PalmettoHawk

I’m tired, I’m tired of all the rabid Brett Favre fans that clamor for the Packers to release him so that he can sign anywhere to play football in 2008. I don’t understand their position as Packer fans and taking that position.

To make that sort of a demand is either uneducated or undereducated in nature. Why in the world would the powers that be release Brett Favre to then sign with their direct competition in the NFC North Division? Because he has “earned” this right? That sort of thinking is flawed for the following reasons:

• Brett Favre has made somewhere in the neighborhood of $250,000,000 in his career by playing for the Packers. He has been compensated appropriately for a player of his stature. Brett Favre is under contract to the Green Bay Packers for the 2008, 2009 & 2010 seasons. They hold exclusive rights. We are all aware of the emotional farewell that Brett made last March stating that he could still play physically, but that he could not do all the study or mental preparation to play at 100% commitment. Finally, Brett had made a decision without stringing the Packers along for weeks and months on end. Packers say thank you very much, we’ll retire your #4 the very first game this season, no more fitting an opponent than the Vikings. He showed the Packers no particular loyalty when he annually toyed with the idea of retiring. He isn't owed a thing.

• The Packers move forward by committing to Aaron Rodgers as their QB for the upcoming season and prepare the playbook accordingly, mini camps and OTAs were all structured around Rodgers as the starter. Never mind all the junk saying, “If Rodgers could handle it, Favre could handle the playbook.” Well, rumor has it that Brett never learned any complete playbook preferring to run selected plays over and over again. Do you suppose that defensive coordinators clued in on that? If they did it would show what a superior athlete Brett was in leading the Packers as well as he did (most of the time) or it would show how inept most defenses were in preventing success against their team. Brett had to be replaced sooner or later. He made a decision to retire and as far as we knew, that was that.

• The commissioner says, “If you won’t accept him back, then work out a trade.” Who in their right mind is going to compensate the Packers par value when Brett has been screaming for his release? Wait it out…the Packers won’t be able to do anything in the way of a trade so we can pick him up on the cheap. Again, Favre fans want him released so that he can play…anywhere they don’t care just so long as they get to see their “hero” play again. Two words, “salary cap.” Yes, the Packers have room. Yes, they would lose about a third of that cap room too. Ted Thompson is not wild about signing “big name” free agents. But if you look at the majority of those signings I would say that for the Packers only Reggie White really turned out to be beneficial. But, why handicap your team as General Manager by deliberately taking the hit?

• Who do you want playing QB for the Packers this fall? Who has a better chance of taking the Packers to the Super Bowl? First of all, I’ll say that prior to March of 2008 I wanted Brett Favre to come back for yet another year with the above average chance that he might, I repeat might lead them deep into the playoffs like he did in 2007’s season. But the Brett Favre I saw in the Championship game against the Giants was not quite the Brett Favre I remembered. True the defense was not quite up to the challenge of stopping Plaxico Burress, but remember that the Packers weren’t the only team to lose to the Giants either. Is Brett even today a better QB than Rodgers, quite probably. He is a better option at QB than all but Indianapolis and New England, facts are facts and maybe even in those franchises as well. But again, why pay for a commodity when you can have it for free?

Accusations have flown about whether Ted Thompson lied to Brett about trying to sign Randy Moss, about interviewing Steve Marriucci for the Head Coaching position that went to Mike McCarthy and about resigning Mike Wahle and Marco Rivera. Well, how did Rivera work out for the money the Cowboys threw at him? How did Wahle work out for the money the Panthers threw at him? Rivera has retired, as a Packer I might add and Wahle is now in Seattle. This is strictly “He said, He said.” Childish behavior.

And to be quite honest with you, I grew tired of Brett’s waffling after each season about whether he would return or not. He consistently for the past few years placed the Packers in a vulnerable position with this stance because they could not draft college players knowing for certain what positions had the greatest need. It might have been that they needed to draft a QB but who knew for sure? How can you pursue any free agents when the first question they wanted answered was whether Brett was coming back or not.

Was Brett Favre self centered as a player? To be honest with you I paused to wonder when he kept coming back in the latter “Sherman” era, I wondered if he was coming back for the yardage record, the touchdown record, the longevity record. Would the Packers fared better in some games when Brett’s thumb was broken or when he suffered some other malady? Now we have teams in Tampa and their QB Jeff Garcia talking about whether Brett would fit in there and we have the New York Jets wondering if Chad Pennington will be their QB? The whole matter has become a gigantic cluster and it shows no promise of getting better anytime soon.

I won’t ever know the answer, but I am entitled to my own opinion. Just as you are entitled to your’s. I won’t belittle your opinion, so leave me to mine.

I’m ready for Aaron Rodgers to take the first snap…whether he lasts a full season or not.