There was no question that it was going to happen but did it have to start already?

We managed to watch one solid playoff game this afternoon during which Arizona upset Atlanta without a mention of New York Jets quarterback Brett Favre. But at halftime of the second game – which is shaping up to be another barnburner between Indianapolis and San Diego – Peter King of CNNSI.com was asked by the NBC Football halftime crew about Brett Favre’s future.

King had spoken with Favre and Jets General Manager Mike Tannenbaum and come to the conclusion that he believes Favre will hang up his cleats during the offseason, this time for good.

Favre isn’t going to make a commitment on that anytime in the next couple weeks, as acknowledged by King in his print piece at the SI.com Web site. The print story is fine, I guess. My question is do we have to start the Favre speculation during the playoff game already?

The 8-8 Chargers went into halftime leading the red-hot Colts 14-10 and there are two more interesting games tomorrow. There’s seven months between the Super Bowl and training camps starting. Isn’t there any way we could wait on Favre speculation long enough to get us through the postseason?

I acknowledge that he’s been a fantastic player throughout his 74-year career and that he has earned the curiosity that comes with his status every year. But his season is over with and there’s not going to be anything concrete to write about him, most likely, for a month, or at least a couple weeks.

Let’s save the short amount of time available during the playoff halftime shows to news that is actually going on now.