Favre Drama Ends Badly
It’s late. I am tired. I can’t pull myself away from the TV because I keep hoping this horror I am seeing on ESPN is all terribly wrong. But, I fear that in the morning, nothing will be different. So now the Packers truly begin life after Favre, for better or worse (actually, just for worse). You know from my previous post my feelings on the football side of this decision (it is just plain wrong), but now I can also reflect on my thoughts on the non-football side. In short, the Packers made a franchise-damaging decision. They managed to alienate their star who sells more jerseys and garners (or garnerED) more positive attention for the team than any other player. Brett was reason alone for the Packers to receive 4-5 nationally televised games a season. So business-wise, this was a mistake.
Next, this situation has injured the franchise’s relationship with its fans. I cannot speak for all of them out there, but personally, it has really hurt the fan in me to watch this unfold as it has. It has tempered my excitement for the upcoming season a great deal, which should never be the case when your team returns most of its players from a highly successful 14-4 season. I should be looking forward to this 2008 season with great anticipation, but right now, I am just not interested. I am numb to the whole thing. It took a few weeks to digest Brett’s “retirement” in March, but once I did, I was ready to watch the Packers in 2008 with Aaron Rodgers. I was (and really still am) optimistic that Rodgers can be an excellent NFL QB. But right now I just don’t care. It is also extremely frustrating to see a proud franchise treat the best player in their history this way. Now don’t get me wrong, I think Brett handled this situation poorly as well, and really came off as kind of a baby at the end when he couldn’t put things behind him, but even that is subject to interpretation, and which side you believe is telling the truth.
In retrospect, I am baffled as to how this all happened. This saga really started in March, but publicly, Favre made known his desire to play at the end of June. That should have been plenty of time for Favre to reaclimate himself to the team. How do the Packers simply shut him out and never really give him the opportunity to play for them again? I simply don’t understand, and maybe never will. What I will close with tonight is this: Ted Thompson may build a Super Bowl champion, and Mike McCarthy may coach it, and I will definitely be happy if that happens. But these two men will forever be the guys responsible for getting rid of Brett Favre. They didn’t speak for the fans. They likely didn’t speak for the board of directors, or the shareholders. They spoke for their arrogant, selfish, egotistical selves. When all is said and done, these guys got what they wanted. The Packers are certainly THEIR team now, and not Favre’s or anyone else’s. I can’t imagine this ever happening with Bob Harlan still the CEO, or Ron Wolf, Mike Holmgren, or even Mike Sherman still being associated with management of the franchise. No, this debacle is squarely these two guys’ responsibility.
And despite what may or may not occur during their tenures, I will NEVER respect what they have done here today.