Is this how it will end for Favre?

The classic photo shown above, taken by Morris Berman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, depicts New York Giants quarterback Y.A. Tittle after he was crushed to the turf and left bloody and beaten by Steelers defensive lineman John Baker in a 1964 game at Pitt Stadium. Tittle was among the elite quarterbacks in the game but was nearly 38 when this play took place, and he was finished at the end of that season. I bring this up because the New York Jets just traded for the legendary Brett Favre, who has set numerous records and won a Super Bowl during his years with the Green Bay Packers but is now approaching his 39th birthday. Are the Jets getting the Brett Favre of 2007, who had a great year and led the Packers within a game of the Super Bowl, or will they get the Favre of the two prior seasons, who gave every appearance of being washed up? Favre might very well have made the correct decision in March when he announced his retirement, only to waffle and waver, screwing his longtime employers in the process and eventually forcing the team to cut its ties with him. Old quarterbacks don't have a great track record in the NFL. There have been graybeards such as Earl Morrall and Youngwood's own George Blanda who defied the passage of time, but they, like Vinny Testaverde more recently, were largely relegated to backup roles, with the occasional start. Favre is being counted on to be a savior for the Jets, who haven't been successful in a long, long time. The history of sports is littered with cases of athletes who stayed on past their primes, and some of them were painful to watch. There were Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson in boxing, Willie Mays and countless others in baseball and, since we're speaking of quarterbacks, Joe Namath and Johnny Unitas in football. Favre could be just what the doctor ordered for the Jets. Or he might need a doctor, as Y.A. Tittle did.