Brett Favre, Brett Favre, Brett Favre.

Sports are supposed to be an escape, so why does ESPN torture us in our dreams?

Usually when I write about something, I try to stay as objective as possible, but in this case I am so one-sided on the story that I felt like I needed to break up this article into different sections. Well, here we go:

Point No. 1:

On “Around the Horn,” the first question of the night was “How Good Can the Vikings Be?”

Woody Paige mentioned that they have a sound defense, and Jared Allen might be the best defensive end in the league (both good points). Shortly after that, Stat Boy (sorry Tony Reali) muted him because, “In that whole 30 seconds, you only mentioned Brett Favre once!” Two generic “Brett Favre plays like a kid out there!” and “That game was Favre-licious!” comments later, Kevin Blackistone was awarded two points for saying “Brett Favre played like Brett Favre.”

Now this article isn’t about how arbitrary the points in “Around the Horn” are (I always thought they should steal the line from “Whose Line is it Anyway,” where Drew Carey says, “Welcome to the show where everything’s made up and the points don’t matter”), this is really just about how Brett Favre has been over-hyped by the media. And by the media, I mean ESPN.

Point No. 2:

On Wednesday, Sept. 30, the worldwide leader in sports announced it would try to set the Guinness world record for saying Brett Favre in one show, on “SportsNation.”

I would keep bringing up examples but my fingers are starting to bleed from writing about this, so let’s just get to the point.

So it looks like anyone mildly interested in sports has been split up into two groups.

Group 1: Brett Favre is amazing! He is a record setter! Hell, according to Jay Mariotti, this could be one of the best stories in football history.

Group 2: Brett Favre is the worst thing that ever happened to sports. He is everything wrong with “me-first” athletes. He doesn’t care about his teammates or anyone besides himself (this could all be true, but I don’t know the man personally, so it’s hard to know that for a fact). The Vikings have Adrian Peterson, maybe the best athlete and most important player in all of football, and still, Brett Favre is the most talked about player out there. What the hell!?

The ESPN problem

Instead of just accepting that ESPN has fallen in love with Favre, (they even have a commercial centered around him) or just despising him for the attention he’s gotten, and everything he stands for, why don’t we actually explore why ESPN talks so much about “He-Who-I-Won’t-Name-Anymore?”

Well, here is a stat that may or may not surprise you:

According to tvbythenumbers.com, “Last night’s Monday Night Football game featuring the Packers vs. Vikings … averaged a huge 21.8 million viewers and a 9.0 rating among adults 18-49. The previous cable record was last year’s Eagles vs. Cowboys contest with 18.6 million, so last night beat it by a pretty wide margin.” Looks like Favre wins again!

So, sports fans, apparently it’s our fault. People are actually interested in this story. Evidently, our hate or love for Favre keeps us interested in everything sports-wise. ESPN simply had something to promote, and they wouldn’t be the worldwide leader in sports without knowing what people want to see and hear about.

So, what does this mean? Well, if you want to stop hearing about a certain No. 4, change the channel when they talk about him! That’s right, this is actually an article with a cause! Join the cause! Yeah!

The real point

I want to root for Brett Favre. I try to watch “SportsCenter,” “Around the Horn” and “Pardon the Interruption” every day. Who, besides some vengeful Packer fans, wouldn’t want to root for a 40-year-old, record-setting quarterback making a comeback? His team is 4-0. The Vikings have a chance to win the Super Bowl. ESPN, and all of their hype of No. 4, is actually ruining Brett Favre for me.

At what point can ESPN learn to let a great story simply be a great story? From the look of things, no time soon.