More Brett Favre Thread

i figure this will give you pack fans something extra to play for.

You haven’t heard the end of Favre. No way. He is bionic. As long as somebody will let him in, he will play.

This person clearly didn’t see Favre’s meltdown over the last four weeks of the season when the Jets all but had the AFC East wrapped up.

Remember when Kurt Warner went to New England the week after the Cardinals earned a playoff berth? It was cold, it was snowy, it was awful, and so was Warner. People tried to blame it on the Cardinals’ playoff berth induced laziness, but they missed a crucial point.

Older quarterbacks, especially those who have endured years upon years of tough hits, do not play well in cold weather. Favre should know this, he sealed the deal in the 2007 NFC Championship game. The only thing that could make me believe that Favre is going to the Vikes is by looking at the home-heavy schedule the second half of the season for Minnesota.

But he still has a bicep in need of surgery, and the longer he pushes it off correllates with the diminishing chances of his return.

Just let it go man. Enjoy retirement. It’s not worth it, I thought the Jets would have taught you that lesson.

I’m sure all fans can appreciate what Brett brought to Green Bay. Eventually Thompson and McCarthy will move on and Brett’s anger will pass, his jersey will be retired at Lambeau, and all will be well in the universe.

I’ll agree with you on one thing; I don’t think Favre hates Packers fans, I just don’t think he cares about us at all, either way. Favre seems to believe that the entire league exists simply to give him a chance to stick it to Thompson. Now to where I disagree:

But I do think it is pretty clear that Thompson wanted Favre to retire from the day he took over. His actions speak for them self. He wanted to rebuild his own team, and not share the glory with Favre.

I have never understood this line of thinking. Thompson decided not to go the same route as Sherman as a GM, leveraging the future of the franchise against the chances to win one for Brett. This does not equal wanting Favre to retire. Thompson understood that the Packers would continue existing as a franchise after Favre retired and planned for that inevitability. People point to Thompson’s drafting of Aaron Rodgers as a sign that Favre was being pushed out. This is very short-sighted thinking that ignores the fact that Rodgers (potentially the #1 pick in the draft as close as a week or two before the draft) fell to the Packers at 24. They did not trade up to make this selection, they did not aggressively search for a QB. Thompson selected the best player available that was also a position that was going to be a need at some point in the future, at what point no one knew. Would it have been better to have no plan whatsoever for what was going to happen when Favre did decide to retire? Perhaps we could have been fighting over the likes of Sage Rosenfels, Jon Kitna, or the corpse of Trent Green.

As for not sharing the glory with Favre, tell me what you think of when you think of the Steelers 2 Super Bowls in 2005 and 2008. Is it Big Ben, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin, or Kevin Colbert? When you think of the Patriots Super Bowls do you think of Tom Brady, Bill Belicheck , and guys like Tedy Bruschi, Richard Seymour, etc. or Scott Pioli? To think of the glory of a Super Bowl win going to a GM instead of the players is as ridiculous as the idea that Thompson was dead set on getting rid of Favre the day he was hired. On the contrary, Thompson knew the day that he was hired that was going to be the GM who presided over Favre’s retirement and decided to plan ahead.

First he dismateled a great offensive line, ok, the interior was ageing, but they could have had a couple of good years if the line was not spilt up like it was, never underestimate the importance of chemistry between the offensive linemen, it’s just as important there as between a QB and his WRs. Instead he went along with his horrible draftchoices (linemen) and a few washed up FAs.

I guess foresight isn’t valued by Favrophiles. Wahle and Rivera were let go rather than be signed to long and expensive extensions, which was a good decision seeing as how Rivera was released and retired two years after he left the Pack and Wahle played 3 years in Carolina (one of which was a Pro Bowl season) before being released. A case could be made for signing Wahle and just letting Rivera go but Thompson decided that he didn’t want to pay big money for a guard and stood by his decision. His offensive line draft picks haven’t stood out yet as successes, no doubt about it, but there aren’t many interior offensive line draft picks who come in and make an impact. I’d rather have young offensive linemen who now have some experience and are cheap than having overpaid for a year or two of aging linemen. Again, understanding that the Packers weren’t going to fold when #4 retired.

In free agency, he did nothing to convince Favre to come back and play, even with more than enough cap space, and Favre even willing to take a paycut to sign one. (how did Moss work out for the Pats ??)

Oh boy, Randy Moss again. Have people forgotten that the Packers went to the NFC Championship game the same year that we did not go for Randy Moss? And that one of the main reasons that we had the record we did (13-3 btw) was because of the stellar performance by the receiving corps over the course of the season. All of that YAC was racked up by guys like Donald Driver, Greg Jennings (who would still be a 3rd WR if Moss had come to GB btw), James Jones, etc. How would Moss have improved the team in 2007? He would have delayed Jennings development while not actually improving the team at all.

And why is it Thompson’s job to convince Favre to come back every year? Does the fact that the Packers are willing to pay him 13 million dollars a year not show him that he is wanted back? Does Thompson have to convince Donald Driver that he is wanted every year for him to return? What about Al Harris or Charles Woodson? Do they need to be convinced every year that the Packers really want them back? Is that why Rob Davis retired? Did Thompson not let our longtime long snapper feel that he was wanted? If a guy needs to be wooed and convinced to come back and play doesn’t that make you question his desire a little bit? Or have you forgotten Favre’s interview at the start of the 2006 season when he said point blank “If its late in the game and the game is on the line do I want the ball in my hands? I don’t know.” I remember being stunned when I heard that quote and wondering what had happened to him.

and you would look very stupid in purple!

Well I can agree with you there too. I quote Gilbert Brown in the pregame for a Packers/Vikings game at Lambeau in December on Sunday Night ESPN, “Grown ass men wearing purple (shakes his head in disgust)”

He EARNED the right to go out on his own

He DID go out on his own. Then he came back. Then he left again. Then he came back, well, sorta, then he decided to leave before coming back.

BTW, Jennings was drafted by Thompson.