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Brett Favre announced his retirement yesterday leaving several die hard Favre fans unable to deal. Emotionally, these people should be very worried, but that isn’t the half of it! Financially, the US economy should be the ones that are taken aback by this news!

Below here is a VERY scientific graph I dug up and spent countless hours showing the stock market since Brett Favre was part of the game (click to enlarge):

Notice the ups and downs in the graphs associated with specific Favre moments of grandeur and less-than-grandeur. And nothing else possibly could have been happening at those times, if they did, it was completely by chance and in no way indicative of the Favre Industrial Average (FIA).

On a more serious note though…

When you really dissect what he’s given to the NFL and specifically Green Bay, you really begin to think it may have some financial repercussions.

1. He is the best selling NFL jersey of all time. For the past 17 years people have heard about him, who will hail as the new leader? Will people just keep buying them? I imagine for a few more years.

2. Packers seats have been sold out for EVERY game Favre has played. Granted, they’ve been sold out since Lambeau opened, but Favre never let them slip on that number!

3. The Green Bay Packers are the only publicly owned company in professional sports. As of June 8, 2005, 112,015 people (representing 4,750,934 shares) can lay claim to a franchise ownership interest. Each share is worth $200 and can never change, but CAN and often times are sold for more than the $200 face value. Is this number going to go down as Brett hangs up his shoes?

4. Green Bay is a city with a little over 100,000 people. Name another professional franchise like that! It’s a very loyal area, but I think the entire Great Lakes area is going to see drops. Drops in car travel to the games, drops in desire to catch the last Favre-ian moments, drops in flights to the Green Bay airport; resulting in drops in souvenirs, drops in drink orders, hotdogs, merchandise, and drops in revenue in general. Can the Green Bay area keep the support of the team up? I’d like to think so.

5. The NFL in general will see a hit in traffic similar to when Barry Bonds was chasing the HR record. People didn’t like the guy (Bonds), but they sold seats at EVERY away game just to get a peek at what he MIGHT do. Also similar to Roger Clemens before his debacle.

I have watched Brett Favre through most of my life and have always respected the guy for the fact that he played the toughest position in the game week in and week out. He could have taken 30MIL per year to play the game, but didn’t hold the team for ransom ever. Yes, he was paid very well, but he COULD have been paid a lot more. I wish him the best in whatever he’s got cooking later in life and hope that the Green Bay area keeps the team cooking for years to come…

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