What’s always stuck out for me about the Beowulf legend is that he takes on one quest too many. After slaying Grendel and Grendel’s Mother, he sets out against the dragon. Only now he’s too old, and not what he used to be. And he loses, and he dies. There’s a mentality that says this is the way one should be – never stop fighting. There’s another mentality that said his glory was already secure and that he should have known when to start exploring other options for his life besides monster-slaying.
Of course, if you keep setting out to slay monsters with the knowledge that one of them will inevitably do you in someday, a featured benefit is that you never have to stop and look at anything else in your life, or even reflect on yourself, for that matter.
It became obvious a few years ago that Brett Favre was following the Beowulf model. His career, and his accompanying streak of career starts, could not be broken with him healthy, accomplished, and satisfied. Whether it’s good for his team or not, he is going to go out there and catapult balls into the air until his body crumbles like a statue under a wrecking ball.
They call it 50-50, but I’d put my money on him taking the field this Sunday. Every week there’s another dragon on the field – what’s he going to do; stay on the sideline?