Broadway Brett beats retirement!

[the pinjockey 0]

Let him run the scout team/4th quarters of the preseason games and save Brohm the abuse.

[Richard 0]

Or they could just Keyshawn Brett.

 

Man, of all my years as a Packer fan I could NEVER fucking envision Favre getting Keyshawned, or even being mentioned in the same sentence.

 

During Johnson's stay in Tampa Bay, his first name became a verb in sports talk radio. "Keyshawning" a player came to mean deactivating him while keeping him under contract. For example, this neologism was directed at Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens after he repeatedly spoke out against the team and quarterback Donovan McNabb. The Eagles management suspended him for four games and told him he would be deactivated for the remainder of the season when his suspension ended. (Owens was released by the Eagles in March of 2006, and has since signed with the Cowboys.) This practice came to an end in 2006, when the approved collective bargaining agreement prohibited teams from "Keyshawning" players.

[dh86 0]

The Packers should be seeking their trade options right now for Favre. As a Lions fan, I remember Barry wanting to come back if we traded him and the Redskins offering multiple first round picks for him and we turned it down. Barry never played again, we got nothing for it and no playoff appearances ever since. From where we stand today, Favre coming back as starter after all of this makes little sense, him coming back and being Rodgers backup while making $12 mil is unfathomable. Get something for Favre. As July turns into August and the season gets closer, there will be a bidding war of teams wanting to take the risk.

[Fökai 0]

Does someone here know how Favre unretiring affects his current contract? Does his contract go back on the cap? If so, why would the Packers want him as a back-up to Rodgers (with the money Favre would be making) unless it's just a big "fuck you" to Brett?

[Guest !!!]

No. Keep him away from the Bears.

But he would make them a better team. All those years and years of depantsing the Bears make me want him on the Bears even more. Off the top of my head, the only quarterbacks I'd want more than Favre are Brady, either Manning, or Palmer. Get your release, Brett, then come play for us and take the league minimum just to stick it to the Packers who have been giving you such a hard time lately (except not really). It'll be like joining the Patriots, without the douchebag fans.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

I've been classically conditioned to hate Brett Favre my entire life as a football fan, and I'd take him in Chicago in a heartbeat right now.

 

Sadly, doing so virtually guarantee that The Bears would give them the world in a trade and Favre would break both his legs in Week 4 after throwing 4 TDs and 7 INTs in weeks 1-3.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

No matter how this ends up, a distracted young Packers team with an impending QB controversy or PR nightmare makes me all...

 

[Dobbs 3K 0]

This whole thing is like watching two good friends of yours go through a nasty breakup after a long relationship. Just nasty right now.

 

Both sides are at fault though. Ted Thompson basically pushed Favre out of Green Bay, but Favre has acted like some sort of prima donna in all this. I would love to have Favre back with the Packers, but it can't happen now. If he's the starter, it's a big F-U to Aaron Rodgers (who would and probably should ask to be traded or released under such a scenario). If Favre is the "back up", people would be screaming for him to start after Rodger's first bad performance. It's a no-win either win. I think they have to trade him, hopefully to an AFC team they don't play this season.

[BruteSquad_BRODY 0]

Does someone here know how Favre unretiring affects his current contract? Does his contract go back on the cap? If so, why would the Packers want him as a back-up to Rodgers (with the money Favre would be making) unless it's just a big "fuck you" to Brett?

 

I think he has 3 years and 39 mil left on the table

[Dobbs 3K 0]

One thing I'm confused about...supposedly Favre didn't ever file his retirement papers, so he doesn't technically have to file for reinstatement. I have no idea if that is accurate or not...none of the radio pundits seemed clear on the situation yesterday.

[Guest Vitamin X]

I think Brett did end up filing his papers, that was just some controversy that happened shortly after he retired.

