SO YOU THINK YOU MIGHT RETIRE

Thanks to some other website, some tips on retirement etiquette. Let's see how Brett Favre did.
1) Discuss in advance with your direct supervisor that you will be retiring.

How far in advance? It doesn't say. But I guess the Jets knew it could come at any moment since they acquired him before last season. So maybe this wasn't a discussion that was desperately needed. But Favre did only tell Jets management shortly before e-mailing the media...thank goodness it happened in that order.

2) Give plenty of notice so that a replacement can be found and trained completely. Notice time varies, but it is better to give way too much notice than not enough.

Well, this all depends on how you look at things. When you consider how Favre held the Packers hostage last year, this is like a year's notice out of Favre. And at least the Jets have the draft coming up to try to get a quarterback to build around. (ESPN's Todd McShay is projecting USC's Mark Sanchez to the Jets at #17 in the draft - can't say I'm not excited about that possibility.) But when you think of it in terms of football games, it's not long enough. Read: all the Jets have right now is Kellen Clemens, Brett Ratliff, and Erik Ainge.

3) Six weeks' notice should be the minimum because it takes at least one week to run an ad and get responses, one week to interview and choose a successor, and then the successor must give two weeks' notice at his/her job. This would allow a two-week training period. If in a supervisory or managerial position, give more than six weeks' notice; tailor the time to your situation.

Quarterback is a very supervisory/managerial position, and should be regarded as such when one retires. It's very hard to find a replacement. You need to give a year's notice if you're the type of player who a franchise depends heavily on. Otherwise you're left with the likes of Clemens, Ratliff, and Ainge.

So Favre is a little bit to blame for some seemingly poor retirement etiquette. But, as they have done so many times before, the Jets might not have made the best decisions here.

Of course, Brett Favre did announce a year ago that he was retiring from football, only to play again in 2008....