Newsday

(MCT)

No, really, this time he means it.

Brett Favre retired quietly Wednesday, first instructing his agent to send an email to the Jets in the morning and then emphatically saying he's done for good in an early-evening conference call that lacked the drama of last year's teary announcement.

"I really felt like it was time," Favre said.

Pressed several times, Favre said he understood the cynics who might have their doubts.

"I have no reason to wonder why you would be so skeptical," Favre said. "I have family and friends, 'All right, Brett, is this the real deal?' It is, believe me. It's been a wonderful career. I couldn't ask for anything more. It was worth a shot for me to go to New York. I wish I could have played better down the stretch. I didn't and it's time to leave."

Favre said there were "several reasons" for his decision, but settled on, and kept coming back, to one: the physical deterioration of his throwing arm that started, albeit as a minor irritant, during training camp. It progressed to the point where, after the season ended, he was diagnosed with a torn biceps in the arm that allowed him to throw for a league record 464 career touchdowns.

"Physically, if I felt better, we may not be having this conversation," Favre said. "But I think that is, more than anything, the writing on the wall."

Favre said he has no desire, at the age of 39, to have the surgery that would be required to fix the injury and then go through with the rehab.

Dr. Michael Kaplan, an orthopedic surgeon based in Middlebury, Conn., said Favre's age worked against him.

"In a guy of his age, with the amount of stress and strain of an overuse nature, you have a biceps that's torn and there's an 80 percent chance he has an associated rotator cuff injury," Dr. Kaplan said. "The vast majority of these biceps tears are in conjunction with deterioration of the rotator cuff. Even if can clean it up and at the same time address the cuff, you're still looking at a 3-4 months-plus recovery."

Later, Dr. Kaplan added: "Even with the best intervention, the best recovery and the best rehab, the probability is that he won't have the same arm strength and his shoulder function and throwing would be impacted."

And Favre disclosed, in greater detail that he had previously, just how much the injury bothered him.

"The same symptoms started arising in my right, and it actually started probably when I started back throwing in the summer," Favre said. "Ever so slight and not very often, but just enough that I'd be like, 'oh,' and I wrote it off as, you know, just old age or whatever."

But even as the Jets improved to 8-3, Favre noticed he wasn't able to make the throws he once could. He needed a cortisone injection after the Dec. 7 loss in San Francisco, which had short-term success.

"That Thursday practice probably was my best throwing practice throughout the year, but then it went downhill again after that," Favre said.

Which is what happened to the Jets season as they lost four of their last five games to finish 9-7. Favre threw nine interceptions and just two touchdowns in the last five games. He finished the season with 22 TDs but also a league-worst 22 interceptions. Those numbers - and the Jets final record - were not what owner Woody Johnson and general manager Mike Tannenbaum envisioned when they shocked the football world just before midnight on Aug. 6 in trading for Favre.

"We didn't really get as far as we would have liked, but going back to the decision, I think it was the right decision to make," Johnson said.

Favre said he appreciated not being pressed for a decision by Tannenbaum, though his choice benefits the Jets, freeing them of his $13 million salary and giving them some needed cap space. And while new coach Rex Ryan acknowledged that positive, he said he still would have liked at least one year with Favre.

"It would have been fantastic to have been coaching Brett," Ryan said.

But no one, Favre stated repeatedly, will be coaching him anymore. He didn't rule out a career in television, but sounded more like he was ready to resume hunting, as soon as this morning.

"I have no idea what I'm going to do and I'm fine with that," Favre said. "When I get the urge to something, we'll see what that is. But right now I have no desire to do anything."