Why Miami Dolphins fans shouldn't care about Brett Favre to New York Jets trade

To Miami Dolphins Fans: There is no doubt that the 2008 NFL off-season has been dominated by two stories: Jason Taylor’s exodus from the Miami Dolphins and Brett Favre’s decision to unretire (like he was actually retired in the first place) and return to the NFL.

As Dolphins fans, we thought we were in the clear with Taylor being traded to the Washington Redskins a few weeks ago. But then Favre’s situation worsened. It became more than a national story. The Favre Watch was on and, no matter how hard we tried, we could not get away from it. All that we could hope for was some type of resolution—anything to get Favre out of the ESPN.com top story, away from the PTI headlines, muting the mouths of our talk radio pundits and sports commentators that all had their own opinion on the situation. Something that would allow us to re-focus on real sports stories—our own team’s training camp and pre-season games, the exciting MLB season and the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

Then they (the Packers, media, God himself) go ahead and f*&k us again. Favre gets traded to our rival New York Jets late Wednesday night. Let’s stop right here so I can clear something up. No, this is not some rant about how Favre being on our hated foe is going to keep us from winning games or the division. In fact, the only negative of this entire situation is that we will not stop hearing about Favre no matter how hard we try. We play the Jets twice a year and follow our division closely—now there is no escaping Favre and the drama he drags along with him.

Aside from that, the fact of the matter is this: as far as Favre and the Jets are concerned, I could care less. I’m indifferent. It doesn’t matter. I could even argue it helps us. Let me break it down and show you The Silver Lining of this whole situation.

* I am going to start by matter-of-factly stating that the Jets are no longer my most hated NFL franchise. The New England Patriots, with the help of Bill Bellichick and the city of Boston, have taken that title with ease. The improvement of the Jets can only help to overthrow the villainous Patriots franchise, perhaps even knock them out of the playoffs all together with a little luck and some hard work. Maybe Favre can be instrumental in sending the Pats back into the dark ages.

* Favre’s first game in the green-and-white will be against our Dolphins at home in Dolphins Stadium on a hopefully hot and sunny Sunday afternoon. Aside from the fact that we can deal a strong blow to Favre’s celebratory return to the NFL by going out and beating the Jets, the game is going to be a LOT of fun! The stadium will be packed, the Dolphins will sell a LOT of tickets—it will be CBS’s 1:00 p.m. nationally televised game. If they allowed a Week 1 Flex game, it would be on Sunday Night Football.

* Favre’s tenure with the Jets will not be long. We’re looking at most likely a two-year run, three years max. (Interesting, considering he “retired” this year and may now play for another two.) The Dolphins are nowhere near close to seriously competing for a division title, conference title or Super Bowl championship in the next two years. Let’s stop kidding ourselves. We’ll be lucky to win 4-5 in ’08, 6-8 in ’09 and 9-11 in ’10…and that’s if everything goes right! Favre’s presence in New York does not affect the future of the Dolphins. Will we lose a few more games to the Jets over the next two years? Sure. Do the Jets have more time to find a suitable QB to replace Favre? Maybe. Aside from that, it doesn’t matter.

So, in the end, the Favre situation has come to impact us more than we would have originally hoped. Luckily, it will all be superficial. He is not a threat to the future of the Miami Dolphins, and the present isn’t promising enough for us to get worked up over anyway.

The goal of this edition of The Silver Lining is to qualm any concerns about Favre joining the AFC East before they arise—to put out a flickering, hopefully non-existent fire. To say, honestly, as far as Brett Favre is concerned, I no longer care and haven’t for quite some time—and neither should you.