Well, so much for July being the cruelest month — Re: boring — for avid sports fans around here.

Brett Favre has seen to that. So have the Brewers, that Olympic dealie over in China, the economy and Ma Nature.

This used to be the month when we all seemed to stop and catch our breath.

Unless you're the Hank Steinbrenner of your fantasy league, Major League Baseball has its lowest pulse rate of the season because the stretch run still is six weeks away.

Unless you have a sizeable bet riding on Matt Kenseth winning the Chase, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series is in its dog days-of-summer mode with nine races remaining before that 12-car field is set.

This used to be the month devoted to vacations, honey-do lists and wading through all those pro and college football preview magazines. Now we'll have to pay attention.

This Favre thing was like a neighbor cannonballing into the pool while you were relaxing, beverage in hand, on a floatie.

You had moved on, frankly. You had bought all those commemorative Favre tribute magazines and had circled Sept. 8 on the calendar because that's when the Packers are scheduled to retire his No. 4 during a "Monday Night Football" duel with the Vikings at Lambeau Field.

Now you don't know what to think. Is Favre serious about coming back? Is he so desperate to do so that he would play for another NFL team? Is this just Brett being Brett — the charismatic legend who wants his last pass to be caught by a teammate in the Super Bowl, not the opposition in a crushing loss — or are there more devious forces at work?

Between now and July 28, when the Packers conduct their first practice of training camp, we'll just have to pay attention.

While we're at it, the third-place Brewers are a handful of games out of first place in the National League Central and are approaching the most tantalizing portion of their season.

Milwaukee plays 17 games this month at Miller Park, where it has one of the best home records in the majors (25-13, .658).

When the first-place Cubs come to town for a four-game series July 28 to 31, the duel will coincide with the non-waiver trading deadline.

Whose anticipated acquisition will create the biggest stir? Will the Brewers have C.C. Sabathia in their starting rotation or will he be pitching for Chicago?

We'll just have to pay attention.

While we're at it, the Summer Games in Beijing are gearing up to start Aug. 8. Most of the high-profile U.S. Olympic trials will be completed this week, but between drug tests and political protests, controversies are bound to brew between now and the opening ceremonies, right?

We'll just have to pay attention.

That's easier to do this July because, since gas is hovering around $4 a gallon and the price of food staples are going through the roof, a lot of folks can't afford to get away on vacation.

Then there's the idea that bad things come in threes, so what's on deck after record-setting snowfall and unprecedented flooding?

We'll just have to pay attention.