When Brett Favre retired after the end of last season Packers fans mourned the fact that the franchise’s best player of all time was no longer going to be wearing the yellow and green. However only months into his retirement Favre is talking about coming back and Packers fans couldn’t be more scared and upset.
Favre coming back presents a nightmare situation for both the Packers front office and also the fans. After Favre left back-up quarterback Aaron Rodgers stepped up and started to ready himself for his first season as a starter in the NFL. Now he may have to ride the bench again if Favre comes back to town which might force Rodgers to decide to play somewhere where a team is willing to make a real commitment to him.
The worst part of the whole situation is that Favre is saying that if the Packers don’t want him to come back then he is willing to be traded to another team and teams such as the Vikings and the Bears have expressed interest. Could you imagine Mr. Packer playing for the arch rival Bears? Or seeing Favre wearing Viking Purple? It makes me nauseous just thinking about it.
To me there many different ways that this can play out with none of them looking particularly good for the Packers and their fans.
1. Favre comes back and plays for the Packers for another season, maybe even 2 or 3, and the Packers tell Rodgers to hit the pine for a bit longer and wait. Rodgers doesn’t resign after his contract expires in 2009 and walks to another team and becomes a great quarterback while the Pack may have to pick another QB in the draft if Favre walks away again. If Favre doesn’t have a repeat season of last years success then fans will shout he should have stayed retired and he came back for selfish reasons.
2. The Packers bring Favre back and trade him to a team not in the division. This would mean that Head Coach Mike McCarthy and GM Ted Thompson would be known forever as the two men who traded the best quarterback in Packer’s history. This would also mean that Favre would be playing for a different team and would earn the ire of many Packers fans who would feel he came back for selfish reasons and never really cared about Green Bay.
3. McCarthy and Thompson convince Favre not to come back and to stay retired. This could be a positive but if the Packers and Rodgers end up having a terrible season then fans might clamor and say they should have brought Brett back.
Favre has earned the right to make the decision but I don’t think he fully understands the situation he is creating for the Packers as an organization. He is causing a massive distraction at Packers camp and is forcing players to have to talk to the press about he topic everyday instead of concentrating on the teams first season without him.
Having said that I think that if an athlete decides to retire than they should stay retired. Nobody put a gun to Favre’s head and told him he couldn’t play football anymore so would he retire if there was no urgency or need? Favre is a grown man and could have waited a bit longer before making his decision instead of springing this whole situation on the Packers who by now have fully transitioned into a system that doesn’t revolve around Favre anymore.
Any course of action that the Packers decide to take will not be taken any time soon as clearly McCarthy and the Packers have no idea how to approach the situation and are choosing to stay quiet, at least to the media, as they contemplate their next move. Its going to be an interesting off season for the Packers and Brett Favre as they go back in forth in a game of will they wont they.
1 comment:
Good pics on taking my boys Pominville and Miller for your fantasy team.
Also, from what I read, Favre laughed off the rumours that he was thinking about coming back and made it clear that he was not planning on coming out of retirement. Maybe I am out of the loop, but I was under the impression there was no way he was coming back.
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