Sounding Off on Favre

The Brett Favre saga gets more interesting with each day. Now the Green Bay Packers are offing Favre $20 million to stay retired and Favre is seriously considering the offer. As long as he does not get traded to the NFC West, which is highly unlikely, I could care less what the outcome is. This situation however does remind me of when Joe Montana was traded to the Kansa City Chiefs. Favre wants to play but the Packers have moved on with Aaron Rodgers as their new QB. Montana was seriously injured and when he came back to full health someone named Steve Young had taken over as the starting QB. Although Favre retired at first he like Montana still wanted to play.

The 49ers granted Montana his wish as they had their heir to QB and the situation was settled without any distractions to the team. The Packers have their heir apparent in Rodgers and don’t want Favre to play not only in their division but it seems anywhere else in NFL. Granted Favre has said if he does not play in Green Bay he only wants to play as a rival in the NFC North most likely with the Minnesota Vikings. Making things more complicated is he has to okay any trade. The fact that the Packers are offering him money to stay retired and he might take the offer is astonishing. If Favre accepts he will be seen as money hungry and the Packers won’t come away with a positive image not with their fans who love Favre like he is Wisconsin cheese, but with the rest of the NFL as well. And this whole saga/publicity stunt or whatever you want to call it was all for nothing.

All of this has to be affecting not only Rodgers but the whole Packers team because regardless of the outcome a negative tone hovers over the Packers training camp.

Example: I am a Chicago Bulls fan and last off-season all the news was about a trade for Kobe Bryant. Ever single player on the Bulls roster was basically named in the trade and it went on for months. Nothing happened with the trade and the Bulls players did not like the uncertainty and it doomed their season before it even started. They finished 33-49 this season a switch from the previous season when they went 49-33 and made it to the second round of the playoffs with virtually the same roster. The NFL is quite different than the NBA but anytime a superstar player holds hostage a team’s focus, commitment and confidence than straight down Going Nowhere Avenue is where they are headed. For another example see Manny Ramirez and the Red Sox.

Favre Everywhere:
John Madden’s unconditional love for Favre is obvious and that was hammered home when Favre was chosen for the Madden NFL 09 video game cover. I am anxiously waiting the release date but I was reading that Favre’s likeness is all over the video game. Great!