Back To The Blog: Favre Follies And Miller Milestones » Brats & Beer

July 8, 2008
posted under: Beer, Brett Favre, Miller Brewing, MillerCoors, Packers, retirement

It was a mighty fine vacation, but a perfect storm of crises in football and beer has brought me back from my semi-self imposed hiatus from posting. (Shoutout to Cheesehead TV and Cheese and Packers for link love despite the fact that this site had been dead silent for a month.)

First up, of course, is the this whole media circus over Brett Favre and his “un-retirement” plans. In a word, I say this is all bunk. Just the fact that this all stems from a report by Chris Mortensen at ESPN is enough to cast a big shadow of doubt over the whole thing, but now that the rumor is out there everyone has free license to run with the story as if it is fact. Have any of these hacks even tried to contact Favre himself to get the straight story? It’s all about selling papers, and Mortensen, Pat Kirwan, and Peter King are just playing guessing games, keeping their names and their publications in the limelight.

Now, it is entirely possible — I’d even say very probable — that Brett Favre still has an urge to play professional football. It was his whole life for 17 years, of course he has “an itch” to play again. I’m also sure that the topic has come up in conversations between Favre and Mike McCarthy, but are we days away from a showdown between Favre and the Packers over reinstatement? I seriously doubt it.

When Favre himself gets in front of a camera and tells the world he’s coming back to play another season, I’ll gladly eat these words, but until then I’ll leave the rumor mongering to the professionals.

The thing that really riled me out of my hibernation, though, has to do with Miller beer. Last week Miller Brewing Company ceased to exist after it completed a merger with Coors to be come MillerCoors. Now it is true that there is still a brewery on W. State Street in Milwaukee and it still pumps out bottles of High Life, but the people who work there won’t be getting any more paychecks from Miller Brewing. What sad times we live in that Miller, and with it my favorite Leinenkugels, is now part of that abomination known as Coors.

Sadder still is the fact that Miller and Coors saw this merger as the only way to compete against Anheuser-Busch. What is up with beer drinkers in America that we’ve made Budweiser and Bud Lite such a huge juggernaut?

Rice beer, blech. Just say no.