Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Published - Friday, July 04, 2008

WE SAY: Shari Rampenthal, assistant sports editor, on recent retirement news.

They say bad news comes in threes. For me, recent retirement news proved that adage true.

First it was Brett Favre, then Annika Sorenstam, then Justine Henin.

Three athletes who are truly admirable. Three athletes who weren’t initially expected to be superstars but reached the pinnacle in their respective sports. Three athletes who decided to exit despite still having the ability to compete at the highest level.

But perhaps we haven’t seen the last of them.

Scattershot rumblings of Favre’s return erupted into a cacophony of reports this week. Sorenstam casually mentioned over the weekend she might consider playing again in the future, especially in the U.S. Women’s Open. And Wednesday Henin cracked open the door to a possible return with a never-say-never tinge to one of her quotes.

Maybe good news comes in threes, too.

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