The Green Bay Packers and Brett Favre finally ended their drawn-out drama by the team trading Favre to the New York Jets. This is a deal that works for both sides. The Jets get Favre obviously at a late stage in his career but coming off a great season, the Packers get a draft pick that can escalate to a first round pick if the Jets reach the Super Bowl. Granted that is unlikely but the deal is fair for both parties. And we should all wish Favre well because the better he does the better it is for the Green Bay Packers.
I think if everybody acted like they did today and communicated with each other in the same manner, I’m referring to the press conferences by the Packers’ brass and now by Brett Favre, this situation would have been settled in March. It seems neither side gave the other a chance. There are about a million “if only” situations in this saga that could have changed things but it didn’t happen and as Al Harris likes to say “you know, it is what it is.”
Favre admitted he wanted to play for a division opponent so he could stick it to the Packers, but he said he got over it quickly. He did seem genuinely upset that he was not welcome back in Green Bay, though. A wound that will take years to heal. Don’t expect that number retirement for a long time. Packers’ head coach Mike McCarthy and even Favre himself said that Favre would still be a Packer forever and we know time will heal all wounds. Ted Thompson won’t be the general manager here forever, and that is Favre’s main rival in all of this. For whatever reason those two never clicked. It seems every year Favre was complaining about management not doing enough to help the team even though the team improved by four wins in 2006 to 8-8 and to 14-4 last year. What is there not to like about that?
Thompson admitted he was not comfortable as being “the guy who traded Brett Favre” and didn’t even want to sign the official trade papers, but he did sign and Brett Favre is a New York Jet. If Aaron Rodgers needed any further affirmation that he is the guy he just got it. The Packers commitment to Rodgers not only puts the jobs of Thompson and McCarthy on the line it also presents an interesting dilemma to the huge contingence of Packers’ fans that want Thompson and McCarthy fired. Do they root for their favorite team to lose? Do you boo Aaron Rodgers to help facilitate that? Like players always say “hard times don’t build character, they reveal it,” the true character of Packers’ fans will be reveled in the next few weeks.
Let’s hope there is more character shown by the masses than some of us, myself included, have shown in this blog during this ordeal. It’s over, and from now on my only subjects will be the members of the Green Bay Packers and what is going on during a season I hope can still be successful. That doesn’t mean I’m going to be all warm-and-fuzzy when or if things go bad, you should know me better than that. When the football starts I have to call it as I see it, for better or worse.
Football starts Monday for the Green Bay Packers. Good timing in the end. It would have sucked if the Packers had to play tonight like the Jets do. My guess is it would have embarrassing on all accounts. Now the team has a few days to get ready without distraction and the process really begins. The players almost to a man said the team was relieved and practiced at a new level yesterday and today. As Favre said in his press conference, “we’re moving forward.” I couldn’t be happier with the deal, now I can root for both sides. Favre is in the AFC and will never play the Packers unless it is in a Super Bowl Wouldn’t that be ironic if that happened in Tampa Bay this year?
As Vince Lombardi used to say, “now we start the big push.” Let’s get it on and Go Pack!
More to come…