With regard to your first point, I totally agree...I was speaking from a totally selfish perspective. I would be in favor of anything that makes the season more interesting because I love the NFL and the more story lines to follow, the better. I've been a Favre fan ever since he took over for the Magic Man back in the day, and I enjoy watching the guy play.
I agree 100% about the media coverage...if they would just leave well enough alone until around July each year, this would have been a non-issue. I was watching Mike and Mike the other day, and Golic made a great point about the difference in how you feel between February and June of the offseason. Particularly when you get up there in years (playing years, that is), you are feeling beat down and exhausted from the wear and tear of the season in February. The idea of doing it all over again is not appealing at all. But once you've healed up and recovered, and you start to crave the gridiron once again, your outlook changes. You start to tap into that love you have for the game and the idea that you've played your last game drives you to continue on and live the dream just a little longer.
I know it's a lousy analogy, but how many times have you seen a friend - or maybe even yourself - come out of a bad relationship and say something like, "I'm not dating any more for a long time!"....or "I'm never getting married again!". And then before you know it, after they (or you) have had a little time to recover from the situation, you find that person right back up in the saddle again. Yeah, it can be annoying when people change their mind several times on a particular issue, but when the only person the indecisiveness is affecting is yourself, who cares?