Is hockey Brett Favre's next move?

By now, even if you're not a football fan, you've heard that Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre won't be back on the frozen tundra next season. Although he's technically retired, he's got two years left on his contract with the Packers. He's hinted at a desire to come out of retirement and he's demanded an unconditional release. There's been a huge soap opera between Favre, the Packers front office and the fans of the other 31 NFL teams, all of whom think that the Mississippi native is coming to play for their team.

Today, there came another rumor about Favre. Well, not really a rumor. More like a harebrained idea. Some folks think that he'll be able to make the transition from "frozen tundra" to "frozen pond". The AHL Iowa Chops (Anaheim's team) have offered the 38-year old a contract, which I'm sure went directly into Favre's agent's trashcan.

Chops' president Steve Nitzel said:

“We can offer him plenty of bone-crushing hits, read-and-react plays, and thousands of fans cheering for him, so what’s not to like about that? All we have to do is sharpen his skating skills and after that, his athletic instincts will take over and he’ll be one heck of a hockey player.”

Yeah.

This is obviously a gimmick. There's no way anyone expects Favre to sign the contract. This is a ploy to drum up ticket sales for the newly renamed team.
When NBA legend Michael Jordan came out of retirement to play minor league baseball for the Chicago White Sox affiliate Birmingham Barons, it was a huge success at the box office, but a disappointment on the field. Jordan obviously has tremendous athletic instincts, and he already had a background in baseball. However, the gap between a standout high school ball player and a Double-A ball player is too broad to fill in with "instincts". The gap between someone who probably has very limited skating skills and an AHL player? Well....

Next week, the ECHL Charlotte Checkers will announce that they are offering Indy car driver Danica Patrick a contract. I kid.

Glove tap to James Mirtle , who had a nice line on this:

Maybe they're looking for someone to quarterback the team's power play.

Groan.