An Open Letter To Ted Thompson

Yeah Ted, please let that LOSER QB go…

(sarcasm intended).

The reason Goodell is involved is to negotiate a trade with the Queens so that instead of losing draft picks because of tampering, they will give up something extra for Favre. That’s my take anyway.

As I alluded to in a post below, I think the mistake everyone is making is allowing emotions to get involved in the decision making.

I do not want to see Favre on the Vikings, and it has nothing to do with sentimentality. It has to do with the enormous upgrade Favre would be over Tarvaris Jackson (or Rex Grossman/Kyle Orton for that matter.)

So no, please do not release him. Please trade him somewhere in the AFC, even if it’s just for a 5th rounder. Do it quickly, and let him become someone else’s headache.

And here’s the thing. I love Brett Favre. He’s my favorite athlete of all time, hands-down (and as I’ve mentioned, I am a baseball guy all the way.) If I were Thompson, I would take Favre back in a heartbeat. However, I am not the GM of the Packers and Thompson has done a good job… so I’m not going to be critical of his choice of Rodgers over Favre. What I am critical of is his dragging this out. If Favre wants to play, just trade him for a conditional pick (if he plays we get it, if he doesn’t we don’t.)

Personally, I would love to see him in a Jets uniform. This way, I get my cake and I can eat it too. Since I trust my GM, I get to see my team move forward and hopefully contend for the Super Bowl. And since I live in NYC, I could catch every Favre game as well. Of course I wish he would stay with the Pack, but I think the dude can still sling it, and I’d rather be able to watch him play somewhere than nowhere.

Also, I slept on this, and I want to completely disagree with this statement: “And the success he did have? More to do with your coach than with Favre himself.”

I call shenanigans on that comment. What Mike McCarthy did was what Brett’s coaches should have been doing all along (since Holmgren left.) When Brett made a terrible decision, instead of patting him on the back, chuckling and saying, “Hehe, it’s ok gunslinger, just shake it off and keep slinging it,” McCarthy actually held Brett accountable and reined him in. This is what good coaches do. Do you think Brady would ever play cowboy with Belichek roaming the sidelines? Of course not. But would he do it if he knew he could get away with it (like if Mike Sherman was his coach?) Can’t say yes for sure, but I’d say it’s possible.

Look at the annals of NFL history. All great QB’s had great coaches, and vice-versa. Only Mike Holmgren was stupid enough to leave a 3-time MVP, Super Bowl winning QB, and a place where he would have been canonized. Most coaches, once they get a franchise QB, hang onto said QB for dear life.

Simply put, I think McCarthy did a great job of getting two things through to Brett: 1) You don’t have to do it on your own and 2) You’re not Superman. Once Brett bought into this, the passing yards and TDs were all him.

So yeah, McCarthy is a great coach and I am extremely happy we have him as our head coach, but even a great coach can’t turn chicken sh*t into chicken salad.

One other thing Keith - you keep saying the Packers should just trade him to an AFC team. As PackerBelle pointed out in the last post - it’s not that simple. Favre can simply refuse. He has cornered the Packers into three choices - trade him to a team he agrees to, let him play for the Packers, or release him.

Well, I don’t necessarily agree with it to the extent you phrase it. McCarthy essentially did a better job of channelling Brett’s talent than his predecessors. However, Brett still had to make the plays, and he did. My bringing up Rodgers was just to crystalize that point. I don’t think Rodgers has the ability to capitalize on McCarthy’s offensive genius like Brett did. I will concede he will likely prove to be more efficient/consistent.

And why should Brett do what’s good for the team? The team is obviously just looking out for themselves, so Brett should do the same. This is a business and it’s all about who blinks first. Thompson should flat out tell him that there is absolutely no shot of him playing within the division and only a slightly greater chance of him staying in the NFC. So have him pick a team like TB or an AFC team, or he rides the pine. As I have mentioned, I don’t think Thompson wants to do this because he knows he will take a lot of heat for it. While Brett has the power to kill any deal, he is still under contract to the Packers. He needs to play hardball and call Brett’s bluff. There are plenty of teams who would be interested in Brett’s services who he should want to play for.