

Not many people mention Michael Vick and Brett Favre in the same sentence. Sure, both guys are NFL quarterbacks, but the similarities end there.

Favre has endured an illustrious and tenured career as a pro — a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame, owner of essentially every major passing record in league history and a record three MVP awards.

Vick, on the other hand, has spent the last two years in jail on felony dog-fighting charges, has a pedestrian career completion percentage of 53.8 percent and has never thrown for more than 20 scores in a season.

Vick has one thing on Favre, though: running prowess. He’s the only play caller in league history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season.

Neither is the best at his position in today’s NFL, and neither has been declared an opening-day starter by his coach.

Yet, they are the two most talked-about players in the league right now — Vick because of his past heinous crimes and Favre for his fickleness. One is an ex-con, and the other is an ex-Super Bowl champ.

But, somehow, it isn’t clear to me which one of them is worse.

For one, you have Vick. Despite various off-the-field troubles, Vick has never done any wrong on the field — nothing to shame the game or its fans. Perhaps he isn’t an ideal role model, but he has integrity when he’s on the field.

Then, there’s Favre: a stand-up citizen with no criminal record. He struggled with alcohol addiction, but so do many others. He just happens to be famous, so the public has heard about it.

But the circus surrounding Favre for more than two years has scarred me more than Vick’s crimes.

Here’s the timeline: Favre retired from the Green Bay Packers. Mid-offseason, he asked to return. Green Bay said no, but that it still owned his rights. Favre asked to be released. The Packers declined, fearing he would sign with a division rival. Favre accused the Packers of being dishonest. The Packers accused the Minnesota Vikings of tampering after attempts to talk with Favre without permission. Favre applied for reinstatement to the NFL, and it’s granted. Favre reported to Packers training camp and was soon traded to the New York Jets.

He played with the Jets for one year, then retired again. He took the summer to recover from elbow surgery and announced he would not come back to the NFL.

Then, he signed with the team he wanted to join in the first place — the Vikings — two weeks ago.

Favre gets to play in a system he ran for 15 years in Green Bay with Minnesota. He gets to continue the career he never intended to end. He receives a fantastical amount of media attention. ESPN stakes out Rachel Nichols as Favre’s house in Mississippi for weeks. The same story we’ve been hearing for two years is regurgitated ad nauseam when nothing new is happening.

SportsCenter becomes boring and repetitive. No one cares about the rest of the league — except Vick. Food loses its taste. We pull our hair out and go insane.

But, still, no one seems to be all that mad at Favre.

People are sure as hell ticked off about Vick. Activist organizations picket, fans are disgusted, many want him gone for good because of something that made him serve two years in jail and become bankrupt.

What becomes irrelevant are the numerous accused and convicted rapists, drug dealers and users that pervade the sports world.

Ray Lewis was indicted on murder charges. Jamal Lewis was involved in coke dealing and went to jail.

But, no one moaned when they came back to the league.

No one excuses Vick, but there’s simply no precedent in sports that says doing time doesn’t deserve another chance. If you can produce on the field, the truth is that no one cares — at all.

But, there’s still the issue of Favre. He’s the guy who made a mockery of the system by retiring just to get his way. He’s the guy who robbed us of news from Cincinnati and Chad Ochocinco or insights into the state of the union in New England. Both situations are far more interesting to me, and the list goes on.

Instead, we talk about an indecisive player and one who bankrolled a dog-fighting ring. Given the choice, I know who I would rather have banned from the league. And, it isn’t Vick.