God Speaks...
And now... a Word from Our Lord...
Well there ya go!
Brett's just broken the 11th commandment...
"Thou shalt Not Toy with thy Packer Fans affections or thou shalt surely suffer the consequences."
Editorials I've written...
Editorials I've read and added my two cents to...
Mark Chmura's statements last week and my Re"Marks"...
Yes all of that... you'd have to agree I've been fair and balanced on the subject of Brett Favre... kinda like the Fox News of the Packer blogoshere.
I've struggled... as I'm sure you all have... about how exactly I feel towards Favre and his procrasticating on this season. I thought I had a pretty good handle on it yesterday after the Press Conference Non-Event and my "being okay" with whatever Brett decides.
Just Freakin' decide already!!!
I read this article and I feel it pretty much sums things up nicely... If Brett Favre either can’t or is unwilling to make a decision about playing another year of football, the Packers must make that decision for him. Trade him to a team of his choice and get something in return, or tell him not to bother coming back; it's time to move on. The Favre Watch went from annoying to downright ludicrous Saturday, when he called an early morning press conference to report that he had nothing to say. “I don’t know why you guys wasted a trip down here. The Packers and I will make a decision at some point soon,” he said before his charity golf tournament in Mississippi. He then advised reporters to go watch baseball. When you’ve been a great player for as long as Favre has, you earn a lot of leeway to behave in ways that would not be tolerated from lesser players. But Favre has just about exhausted his store of goodwill. Even in Green Bay, people are saying enough is enough. The organization needs to plan for the draft and the coming season, and it can’t do that if it doesn’t know who will be playing quarterback. I’ve felt all along that the best thing for Favre would be to go to another team that needs just an experienced and strong-armed quarterback to become a Super Bowl contender. The Packers are not going to contend this season; there are too many holes for a quick fix. But the rebuilding process can move a lot more quickly if the team can get an extra draft pick or two in exchange for a quarterback who can’t make up his mind about returning to the team that made him famous and treated him like a god for 14 seasons. Favre has said if he returns, it will be for just one more season. That’s not enough for the Packers, who need several more seasons to become serious contenders again. There’s really no point in having him return, not for a farewell tour of a season. The Packers are going to have to replace him anyway, so they might as well start finding out if Aaron Rogers is the quarterback of the future. Call Favre in, tell him the team has to move on and is willing to work out the best trade for him so he can have one more shot at a title. It’s a wrenching decision. There’s no question about that. Favre has even said he doesn't want to contemplate life with another team. But this is the only move that makes sense for the organization. This isn’t just about Favre. It’s about how to construct the team, which free agents to pursue, which needs to fill in the draft. The Packers and Green Bay have made Favre rich and famous and adored. And he’s taking advantage of that. Last year, he publicly criticized a teammate, wide receiver Javon Walker, for threatening to stay away from camp while trying to negotiate a new contract. Walker, who eventually came to camp, blew out a knee in the season’s first game. So Favre is doing exactly what he found so reprehensible in Walker just a year ago. And not even a hero as great as Favre can have it both ways. His ambivalence is understandable. At 36, he can still throw the ball better than all but a handful of quarterbacks in the league. Football has been his life, and, like any other athlete, he wants to keep playing as long as he can. But Favre doesn’t want to put in all the work it takes to get in shape and take all the pounding of another season if there’s no reward at the end of the year. So he’s waiting to see what the Packers are going to do with a team that is several notches below championship caliber. If the team looks as if it can be competitive, he’ll play. If it looks like another rebuilding year, he won’t. If that sounds selfish, it is. Bottom line is that this is another rebuilding season, and Favre knows it. There isn’t any reason to continue to string everyone along. Green Bay has been great to Favre, and he’s been great to the team and its fans. He’s one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game, a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Yes, it would be great if he ended his career as a Packer. But he’s made this about him and not the team, and that’s wrong. The team needs to move on. And if Favre wants to show his gratitude, the best thing