Green Bay Packers' Brett Favre debacle has morphed into a traveling circus
NFL
The Wisconsin team just needs to trade Favre, 38, for as much as it can get. Remember what trading quarterback Drew Bledsoe did for the New England Patriots?
The Green Bay Packers were determined not to let the Brett Favre fiasco become a distraction to their young team.
So much for their good intentions.
Not only has the situation become a circus, but a traveling one.
Instead of dealing from a position of strength, the Packers buckled. Three days into training camp, team president Mark Murphy flew to Mississippi to plead with the unretiring quarterback not to show up to practice. According to various reports, Murphy even offered Favre $20 million to hang it up for good.
Clearly, there are no easy answers. These are the decisions that define careers. But the Packers' brass should never have let it get this far, allowing this debacle to drift past Monday's start of training camp.
The difficulty is this: Once Favre is granted his reinstatement by the NFL, which could happen today, the Packers have 24 hours to decide whether to a) welcome him back to the team, b) trade him -- and Favre has the right to nix any deal -- or c) cut him loose. Forget the third option, because Green Bay has said it has no intention of letting him walk.
Rule out bringing him back, too. The Packers say they're moving forward with Aaron Rodgers as the leader of their offense. Sure, Favre is probably the better option to win games right away, but he's a short-term solution. At 38, he has one, maybe two seasons left. Bring him back and there's no way Rodgers doesn't bolt the first chance he gets -- which would be after the 2009 season.
Ted Thompson, Green Bay's beleaguered general manager, needs to give up the idea of trying to keep Favre out of the NFC North and instead trade him to Minnesota or Chicago for as much as he can get. Yes, there are Packers fans who will forever despise Thompson -- some already do -- but this situation has already forced fans to pick a side. Thompson needs to take a stand, end this, and move forward. With each passing hour, the Packers look weaker and less decisive.
There's talk in some circles that Favre would damage his legacy by playing for another franchise. Well, that legacy is already dented by the way he and his agent have jerked around the Packers to this point. It was dinged when he admitted he was miffed that the front office had ignored his instructions to interview Steve Mariucci or sign Randy Moss.
Favre was the quarterback, and a phenomenal one. But he wasn't the GM. Those decisions weren't his to make. He wasn't the Green Bay Packers, he was a part of the Green Bay Packers.