 

To be honest, one thing does concern me greatly about this season: Rodgers, for all his flashes of brilliance, has shown a penchant for getting injured after we get a glimpse of the guy. I think, two years ago after Favre had his annual "OH NO! WILL THE STREAK BE BROKEN?" hit against the Patriots, and then again last year against Dallas, Rodgers came in, everyone went "Oooo so this is the future.." and then Rodgers gets fucked up in practice that week and can't play for the rest of the year, but it's irrelevant because Brett plays every game.

 

So maybe having Brett around as a $12mil backup isn't such a bad idea... Then again, it's not such a bad idea having Brohm and Flynn around either.

 

I don't see really how the Packers are at fault for all this, either. I think it's difficult to say that Thompson pushed Favre out of Green Bay; the sources are really sketchy on that and we can't be entirely sure that Favre announced that press conference back in March based on that. The fact that he went through the whole getting choked up it's so emotional thing at the press conference, and then just turn around and forget about it is really lame. We all know he has tough times deciding every year whether to come back or not, what I think basically happened is that he was pressed into making a decision by a certain date he didn't feel comfortable with... and then making the same decision he does every year. What's funny is former Packers TE Mark Chmura (who was part of the "Three Amigos" in the mid-90's that also included Frank Winters and Favre) made some comments way back in the spring of `06 that sounds well, kind of interesting today:

n the spring of 2006, former Green Bay Packers tight end Mark Chmura made public statements in which he ripped Brett Favre for the way he prevented the franchise from planning for the future by refusing to state definitively whether he was going to play that season.

 

Among Chmura's comments at the time:

 

"People who don't think that it's all about him are fooling themselves" ...

 

"These quotes are 'I am better than the game,'" Chmura said. "'I will make my decision when I want, and Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy aren't going to tell me what to do'" ...

 

"He's a selfish guy. He's a very selfish guy."

 

I like Favre and I don't like Chmura, but in this instance, Chmura might have been right. Favre's waffling on retirement has shown him to be driven by what he thinks is best for him, even at the expense of the team. That's the definition of selfish.

[Krankor 0]

The Packers are idiots if they don't trade Favre. They've stated that Rodgers is going to be the starter. That's fine. It makes no sense to keep Favre when other teams will give you draft picks for him that will help your team for many years in the future as opposed to Favre just helping this season. Favre would obviously make a great backup but there is no point in keeping a 12 million dollar backup QB when you could trade him to a team like the Redskins with an owner that would be more than happy to overpay for him.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Let's be realistic. Thompson didn't force Favre out. Even if Thompson didn't want Favre to return, all Favre had to do was say that he was coming back and that would have been the end of it. There would have been no question at that point that Favre would have been starting for the Packers. He wasn't forced to retire by any means.

[cabbageboy 0]

I still wish they could come to some sort of compromise on this thing. As I said, why not just tell Rodgers to chill for 1 more year, bring back Favre to start, and if you're Thompson make it 100% clear that this is the last time the Packers are going to mess with this situation.

 

This is such a bizarre situation. I've heard comparisons to Young/Montana in SF, but the thing is there Montana was hurt for most of the 1991 and 92 seasons so Young was firmly the starter (and wasn't he the MVP in 1992?). There's also the Dan Marino situation in Miami where Dave Wannstedt told him he'd have to compete for the starting job, Marino said the hell with it and retired.

 

But here? We have a QB who led his team to a 13-3 record and is injury free. Yes, he's becoming bothersome with the retirement crap, but is replacing him with an injury proned guy with zero career starts exactly the answer?

[the max 0]

Don't know jack about football but I have to ask:

 

As I said, why not just tell Rodgers to chill for 1 more year, bring back Favre to start

 

What happens if Favre pulls this again next year. From what I can tell, this isn't the first time he's toyed with retiring/unretiring. What's to stop him from next year when he has two years left on his contract pulling the same bullshit as he is now by putting the team in a catch 22?

 

He's put them in a fantastic no-win situation.

