News-Record.com

As an incurable Green Bay Packers fan, I don't know what to make of quarterback Brett Favre's messy flirtation with a comeback after announcing his retirement several months ago.

On the one hand, I believe Favre has earned the right to have second thoughts about walking away from a game he loves so much, gave so much to and still is able to play so well.

Then again, I also understand why Packers management feels jerked around.

Favre has retired and unretired before. He contacted the Packers, saying he wanted to come back in March. The team was scheduled to join him in a public announcement.

Then he said never mind. He wasn't coming back after all.

Now he's reversed field again.

And I've changed my mind about him changing his mind.

At first I considered him fickle and selfish and indecisive.

Now I'm beginning to understand how it's so hard to walk away, especially given the remarkable condition of this 38-year-old man's body.

He has meant so much to the game and especially to the Packers - playing hurt ... winning almost through sheer will ... bringing a boyish playfulness to pro football even as more and more gray hairs sprouted on his head and chin ... not missing a start for a gazillion games - that I'll cut him some slack.

Then - as in five days ago, I said he was a jerk. Now I say a man is entitled to change his mind. Unless, I guess, he's a politician.

If an elected official dares to change his mind, he might as well curse God and country. Or, even worse, not wear a flag pin.

Positions are made, at least in politics, to be kept. Forever.

Or we'll make you pay.

John Kerry voted for the war before he voted against it. Or was it the other way around?

Barack Obama pledged to accept public campaign financing before he announced he was not accepting it.

John McCain opposed President Bush's tax cuts before he embraced them.

We commonly call these flip-flops, and we sneer that they are evidence that a politician lacks backbone and commitment. But are we being fair? Or are we, in fact, being hypocrites?

Let he among you who has never changed his mind cast the first stone.

I humbly count myself among those who have been quick to castigate elected officials and/or elected wannabes for reversing position on an issue.

But my feelings toward Favre are only one such example. I was a Democrat before I wasn't one. I owned an SUV before deciding it wasn't such a good idea. I once thought platform heels were fashionable and that I looked good in a beard.

And, shockingly (you are shocked, aren't you?), sometimes I'm just plain wrong.

That's why it ought to be OK for our leaders to change position every once in while. Even Jesse Helms did on AIDS.

That's not to say that McCain and Obama haven't twisted their rhetoric to excruciating extremes in some cases.

I have trouble swallowing both McCain's reversal on tax cuts and his about-face on some evangelical leaders.

Not because he changed position, but because he offered such lame rationales.

Ditto for Obama on his pledge to take public campaign financing, then, no, not to.

Instead of cloaking the reversal in a bunch of faux-noble gobbledygook, why not simply come clean and tell the truth? "You know, folks, I've raised a boatload of money, a lot more than I ever thought I could," he should have said. "So, I'm going to shift my strategy."

It would have played better even if it didn't satisfy everyone.

That's not to say a politician ought to be constantly shifting positions. You need to know where he or she stands on fundamental principles.

And when he or she changes, there had better be a good reason.

But memo to anyone who is driving my bus: If a bridge ahead is out, do not stay the course.

Obviously, one reason for all this pretzel logic is that people want to get elected. That's where you and I come in.

Politicians feel obligated to tell us what we want to hear in simple, easy-to-understand absolutes: good guys and evildoers, up and down, black and white. In a world full of grays, we demand black and white. Nuance and complexity are for sissies.

Which brings me back to Brett Favre.

Ironically, Favre's considerable gifts not only include his wonderful arm but his head - his ability to change plays at the line of scrimmage to adjust to the defensive scheme.

All the very best quarterbacks are good at this. They call them audibles.

But they're really just another form of changing one's mind.