I have to say, I find this whole story kind of sad. It’s not that I’m particularly bothered that Brett is leaving the Pack — that’s just the way the sports world works, these days (and, after all, my Chiefs welcomed Joe Montana and Marcus Allen at the end of their careers). What is sad, though, is the bitter way the Packers insisted on leaving things. They could have gotten this same result without all the negativity towards the guy that has been face of their franchise for the past 10+ years. Not cool. Good luck, Brett.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/trainingcamp08/news/story?id=3522971
001 // Adam Hobson // 08.06.2008 // 10:33 PM
I don’t blame the Packers at all for any of this. Brett Favre made the decision to retire, and then he made the decision to un-retire after the team had moved on.
The Packers had handed off their team to Aaron Rogers. They need to see if this kid has it in him to lead the team for the next decade. They are one of the youngest teams in the league and they are built to win both now and in the future.
However, I honestly believe that if Brett Favre had never retired in the first place, then the Packers would have shopped Aaron Rogers prior to the draft to get something of value for him before he left as a free agent.
Though I do have to wonder, Brett Favre is starting down the Roger Clemens “retirement” career path. I wonder if in four years we’re going to see him before Congress testifying about steroids in the NFL or something to that degree…
002 // Matt Howell // 08.06.2008 // 11:04 PM
Favre deserves whatever negativity he gets. He put the Packers between a rock and a hard place, and he knew exactly what he was doing. He made a decision, then waffled on it, weaseled out of it, then tried to play a little game of media-chicken with the Packers’ management, and he lost.
Good for the Packers for sticking by their plan for the future. There is absolutely no sense in scrapping their plans — the time they’ve invested in Rogers, their whole ‘08 draft — to bring the guy back.
Favre screwed the Packers by putting them in this position. He is not a victim. I have no sympathy for him.
003 // Brian Ford // 08.07.2008 // 6:54 AM
I was pretty much just going to say what Adam and Matt already said, so I’ll simply agree with them.
004 // Jeff Croft // 08.07.2008 // 8:04 AM
You guys seem to have missed my point. I, too, don’t blame the Packers for sticking to their guns and getting rid of Favre. That’s what they should have done. They made the right move.
But, they didn’t have to air out all their dirty laundry in the media, effectively throwing the face of their franchise under the bus. It’s a bad move. We’re talking about the most popular player in the NFL — maybe in the history of the NFL. And we’re talking about a publicly-owned, small-town team. Getting in a huge public fight with the person that is effectively God in Green Bay just isn’t a smart PR move, especially for a team that has to answer to it’s shareholders (basically, the people of Green Bay).
My point is this: they could have gotten rid of Farve, went with Aaron Rodgers and “moved forward” without having had a 31-day public soap opera over it. Now they’ve got the most popular player in their franchise’s history literally hating the Packers. Who knows if that relationship can ever be patched up. They didn’t have to keep him on the team to maintain a great relationship with him (again, see Joe Montana) — but they did have to treat him with some class and respect, even if he was doing a stupid thing by waffling back and forth (which he was).
The Packers made the right football move, but they did it in entirely the wrong way, PR-wise.
005 // Adam Hobson // 08.07.2008 // 4:11 PM
Maybe I missed much of that soap opera then. As much as I love football, when that tabloid stuff comes out I tend to just ignore most of it.