Brett Favre has informed the Jets that he plans to retire for the second straight year.

This would be huge news if he hadn’t already gone through his long, dramatic “retirement” last year. And even if he is serious this time, it seems as though the general public is ready for him to go away. At this point, the whole New York Jets experiment is nothing more than the answer to a trivia question. The Jets, however, seem to think it was worth it.

“I had a great conversation with Brett this morning” owner Woody Johnson said in a statement. “Considering that he came from a totally different environment and joined our team during training camp, his performance last season was extraordinary. As I spoke with people throughout the organization, they all told me how much they enjoyed working with him. Brett Favre is a Hall-of-Fame player, but he is also a Hall-of-Fame person. Brett, Deanna and his family will always be a part of the Jets family.”

After spending some $140 million on free agents, the Jets ended the season poorly on their way to a 9-7 record, which was surely not good enough to make the playoffs in the ultra-competitive AFC. Favre contributed his fair share to the disappointing season as he led the NFL in interceptions (again) with 22. And his 79.3 passer rating over the second half of the season was a big reason that head coach Eric Mangini got fired.

Favre should have just done the right thing last season and stayed retired. Instead, he cost people their jobs in NY and divided a locker room. It’s time for Brett to go away. He is overrated. For all the talk of how he is a non-mortal, he only won one Super Bowl, which puts him in elite company along with Trent Dilfer, Brad Johnson and Mark Rypien.

Please, Brett, I hope you are serious this time. Stay retired and stop destroying teams and reputations.

Multiple sources have told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen that former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan will become the next head coach of the New York Jets.

The sources told Mort that he signed a four-year deal and that an announcement will come later on Monday. Ryan will be introduced at a press conference on Wednesday, according to the sources.

Apparently, Ryan’s deal is almost identical to the four-year $11.5 million deal that Steve Spagnuolo signed in St. Louis last week.

Ryan is the son of former Eagles and Cardinals head coach Buddy Ryan. He has a brother Rob who also coaches in the NFL.

WEEI’s Michael Holley reports that former Jets head coach Eric Mangini will be named head coach of the Cleveland Browns by the end of the week. Holley also says that Patriots VP of Personnel Scott Pioli will likely not follow Mangini to Cleveland, instead opting for the Kansas City job or staying in New England.

Mangini was shown the door in New York after his Jets stumbled from an 8-3 record to a 9-7 finish and missed the playoffs. It’s a stunning move considering Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum still has a job. It was Tannenbaum who traded for Brett Favre and spent all that money on Calvin Pace, Alan Faneca, Damien Woody and Kris Jenkins, while trading away Jonathan Vilma and Jon Abraham. Yeah, that’s Mangini’s fault.

Miami Dolphins QB Chad Pennington has won the Associated Press Comeback Player of the Year award for 2008. It’s the second time he’s claimed the award, when he nabbed it with the Jets in 2006.

Pennington revived a 1-15 Dolphins team and took them to the playoffs with an 11-5 record this season.

“I think in my experience over the last nine years is that when you’re winning, you feel appreciated; when you’re losing, it gets a little tough,” he said. “That’s just part of winning and losing, especially in this league because the stakes are high, a lot of eyes watching you, both individually and as a team.

“I don’t think the appreciation level ever changes, you just have to understand that there’s always going to be highs and lows. And it’s always to the extreme because the middle of the road doesn’t sail and it’s not exciting. The extremes, that’s what’s exciting, and that’s what everybody leans on.”

It’s not tough to imagine that no one was happier to see Pennington come to the Dolphins than first-year head coach Tony Sparano.

“He’s vital to this team, he really is,” Sparano said. “With Chad coming in here and doing what he’s done right now and bringing a bunch of people together, these young players, what he’s brought to them from a leadership standpoint.”

In the award’s 11 seasons, Pennington is the only player to win it twice.

The day after the NY Jets lost to the Denver Broncos 34-17, Jets DE Shaun Ellis decided it would be a good idea to get pulled over for speeding while possessing a green, leafy substance that tends to make people really hungry, paranoid and forgetful. For example, Ellis forgot he didn’t have insurance for the vehicle he was driving.

He was pulled over for speeding in Hanover, NJ which is right by the team’s training facility.

The 31-year-old Ellis was “uncooperative” and refused to supply the officer with all of the necessary paperwork, and was found to be in possession of marijuana and arrested, according to the police report.

He was also issued a summons for possession of drug paraphernalia, as well as motor vehicle summonses for speeding, failure to keep right, failure to produce a valid registration card and driving without insurance before being released.