I will say that chances of getting a Lombardi trophy in February is greater with Brett than AR. Would you agree with that?

Absolutely I agree with that. No doubt. But will it help us in ‘09, ‘10 and so on? Brett is thinking like a player of only the now, while TT has to think of more than just the right now. He is in charge of making sure the Packers are built for success this year and in the future.

I don’t want him traded at all. But if he asks for reinstatement (which I’ll believe when I see it) and TT stays by what he has said that Rodgers is the starter then what other choice is there? If you say we “owe” it to him to release him then you are saying that Brett Favre is more important than the Green Bay Packers. His needs are more important than the teams needs. Is that what you are saying?

And what makes you think that Brett won’t do this again next year? If the Pack were to win the Super Bowl you might logically think he could ride off into the sunset, but what if he decides to be like Elway and go for a repeat? Even if he says he is retiring, would you believe him? Could you expect Rodgers to?

I must state that I have loved Brett Favre for 16 years. I remember watching him come in against Cincy and lead us back to victory. I remember him throwing wild throws his first couple of years to the point that the Lambeau crowd would give him a standing ovation for throwing the ball out of bounds instead of forcing a pick. I can die a happy man knowing that I got to see the Packers win a Super Bowl in my lifetime. But Brett Favre is not bigger than the Green Bay Packers.

After experiencing the environment and dishonest tactics of TT over the past 3 years, do you honestly think Brett can have faith that TT will try to place him on a team that would be acceptable to Brett ? TT doesn’t care about Brett.. My bet….TT knows what teams Brett would hate to play for because all of us have teams that for some reason or the other….we just don’t like. I’m sure that Brett is no different.

Ok, wouldn’t you assume that the Vikings would be one of those teams that Brett hates? Yet it seems rather apparent that Brett wants a release so he can join his old buddy Bevell in Minnesota, and in the process, stick it to the Packers. If you assume that TT is the kind of person who would put some kind of personal vendetta above the interests of the team, what does that say about the people who hired him and have continued to employ him? And wouldn’t Favre going to the Vikings be considered a way of taking out a personal vendetta? I still haven’t seen you give any credit to TT for rebuilding a team that Sherman trashed while he was busy cowering to Favre. You can say that TT hates Brett all you want, but you can’t see that the moves that he has made allowed us to from 4-12 to 13-3 in two years?

I have no problem sticking to my decision to support the team over Favre. If Favre stays retired or goes elsewhere and A-Rodg struggles next season, I will not join the chorus of cheeseheads wailing to the heavens for the return of Brett Favre, Lord of Wisconsin.

However, I want to know what you mean when you mention the “conditions” that amounted to Brett’s emotional exhaustion. If it’s the fact that the team did not acquire the players he wanted, i.e. Randy Moss, then I refer to the earlier post about Thompson being the GM and therefore rightfully making the judgements on what makes the team better in BOTH the present and the future.

Brett was given multiple chances to say what he wanted to say, and in the end the team went a different direction. The fact that Brett was (and still is, even in quasi-retirement) that important to not just be allowed, but encouraged by fans and media to speak on the matter is almost unheard of. So it’s not like he didn’t have enough influence over the team.

If the conditions then refer to Thompson’s creation of an environment of “untruth”, I respond with this: the guy is a GM in the NFL. Lying is part of the job description, but there’s a fine line between this and the lying that Brett accuses the team of.

Rumors abound from everywhere, both within the league and outside it, and they’re just one of the many tools that GMs use to manipulate their teams and their counterparts. One of the abilities required of GMs nowadays is the ability to mask your true intentions, and Thompson is very skilled at that. If Favre misinterpreted that and consequently felt almost betrayed by the team, then it’s a mistake on his part. An honest mistake, but a mistake nonetheless.

If Favre actually was looking over his shoulder because he felt the organization was trying to push him out, then he was being oversensitive. In 2005, the heir to Brett Favre was selected 24th overall in the NFL Draft. It was widely regarded as a move for the future after Brett Favre. Rodgers was the next quarterback of the team.

Maybe he felt that Aaron Rodgers was a threat to his spot on the team, and that was why he didn’t mentor Rodgers as much as we wanted him to. You could argue that currently Rodgers IS a threat to Favre’s spot on the team, but that’s a shaky argument at best considering the fact that Favre got on TV and retired in March.

And besides, would Brett Favre really be afraid of Aaron Rodgers? Unless there was some sort of deal made that nobody has mentioned yet (a highly unlikely scenario, given how ugly this situation has gotten, because somebody would have used it as ammo by now), the setup was this: Brett Favre is the starter, Rodgers is the backup, and this changes ONLY if Brett gets hurt or when he retires. Since Favre has a titanium alloy skeleton, the second outcome is the only valid one.

The point is, Favre was guaranteed to start for as long as he played. How many players, past and present, have that kind of comfort? But, once he retired, that guarantee was void. Why fault the team for doing what it had agreed to when Aaron came on board?

Finally, I also thought it was crazy of him to retire, especially after the year he had. The man was fantastic. But one thing sticks out in my mind about his retirement, and I actually can make a personal analogy that might help explain my position.

I am a recently retired figure skater. I wasn’t a hack , either. I’ve won national titles four times in my nine-year career. I was aiming for the Olympics in 2012. I won’t bore you with the rest of the details, but all in all, I had a successful career. However, last January, I reached a point where all the time and effort I was putting in didn’t seem worth it. To paraphrase, “I can still play, but I’m not sure I want to.”

Favre manifests the notion that players get paid for practice during the week and they play the games for free. He played the game that way his entire career; nobody worked harder than him Monday through Saturday, and nobody had more fun on Sundays. But it inevitably comes to a point where Monday through Saturday gets to be too much, and Sunday isn’t worth it anymore.

I know what it feels like to retire when you’ve still got it. It’s a bittersweet mixture of relief and regret. You’re happy that you don’t have to put up with practice anymore, but you know that the next time a season rolls around, you want to be out there and you want to win it.

The point is, once you reach that point where you want to play but you don’t want to practice, there’s no coming back. I could be the greatest skater in the world, but if I didn’t practice, I wouldn’t be at the same level. Same goes for Favre. I’m not saying that he wouldn’t put the work in, but it wouldn’t be the same. It wouldn’t be Brett Favre.

And that’s why I want him to stay retired.

All I’m saying to some of the fans…..don’t wait till the middle of regular season when the Packers are doing poorly twith AR to start the "Bring Brett Back" movement. Just as you ask Brett to do…..stay true with your decision….no second thoughts!

I will do so. I hope that you can do the same