I've been keeping quiet since news broke that Packers' team President Mark Murphy was flying down to meet Favre and his agent in Mississippi. What the hell was he trying to accomplish by meeting Favre in person? I had no idea.
Now it's come out that the brilliant idea was to offer him $20 million to stay retired. This really pissed me off.
It's not like this is a new idea. In 2000, Bill Walsh offered 38 year old WR Jerry Rice $1 million to retire, Rice said no way and went on to have two more great seasons in Oakland. Apparently they thought Rice was blocking WR J.J. Stokes from greatness, or something, and they had enough 1000 yard receiving years from Rice. At the time, I was no great fan of Rice or the 49ers, but I thought it was awful that they would want an all-time NFL great to retire, even though he could still play, just to help their salary cap and open up a starting spot for an inferior player. When the 49ers and Rice couldn't agree on a retirement bonus, they released him.
Now I'm pissed that they want to force Favre into retirement at any cost. I know this isn't the same situation as when the Packers released S Darren Sharper and let K Ryan Longwell leave in free agency, and they quickly signed in Minnesota, but this stuff happens all the time. A team thinks they can find a better, cheaper player somewhere else. They want to start QB Aaron Rodgers instead, so just release Favre, deal with the consequences, and move on.
The Packers should be looking for any personnel move that can, in some way, make them a better team, and instead they refuse to bring back one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL because they felt they've moved on. He doesn't deserve a chance to compete for the starting job? They have no use for an experience quarterback at all?