Packers would be CRAZY to lose Favre
August 4, 2008
Can’t help but take a quick detour from the team preview reports to vent about the Brett Favre situation. No time to write poetically (the last few team previews await) so here are some raw thoughts:
1. If the Packers were a fringe playoff team, then maybe – maybe – their rejection of Favre would make a little sense. But if he’s on the roster, they’re a Super Bowl contender. Isn’t that what pro football is all about? Super Bowls are incredibly rare – Favre himself has won only one. Sacrificing Aaron Rodgers for a serious Super Bowl run would be well worth it.
2. I can’t believe that no one has brought this up: If Rodgers is really Green Bay’s guy, then why did the team draft Brian Brohm in the second round? Brohm is made for that West Coast offense and was thought to be a first-round prospect. He’s not here to be a backup.
3. Ted Thompson, Mark Murphy and Mike McCarthy are saying that they have just spent an entire offseason planning for life without Favre. The B.S. detector sounds on so many levels here. For one, Green Bay signed only one major free agent: a linebacker named Brandon Chillar. For two, the playbook remains the same. For three, yes they did draft two quarterbacks (Brohm and second-rounder Matt Flynn). But they did not sign Aaron Rodgers to a long-term deal. If Favre comes, Flynn goes. Are the Packers really that hesitant to lose their seventh-round draft choice?
3a. By the way, if Rodgers starts but gets hurt in Week 1, the Packers would stoically declare that such is football and they’re prepared to move on. Plans are constantly changing in the NFL….31 other teams would love to have a dramatic change at quarterback include the insertion of a future Hall of Famer who has been with the franchise for more than a decade and a half. Let’s keep the magnitude of the shakeup in perspective here.
4. By keeping Rodgers and not allowing for a true open competition, the Packers are telling every player in the locker room that politics runs the show in Green Bay. If the Pack won’t even give Brett Favre a fair shake, how will any player ever feel like they can trust the leadership brass?
5. Trading Favre to Minnesota would be the most ruthless slap in the face that any team has ever given its own fan base. It would also be stupid as hell.
6. Favre’s waffling is a problem, yes. But the damage is done. Rodgers’s psyche has been messed with, there is a rift in opinion throughout Wisconsin and this whole ordeal – I’m just guessing – has been just a tad bit distracting to the rest of the team. With Rodgers under center, the speculation continues because he is the unknown. With Favre back under center, crow gets eaten but at least the speculation stops.
7. Finally, hasn’t the media coverage of this saga been great? Seriously. Every time I turn on the TV or radio, or log onto the internet, there is new information. You think it’s being over-reported, but stories are rarely recycled here. This is a refreshing change from the Michael Vick drama of a year ago.