 

Option 1: The Packers tell Favre to go home and jerk off in a moist towel. They will not give him his unconditional release, they will simply keep him on the roster and move on without him. Now the fans of Favre (the mustachioed dullards that they are) get pissed off at the Packers organization and start the "they pushed him out of Green Bay, ya know?" bullshit and turn on the new quarterback before he even gets a chance to do anything.

 

Option 2: The Packers give in to Favre and bring him back to be their starting quarterback. Now the rookie that they drafted, all the work they've put in with him apparently building the offense around him, telling him he's the guy it's going to be his team means nothing. Pushed aside again by someone who can't seem to let go.

 

Option 3: The Packers trade Favre or give him his unconditional release. While they may receive some compensation, it will never amount to what he means to the team. The entire league knows that they're basically bent over the table, so what kind of realistic trade offers will they get? And then they get to ship off a HOF player for a shitty draft pick or something, all because Favre can't stay retired.

 

Personally, I'd politely tell him to head on home to Cousinfuck, Mississippi and move on with his life. If he still feels like playing in three years, he's more than welcome to go somewhere else.

[alfdogg 0]

They've basically been talking about nothing but Brett Favre on ESPN Radio the last three days. This is worse than any Patriots hype, any Sox/Yankees hype, any Celtics/Lakers hype. I liked Favre as a player, but just go the fuck away already.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I still wish they could come to some sort of compromise on this thing. As I said, why not just tell Rodgers to chill for 1 more year, bring back Favre to start, and if you're Thompson make it 100% clear that this is the last time the Packers are going to mess with this situation.

Cause then you've wasted 3 years of development on a guy who you've very clearly selected and invested in as your quarterback of the future. And now you waste a 4th. And if Favre decides to stay for another year after that, then you basically end up doing what Atlanta did with Matt Schaub--let him walk and use your 4-5 years of training somewhere else, because there's no way you give him a decent contract after his rookie deal's up if he's never even played for you.

 

There's no point to grooming a guy for this long and keeping him off the field. It's a waste of resources and a potentially very damaging move for the team in the mid-term future, when Favre actually does decide to truly pack it in (or, more likely, gets hurt and can't actually return). And, as alf says, really boring if you're trying to read about something else.

[Guest Vitamin X]

If anyone can handle reading it, check out the Packers' timeline of the whole saga this offseason regarding Favre. Fucking ridiculous. Looking at it from an employer's perspective in a way, it looks and sounds- well, it is- utterly ridiculous.

[migoli 0]

As someone who lives in Minnesota, and way more into the Twins, I would love to see Favre come here just to see what the "Favre is Lucifer" people would do. I figure all of their heads would explode.

[Guest !!!]

Leave me out of this.

 

If their heads did explode, that would only be a good thing, because it would weed out the idiots who wouldn't IMMEDIATELY welcome Brett Favre as their quarterback over Tarvaris Jackson, Brooks Bollinger, or whoever the fuck else is hanging out on the Vikings' depth chart these days. The same goes for fans of the Bears, fans of the Lions, and fans of pretty much every team that doesn't have an eventual Hall of Famer quarterbacking its offense at the moment.

[Mike wanna be 0]

You have to stop looking at Favre as "Hall of Famer that's better than what most teams can offer at QB" and start looking at him as "Guy who's retired twice and could theoretically decide he's had enough at any point, leaving you up shit creek having given up players/draft picks to get a QB that didn't make it through training camp".

[Guest Vitamin X]

Or worse, halfway through the season.

 

Meanwhile, a group of douchebag Wisconsinites have started a protest asking the Packers to bring Favre back and even calling for Thompson to quit if they don't. They've even started a really crappy website for their cause as well.

 

Man, I can now tell why cheeseheads get the hate that they do out in the Midwest.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I really wanted that page to load up a .wav of "I'm here to play the Dolphins, ya dumbass" upon visiting.

[snuffbox 0]

Not unlike Dick Cheney, Favre will tell his story tonight on Fox News.

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

So what's actually happen has he tainted himself and came out of retirement yet?

