Now that ESPN has chosen to not renew the contract of language expert Emmitt Smith, there is speculation as to just who will fill that chair. Well, with Emmitt out, USA Today is speculating that Brett Favre might be the newest employee at the Worldwide Leader.

According to USA Today’s Michael Hiestand:

Signing the supposedly retired Brett Favre would bring in a star. Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, says ESPN hopes to meet with Favre next month: “He’s a funny, dynamic guy and would add to anybody’s coverage.”

While I don’t think anyone doubts Favre’s ability to analyze football, the combination of the dominant media source with their man-crush of a story for the last X-amount of years, could result in some really uncomfortable situations.

Take Yahoo! Sports’ Shutdown Corner’s scenario:

Chris Berman constantly leaning over the wall of Favre’s cubicle saying things like, “You know, Brett, I really like the way those Wranglers hang on you,” or “Brett, would you mind bending over and picking up my stapler for me? I seem to have dropped it again. WOOP!” Or Tony Kornheiser stopping him in the hallways, saying, “Hey Brett, why don’t you drop by my office sometime, and we’ll stare at each other’s chest hair?”

I just think he should know what he’s in for. All this time that we’ve heard Berman and Kornheiser crushing on him, he’s been playing. He might not even know about it.

Considering this is the network that refused to report on Jay Glazer’s report about Favre giving tips to teams about the Packers, I don’t think there is anything anyone could do to keep the WWL from offering him the job. The city of Bristol is so madly in love with Favre that there is likely no way for us to stop this.

Awful Announcing thinks that this is a publicity grab, similar to picking up Emmitt right after Dancing with the Stars, regardless of his ability to speak English.

Emmitt was hired by the network on the heels of his “Dancing With the Stars” popularity, and while he didn’t pan out, ESPN still got that initial push from the buzz. The only difference in this case is that people weren’t sick to death of Smith, in fact most of the country was in love with him. If Favre ends up under performing like Smith, the network would probably get even more flak for his hiring than the Smith one.

I don’t know what the problem is. Favre has already proven his chops in front of the camera to the point that you’d be a fool not to hire him. His comfort level speaking off of a script is second-to-none. How can you pass on a master thespian talking sports.

And really, what more is there to analyzing football amongst 13 other guys at ESPN than knowing what to read. Sure, he could do his own analysis, but when you can read a script like this, you just load the prompter and let him go to work.

Hell, it’s only a ratings grab, they might as well bring in Matt Dillon and Ben Stiller to fill the MNF booth. Many would say that they can’t be worse than Kornheiser.

We have to accept that ESPN will go after the biggest name they can get to fill Emmitt’s seat. Favre is a recently “retired” future Hall of Famer that is going to be looking for something to do as the summer comes to an end. This move makes perfect sense for ESPN and for Favre. I’ll rip on it because of ESPN’s love of all things Favre, but objectively speaking, this is a logical move on both parts.

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