Green Bay and Brett Favre are synonymous. Favre, as everyone knows, “retired” this past March and has eluded to returning ever since. But now, Favre has decided to distance himself from those Green Bay synonymic ways, opting for a full release from the franchise. It’s hard to say where Favre will wind up playing, but somebody will sign him. 49ers? Probably not, but I’d take an old Brett Favre over Alex Smith any day of the week.

Green Bay Packer Brett Favre is considering coming out of “retirement.” Apparently, he’s got the “itch” to play, and he’s talked to coach McCarthy about showing up at training camp.

Utterly ridiculous. First off, you don’t get to come out of retirement if you never actually missed playing time. Yeah, Favre had a retirement press conference, but there haven’t been any games to miss. He wouldn’t be returning, because he never really left in the first place.

Secondly, what the hell are the Packers thinking to have him back? It’s time to move on. Go with Aaron Rodgers. If he sucks, give Favre a call. But this is a giant distraction just waiting to happen. Frankly, I feel bad for Rodgers either way. He’s got to have a shot sometime, right? Fuck. Just when you think a guy might actually ride off into the sunset with a teary-eyed goodbye, he’s got to go and grandstand.

Hats off to Mr. William H. Gates who retires today at the young age of 53 and is the third richest person in the world. The Harvard graduate became the most recognized computer industry entrepreneur and is worth an estimated 58 billion buckaroos. Sigh… must be nice.

Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz, who in addition to being one third of the 3 sure-fire Hall of Fame inductees to come up with the team during the 80’s (Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux being the other two) also rocks one the longest running beards in all of sports, and he may be done pitching forever as of today.

The 21 year vet who has spent his entire career with the same team said his shoulder has been troubling him all year and he just can’t take it anymore. He is going to have immediate surgery by Dr. James Andrews, who has operated on pretty much every pitcher at one point in their career. After watching the news conference footage on ESPN I got the feeling that he thinks he isn’t going to pitch anymore, and that he would be happy just to be able to lift his arm above his head.

I’m not a Braves fan or anything, but they have been doing it about as right as a team can do it for the past 20 years or so. They have held on to all of their stars for a as long as they could without ever crippling the franchise by over paying to keep them, they made the playoffs for over a decade straight, and in the age where managers get fired like Taco Bell employees, they have held on to Bobby Cox since I didn’t even know how babies were made, so I root for him to pull of a miracle.
I doubt Smoltz can come back from major shoulder surgery at 41 years old. But the dude has more scars on his pitching arm than a cutter goth chick and he’s been able to come back from all of his previous surgeries successfully, so who knows?
I don’t know why he would want to come back though. The guy is so rich he has to move money out of the way just to take a shit. But even the greatest athletes have a tough time knowing when to hang it up. *cough! Michael Jordan! *cough!

What should come as good news for European musicians, The European Commission is planning on extending the copyright for performance/sound recording from 50 years to 95 years. Basically, this means European musical performers can continue to get paid royalties for playing your favorite songs until they die. Considering that most musicians are bastard failures at life and, due to the ephemeral nature of their youth rock ‘n’ roll lifestyles, don’t plan on retirements or pensions, this will help keep some of the lesser-knowns from wasting away in their hovels in their old age. People like Roger Daltrey, who made his most artistic impact in his 20s, are stoked.

Much like the death of a comic book character, the retirement of a rapper is rarely permanent. It wasn’t long after Jay-Z called it quits that a new song popped up on a Budweiser commercial, leading to his first “comeback” album, Kingdom Come, which was pretty much a dud. Now, the New York Times is reporting the 37-year-old rapper/mogul is readying his second post-retirement release. The forthcoming album, American Gangster, is inspired by the yet-to-be released Denzel Washington film of the same name. Though Jay-Z had nothing to do with the film, nor do these songs appear in American Gangster, the album will be released in conjunction with the movie in early November.

In an hourlong telephone interview, Jay-Z, 37, who has spoken of spending his early years in Brooklyn both rapping and drug dealing, said that the movie had tremendous resonance for him and had sparked a burst of creative activity that even he found surprising. He has already recorded nine tracks, almost every one prompted by a specific scene.

“It was like I was watching the film, and putting it on pause, and giving a back story to the story,” he said.