The time has come…

It’s time, don’tcha think?

File it under painful life-lesson learned. And then…let’s all just move on.

You can argue until you’re blue in the face, or be angry until you turn deep purple and it doesn’t alter one fact. Favre is a Minnesota Viking. And his team is 2-0 against the Green Bay Packers. That’s what the record shows and the embarrassing statistics reflect.

It’s time we recognize that Brett Favre did what he had to do to keep playing. While some fellow athletes (Fran Tarkenton among them) decry what he did…most, I feel, secretly wish they had been able to squeeze a little more toothpaste out of their tubes.

What Favre has done to this point of the season has got to be admired by football fans -- young & old, 4-haters & 4-lovers – it just has to. Period.

I just have one question of Brett: how many years was your bicep muscle torn?

I have a theory that it may have been torn as far back as 2005. Just a little. Gradually, it became difficult for Favre to throw the ball like, well, Favre. Better than everyone else, but just not as good as he can when he’s completely healthy.

We all know that Favre hates doctors and surgery. He limped along with bone chips in his ankle for about six years, always answering the bell on Sundays. It’s not a stretch to think that he ignored a muscle tear, even in the 13-3 year.

Look at how much better he gets around now since that was repaired. He knew if he addressed the pain when he first noticed it, he would have to sit out and recuperate and his precious iron man streak would’ve been history.

Why else would a guy who can throw the pigskin through a brick wall come up so woefully short on that pass to Donald Driver in the NFC Championship game against the New York Football Giants?

The cold is one huge (chill) factor, I grant you.

So, too, would be a torn bicep. Then it healed a little bit in the off-season. And then it tore to the point of no return with about six or seven games left in the NY Jets’ season.

I go back to the words from Favre’s surgeon after he repaired that magic shoulder. What the doctor saw was an arm in those x-rays so loaded with scar tissue that you couldn’t tell how long ago any of these strains, tears and pulls took place.

Heck, it was likely that the scar tissue itself kept it together.

When faced with really retiring or having the surgery to keep going, Favre was out of options and went under the knife without missing a beat and he was able to buy more healing time by yanking the Vikings’ chain during the summer.

Now that the fans got the boos out of their systems as they got more booze into their systems on Sunday, it’s time to prepare to meet and figure out a way to beat the Vikes the next time around. The North Division crown is probably history and only a Wild Card slot would ultimately force the re-rematch.

Memo to Dom Capers: Figure out a way to beat this guy, will ya? Put 11 men in the box if you have to, but put some pressure on him. Twice, now, you let Favre beat you without incurring so much as a grass stain. Maybe a change in strategy should be in the offing.

If he beats you after sending blitz package after blitz package after blitz package, so be it. We know that not pressuring him doesn’t work. In fact, we know that salient point twice.

And, there is no question the Packers helped stick the dagger in with more egregious penalties and allowing six drive-killing sacks of one of the best quarterbacks in the business today.

If Coach Mike McCarthy doesn’t get better and protecting Aaron Rodgers and fast, they will kill their golden goose before he will ever get the chance to lay some golden hardware on this storied franchise.

More would be the pity if that were to happen.

Brett had a lot of help, though. It helps to have Adrian Peterson to gash defensive lines.

The Pack did as good a job as any team, but when Number 4 is parked back there like he’s watching a drive-in movie, eventually ‘All Day’ is going to get his.

It also helps to have a Percy Harvin, not only catching passes as he did in front of four green jerseys on Sunday but returning kicks like he was taking a leisurely stroll through the park.

It helps to have a Sidney Rice and a Bernard Berrian. But this is where it gets a little murky. The Chicago Bears are wondering where that Berrian was those years he played 90 miles to our south.

They should be wondering if he was there all along. They just didn’t have Brett Favre.

After all, last season Tarvaris Jackson didn’t turn him into the threat he has become now that he’s catching bullets from Brett. 

ROGER THAT, IT’S TIME TO PONIE UP!

It wasn’t a pretty picture, seeing NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell with his tail between his legs, as he spoke to a Congressional Committee about they way they take care of (or don’t) their former players. He was chastised and with good reason.

This is as big a disgrace as homelessness is in the land of plenty we call the United States.

It was on the backs of these once-proud athletes that the modern NFL was built. And now, many of these broken down carcasses are suffering the effects of concussions and other in the era of “play hurt or you’ll lose your spot” mentality.

Even in the tough times that the recession has brought to some of these billion dollar franchises, the league simply has to do more to secure the health and old age of these men who sacrifice blood, muscle and brain cells to put the game where it is today.

It’s time to ponie-up!