If they don?t shut up, I guess I?ll just listen

Has everyone heard of this guy, Brett Favre?

How about Tiger Woods? Urban Meyer?

Of course you have.

You have because the media can go a little overboard at times. They can even go a lot overboard.

Watching Monday Night Football this week ? which turned out to be a great game ? the biggest story throughout the game was maybe the thought Viking head coach Brad Childress had of taking Brett Favre out of the game last week. Yep, a head coach contemplating personnel decisions. Not to mention these decisions involved resting a quarterback, whose arm could probably fall off at any moment, with a playoff berth already locked up.

But wait, it was Brett Favre. If this guy has an irregular bowel movement I?m probably going to hear about it.

Now I watch a lot of ESPN. I repeat, I watch a lot of ESPN. But my frustration may have reached an all-time high this past summer when Favre couldn?t make up his god-forsaken mind during his retire/not retire snafu, and the media was there for every minute of it.

I suppose it?s possible that much of it possibly stemmed from a desire for attention. It worked I guess. But still, you?re a middle-aged man breaking down and crying at every other press conference. C?mon dude!

As a Packers fan, this is the reason I?m not a big fan of the guy anymore. Not because he went to play for the Vikings and not because the geyser is having a tremendous season. He put all sports fans through torture with his waffling comparable to a four year old trying to decide between the red or blue toy in his Happy Meal.

So why didn?t I just tune it out? Ya know, go outside and get some fresh air or something. Then I might miss something. What if this was the day he finally made the decision?

As stupid as Coors Light Cold Hard Facts, Gatorade Cooler Talk and the Budweiser Hot Seat sound, I never look away. This is why the media has gone to the lengths they have for every bit of information ? people like me eat it up.

I hate it and love it at the same time. I really didn?t want to know about all of the ?transgressions? Tiger Woods committed. But they were telling me, so I listened. Urban Meyer was the reason I spent so much time on my phone Saturday night while at my grandma?s house. I was simply trying to figure what was going on, but it turned out to be just another guy that can?t make up his mind and another publicity grab. I was duped once more.

I wonder what it was like before the days of TMZ, Us Weekly and the Internet. My dad said he waited for the morning newspaper to see scores from the previous day. Ledger publisher Jeff Wilson once raved about some one-of-a-kind college football highlight show that aired on Sundays and showed a few clips from Saturday?s games. That was all you got.

Sometimes I wonder if I would have survived such harsh times. Other times, I wish things would go back to that way so I wouldn?t be worried every waking minute about what I was missing.

Now yes, I do realize I am a member of this very media that doesn?t shut up. It may seem like a little bit of cutting off my nose to spite my face.

Admittedly, yours truly may be guilty of a little overkill myself. For example, I am confident a hefty percentage of those that read the Ledger sports page were well aware that Michael Hammes was on the Fairfield football team and Meredith Flattery was on the volleyball team this fall. After all, their picture/name was there probably every other day. Sorry about that.

However, I commend every high school athlete in the area for not stringing me along about whether or not they would be going out for a winter sport. Because of that, I was able to put a nix on the helicopter rental and not have to follow anybody to see if they attended a weekend open gym. If I?m ever pulling something like that, please smack me.

At this point, I?m not sure if there?s any turning back. Channel 24 is still firmly atop the list of channel surfing options. I simply ask you to only report on stuff I actually need to know. Please?