[Guest The Elements of Style]

You have to stop looking at Favre as "Hall of Famer that's better than what most teams can offer at QB" and start looking at him as "Guy who's retired twice and could theoretically decide he's had enough at any point, leaving you up shit creek having given up players/draft picks to get a QB that didn't make it through training camp".

No I don't. Where is Favre's history of abandoning ship midseason? All of his hand-wringing is conducted during the offseason. Once he's on board, he's on board. I don't believe for a moment that the Bears would ever procure Brett Favre, but if they were to do so, I would be confident that he would make sixteen starts and give 100% in all sixteen starts--something no Chicago quarterback has come close to doing in my memory--because that's what he has done for more years than anybody to play the game, and he would not come back if he knew he couldn't do that. I think my assessment is closer to reality than yours, inasmuch as he has not retired twice (are we even certain he officially retired once?) and has not quit in the middle of a season or training camp. It looks like Favre is going to play somewhere in 2008, which I knew he would all along, and whichever team for which he plays is going to experience a considerable improvement over its incumbent quarterback, whether that's Rex Grossman (fingers crossed!), Tarvaris Jackson, Jon Kitna, Kyle Boller, Chad Pennington, Alex Smith, The Jon Gruden Carousel of Mediocrity, or most certainly Aaron Rodgers.

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

Right so Farve is coming back? and he's going to Vikings or Bears?

[Guest Vitamin X]

I think Czech makes a good argument, except for the case being made over whether Favre is a considerable improvement over Aaron Rodgers. While history hasn't been so kind to Cal quarterbacks, Rodgers has shown flashes of brilliance, and we all know that Favre, for all his game-changing ability and rocket arm, is known to make a

. True, he's unproven, but he's certainly a better gamble on a good team than all of those other quarterbacks mentioned, who have already proven they make better backups than starters, at best.

 

Pennington, FWIW, still has his occasional great game and was considered a top five quarterback just a few seasons ago before injuries wrecked his arm and presumably some of his ability.

 

Right so Farve is coming back? and he's going to Vikings or Bears?

Take a gander through the thread, Chris, then see for yourself. The situation is a tad bit more complicated than that, as Favre already had filed his retirement papers, but if he is activated from retirement, he is still under contract to the Packers for three more years, which essentially places him kind of like a holdout demanding a trade/release. The Packers best interest would be to pursue a trade, but the problem with that is that they have little to no bargaining power, as a team isn't going to want to part with much for a player who might not be with their team for longer than another year or so at best, and everyone knows the Packers' hands are tied in this situation. If he signs with the Vikings or Bears, this would generate an immense amount of controversy as those two teams are the Packers' biggest rivals (the Vikings, in particular, are the Packers' first opponents this year- in Green Bay, on Monday Night Football, on a night when the Packers were supposed to retire Favre's jersey in a halftime ceremony) and those are two teams who many say are one good quarterback away from contending for a Super Bowl.

 

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

The Packers would never trade him to a divisional rival.

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

Right so Farve is coming back? and he's going to Vikings or Bears?

Take a gander through the thread, Chris, then see for yourself. The situation is a tad bit more complicated than that, as Favre already had filed his retirement papers, but if he is activated from retirement, he is still under contract to the Packers for three more years, which essentially places him kind of like a holdout demanding a trade/release. The Packers best interest would be to pursue a trade, but the problem with that is that they have little to no bargaining power, as a team isn't going to want to part with much for a player who might not be with their team for longer than another year or so at best, and everyone knows the Packers' hands are tied in this situation. If he signs with the Vikings or Bears, this would generate an immense amount of controversy as those two teams are the Packers' biggest rivals (the Vikings, in particular, are the Packers' first opponents this year- in Green Bay, on Monday Night Football, on a night when the Packers were supposed to retire Favre's jersey in a halftime ceremony) and those are two teams who many say are one good quarterback away from contending for a Super Bowl.

 

Cheers, I had read over the thread, but wasn't sure if he ACTUALLY came back or not. Thanks for the quick recap on the situation