The Brett Favre playing era ended in 2010. The Brett Favre coaching era officially has begun.
When agent Bus Cook recently acknowledged that Favre would be helping out at Oak Grove high school, the place where Favre prepared for his various unretirements, Cook didn’t know what Favre’s precise role would be. As it turns out, Favre will serve as offensive coordinator, according to the Associated Press.
And Oak Grove isn’t some rinky-dink school. The 6A program at the 1,500-student facility is a perennial power in Favre’s home state of Mississippi.
“The stress is already getting to me,” Favre joked. “I’ll wake up in the middle of the night saying, ‘Hey, maybe we can do this? Maybe that will work?’”
If it doesn’t work, he won’t lose any money. He’s doing the job without pay. And perhaps for good reason.
“My experience in pro football means nothing,” Favre said. “Absolutely nothing here. It’s totally different. So our biggest learning curve as a team might be my learning curve.”
So what does Favre bring to the table?
“I really believe I’m good at reading people,” Favre said. “From being in the huddle, being in the locker room and in all those meetings for all those years, I understand that some people learn this way and some learn another way. . . . My whole job is to try and keep things simple. The more you have to think, the less your talent can show.”
It also gives Favre a way to keep busy, without having to leave home.
“One of the reasons I retired in the first place was I wanted to be in one place and experience all these things with my family,” Favre said. “This year will be a trial basis [for coaching]. I feel like I can help the kids, but I’m not promising we’ll win any more games. Shoot, we might not win one.”
Favre’s comments help explain why he hasn’t gotten into broadcasting. Unlike players, who have 10 road games per year, players-turned-media-members are on the road every week. For Favre, he would have been traveling to a game site every Thursday or Friday, or to the ESPN (Connecticut), NBC (New York), CBS (New York), or HBO (L.A.) studios every Friday or Saturday.
Plus, he would have had to wear a tie. And something other than flip-flops.
He’ll likely be wearing something other than flip-flops on the sidelines at Oak Grove. But there will be no ties, and the travel will entail at most hopping into a bus on Friday afternoon, and getting home late Friday night.
