Michael Silver Brings The Goods
By PackerAaron
In a lengthy piece over at Yahoo! Sports, Michael Silver brings us all up to date on what has led Favre and the Packers to this point. It's a great read, full of comment-worthy items, but I'd just like to focus on one that appears at the beginning of the article.
Aaron Rodgers...paused during an individual drill late in the Green Bay Packers’ training camp practice Tuesday afternoon and spied a little boy, maybe 6, among the hundreds of spectators lining the Oneida Street side of Clarke Hinkle Field.“We don’t love you,” the kid said. “You suck.”
First of all, someone needs to smack that kid.
Secondly, where is he getting this stuff? Oh, that's right. From his Northeast Wisconsin hobbit parents. I am so sick and tired of the willful ignorance that I encountered while visiting the once-great-but-now-suspect state of Wisconsin. This kids parents have obviously told him "Brett Favre is the greatest player ever and the Packers don't want him back. Aaron Rodgers sucks and won't win anything. Now go have fun watching practice!" Question for this kids parents: When Ron Wolf traded a first round pick for a third string quarterback, what did you do? Oh that's right. You lambasted him and were perched on the rails at training camp telling Favre how much he sucked and how Don Majkowski was the greatest quarterback since Bart Starr. In short: You don't know a damn thing about playing quarterback in the NFL, or about football in general. Stop spreading your ignorance to the next generation, who should have their OWN heroes to cheer for.
Again, this is only one small, fairly inconsequential part of the whole Silver article. You really should read the whole thing. That first part just really got to me.
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Comments (10)
August 06, 2008 at 01:19 pm
Seriously, as time goes by I'm becoming more and more rabid in my support for A-Rodg.
PackerAaron
August 06, 2008 at 01:37 pm
You and me both.
August 06, 2008 at 01:48 pm
I'm not rabid, I just feel for the kid more and more. His already intensely tough job has now become incredibly tough.
When I go to a preseason game later this month, I think I may end up in a fight with some anti-Rodgers morons. I don't think I'll be able to help it.
August 06, 2008 at 02:00 pm
Haven't read the Silver atricle yet, but I keep asking myself what the liklihood is that Favre would have become bigger than the team if Holmgren was still here. I suspect the liklihood is low. I read some posts this morning bashing McCarthy about the P.C. yesterday and it makes me laugh. Wake up Packer fans! McCarthy is doing exactly what our hero Holmgren would be doing - cleaning up the mess that coaches and management SINCE Holmgren have left. Specifically, letting Brett believe he's coach, GM and bigger than the team.
PackerAaron
August 06, 2008 at 02:07 pm
Andrew - couldn't agree more in regards to McCarthy. He's the only one that I've trusted through this whole process.
August 06, 2008 at 02:17 pm
I blame Sherman and the Vikings for this whole fiasco.
August 06, 2008 at 02:20 pm
It's pretty sad that it had come to that. Rodgers is really stuck in between all that.
I think the management didn't really realize what all this would do to the team and to their QB. They've been focusing a lot on how to make sure Favre doesn't play here or there but I'm not sure they spent sometime thinking about collateral damage.
Some would say it's Favre's fault? He has his share, but I think that as I said many times before, this could have been dealt in a different way.
Thinking about the Packers first... instead of thinking about what happens with Favre.
PackerAaron
August 06, 2008 at 02:21 pm
Let's throw in Ray Rhodes, just for that loss against the Panthers. You know the one at Lambeau where Steve Beuerlein runs it in on a quarterback draw with no time remaining? I'm pretty sure that game, and Rhodes part in it, are partly responsible.
I'm kidding. I think.
August 06, 2008 at 02:31 pm
I agree Steve that it could have been handled a little better by management, but can you tell me any other player in the history of the NFL that CONSISTENTLY delayed his decision to return each year until AFTER the draft and was allowed to continue doing that? This all started with Brett being offended that Rogers was drafted (and the comment "it's not my job to groom Aaron Rogers") and it has gone down hill between Brett and Thompson ever since
August 06, 2008 at 03:49 pm
I agree with the Holmgren reference. If you look at history, most really great QBs have had a strong head coach to rein them in. In fact, the GB situation is a bit unprecedented in that a great QB has had so many head coaches. I still haven't forgiven Holmgren for leaving.
However, with that said, star players receiving preferential treatment is a fact of NFL life. Even Parcells, a lauded disciplinarian, had totally separate rules for LT back in the day. This whole situation between Favre and Thompson/McCarthy has been one big pissing contest.
Also, though I would throw something out there. My dad is a Giants fan and his take on this is the Packers should have given Brett as much time as he needed to decide. He finds it confounding how the team is so eager to cast aside a future Hall of Fame QB who can still play for a guy who has never started a game before. Even after I explained the Packer organization's desire to get off this carousel of "will he or won't he" my dad persisted in his opinion that Favre earned the right to take his time to decide. Just putting it out there.