for him to do is to let the Pack trade him to a team of his choice. That way, the Packers will get something — a draft choice — instead of nothing, which is what will happen if he retires, whether that’s this year or next. It’s called giving something back. It’s really the only way out. FAVRE, PACKERS IN NO-WIN SITUATION One ex-teammate, Mark Chmura, has come out and labeled Favre selfish. Chmura might lack credibility given his checkered past, but it's safe to say he isn't the only Packers fan with that thought. Favre would like the Packers to show they are serious about assembling a team with Super Bowl aspirations. If that's his criteria, he might as well keep mowing his Mississippi grass. Packers' general manager Ted Thompson is building for the team's future, not Brett Favre's. But the Packers are better off with Favre this season, no matter who else is on the team. Anybody with any sense of football history knows the future is dim without him. With all due respect to Aaron Rodgers, life without Favre probably will be a long, dark period of unsatisfying comparisons. Favre's arm alone, still the strongest in the NFL, is enough to scare away any thoughts of his retirement. Arms like that don't come around every decade. But replacing Favre will be the most difficult task yet.Favre's Behavior Gone from Selfish to Silly
QB Needs to Retire or Let Packers Trade Him to Start Rebuilding
By Mike Celzic
MSNBC Reporter / April 8, 2006
And here's another good article from NBC.com sports
Team's Future Doesn't Look Promising With our Without Quarterback
Brett Favre's offseason has become as painful to watch as his season. As he wrestles with his emotions, the NFL world, far beyond Wisconsin, ponders two possibilities and cringes at both: what if he comes back and what if he doesn't. At the moment, the choices appear to be between two evils. Things can't possibly get better without him and don't look very promising with him.
Until announcing he would reveal his decision Saturday morning, Favre was teetering on a very unhappy brink of damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. The Green Bay natives are restless, inside and outside the Packers organization. Is he being spiteful by delaying his decision? Is he trying to force the Packers into releasing him? Or is he just being Brett, honestly trying to sort out his thoughts and in no hurry to accommodate anybody else?
Let's see. Before Favre, there was Bart Starr. Between Starr and Favre, there were 20 years. Green Bay fans need to remember the facts of the past before eagerly embracing the uncertainty of the future. Starr's last years of 1969-70-71 were shared with Don Horn and Scott Hunter. Favre has yet to share with anyone, and is hardly fading into the sunset like Starr did. After Starr retired, the Packers started Jerry Tagge, like Rodgers a promising first-round draft pick. He lasted a year before they traded for broken-down John Hadl. He lasted two years before Lynn Dickey arrived in a trade for Hadl with Houston. With Starr as head coach, Dickey and David Whitehurst muddled through eight seasons, two of them winning but only one playoff appearance during the shortened 1982 strike season. Next came Randy Wright and Jim Zorn and Vince Ferragamo and Anthony Dilweg and Mike Tomczak and finally Don Majkowski with only a single winning season in 1989 under coach Lindy Infante to show for it. Then came Favre. It seems like ancient history and in football years it is. Spoiled doesn't begin to describe Packer fans since 1992. And now some of them want it to end?
Life goes on, but in Packerland it would never be the same. Favre's consecutive starting streak is like Gehrig's with no Cal Ripken in sight. If Favre is beginning to sound a bit spoiled himself, indulge him for a minute. He gave the team more years than anybody has a right to expect from anybody. Is it Favre's fault that the Packers decline can be traced to the 1999 exit of defensive end Reggie White and coach Mike Holmgren? The Packers never adequately made up for White's departure, failing first with Vonnie Holliday and then failing miserably with free-agent pickup Joe Johnson. Even while Favre was winning three league MVPs in a row, he knew it was a team effort starting with defense. Two years after White left, safety LeRoy Butler followed and the Packers still haven't replaced him either.
Does Favre want to play? Few athletes want to quit, and none of them want to admit to diminished skills. When one like Favre sees with his own eyes that nobody can throw a football like he can, there is no reason to quit. The educated guess remains that he returns for one more season. If he announces his retirement, here's another guess: by training camp, he will change his mind. That may be why he is taking his good-old time. He doesn't want to undo a hasty decision.
Published by PackerPundit On Sunday, April 09, 2006 at 9:13 AM.
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