Favre Unplugged

FEATURE

Favre Unplugged

Jul 27, 2008

8 comments

Chris Mortensen at ESPN.com has excerpts of yet another stunning interview with Brett Favre, this time conducted over the phone with Mortensen.

Favre says, among other things, that:

Thompson said he (Thompson) would be fired if Brett reported to camp
His conversations with Brad Childress had nothing to do with his return
That he demanded that Thompson and McCarthy 'get in front of the media' to confirm the fact that Favre had never had a Packers' cell phone.
Favre asked Thompson directly if he could compete for the starting job, saying "You know I'll win this job". Thompson straight up refused, saying Rodgers is now the starting quarterback.

From what we have learned of Favre over the course of the past month, I'd say about 25% of what Favre is saying is truthful, and the other 75% is, as he says, 'bogus'. The trick is figuring out which parts are true and which parts aren't...

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Comments (8)

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July 27, 2008 at 08:21 pm

I also like the part where Mr. Favre says:

"Roger is willing to help but he has to be careful."

Strange to see that the commissioner of the league has become another codependent enabler in this Shakespearean dramedy. Is Goodell really empowered to fiddle around with the internal affairs of teams in the league? Something smells rotten in Kiln...

July 27, 2008 at 08:29 pm

OK, so Bill Michaels is somewhat of a dingus, but there are interesting nuggets in his interview here:

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3507042&...

One can only speculate about what's happened behind the scenes between Mr. Favre and the Packers organization...

July 27, 2008 at 11:33 pm

I think Thompson is handling this horribly. He is trying to hedge his bets. To me, this situation is fairly simple. Here are his options:

A) If he is committed to Rodgers, say so and just trade Favre to the highest bidder in the AFC. With the state of quarterbacking in the NFL, someone will pony up a draft pick. The Jets and Ravens come to mind.

B) Otherwise, put out some BS press release welcoming Brett back, but saying there will be a QB competition, even though we know who will win.

The problem here is this, Thompson's rear-end is now on the line. Before, if Rodgers sucked, he could have clapped his hands and said, "What was I supposed to do? Brett retired." But now, Thompson has to make a choice, rather than having Favre make the choice for him. So instead of manning up, saying, "Make no mistake, we love Brett and he'll always be a Packer. However, as Brett can attest, we value stability at the QB position and in light of his recent retirement we decided to move forward with Aaron Rodgers as our QB. We wish Brett the best in his future endeavors and look forward to raising his #4 when he calls it a career." But Thompson won't do this because it would require a HUUUUGE set of stones to come out and state that he is choosing Aaron Rodgers over Brett Favre.

July 28, 2008 at 02:22 am

As usual, Keith makes a great deal of sense.

July 28, 2008 at 10:44 am

The problem with just taking the highest bidder from the AFC is that Favre can refuse to show up. The Packers gave the Jets and the Bucs permission to talk to Brett but he refuses to be traded to them.

July 28, 2008 at 01:00 pm

He can't "refuse to be traded". He can refuse to play for them but he can't refuse to be traded.

Of course it makes it much more difficult to trade him if he is unwilling to play but thats why I think his line of TT saying he would get fired is bullshit.

If Farve reinstates I think TT trades him like right now. If Farve really has NO power over where other than refusing to play and once he's been traded if he does refuse then the team (jets/buccs) will just place him on reserve/retired or fine him for failing to show up.

Its a power struggle and both have some but if Farve requests reinstatement he loses a lot/most of his power.

July 28, 2008 at 01:13 pm

Refuse to be traded/refuse to play/whatever, it essentially boils down to the same thing - unless Favre wants to go somewhere nothing Ted Thompson does is going to change that. If you look at Peter Kings MMQB column from today Favre seems to be the problem with any potential trades. "Thompson asked Favre for a list of teams he'd accept a trade to on Saturday -- for at least the second time -- and Favre would not give him one. That's because the minute Favre gives Thompson a list, the Packers will get a deal done with one of the teams on the list."