our long national nightmare is over

I was going to save that headline for election day or inauguration day, should Obama beat McCain. But we have seen the end of a TRUE nightmare that has had the nation truly gripped by the horror.

I refer, of course, to the Brett Favre saga.

Would Brett be allowed to play football after retiring in March? Would the mean old Green Bay Packers refuse to let him return to the team, and refuse to trade him somewhere else? Would Brett accept that insulting consolation prize, $25 million over 10 years to do some sort of work that sounded like it wouldn't take too much effort (newsflash to Green Bay: I'll do whatever you wanted Brett to do for 1/100th of the price).

But in a flash of diplomatic genius, the Packers managed to trade Favre to the New York Jets - keeping Brett happy that he can play at least one more season, raising unrealistic hopes among Jets fans that this will mean a Super Bowl win, and keeping Favre safely out of the NFC Central.

Truly, our long national nightmare is over. And ESPN can get back to covering the pennant races.