Zac you can’t be serious. Thompson and McCarthy made decisions based on the facts at hand, Brett Favre retired. With those facts they had no choice but to move ahead with the quarterback they had drafted to be his successor. Succeed or fail, it is his time to lead the team. If #4 had not retired he would have been the QB this season, but he did. If he did not retire, they would not have moved ahead. He choose the move, not Thompson and McCarthy.

Two years ago the Packers fired Mike Sherman. Brett cried “I am unhappy and I think I want to retire”. He wanted Steve Mariucci. When the Packers got McCarthy, Brett had to meet with him and then decided that he would play. It turned out to be a good coaching choice as he got us one game away from the super bowl in his second season with the youngest team in the league (and we lost because Favre threw another of his record interceptions).

Last year Brett wanted the Packers to get Randy Moss. When they didn’t he again cried “I think I am going to retire”. Maybe Moss would have taken away from a promising rookie group of receivers? Either way it didn’t matter Moss didn’t get a ring either.

This year he wanted something and knew that the same old tactics weren’t going to work so he turned up the heat and actually retired (but he never filed the papers). It backfired on him.

If you ran a business and had an employee that was valuable but constantly threatened to quit if he didn’t get his way, eventually you get tired of it and move ahead without that employee. That is all this is. Brett thinks he is more important than the Packers, without him they will fail. Maybe so, but maybe not.

Give Rodgers a break. He did nothing in this but his job. He never said anything about Favre, he never said anything about the Packers, he never said anything about anything, he just did what he had to do. To me that is a poise under pressure and I am interested in seeing how he will use that poise at the quarterback position. He looked pretty good in the Dallas game when Favre went down.

Oh, and let’s also note that Favre didn’t pass his physical due to an abdominal strain.

What you say is true.

I also applaud him for playing and agree that if he wants to he should. My problem is with the way he has played this all out for the past three years. He has played the spoiled superstar act. He has taken a “if I don’t get my way I’ll quit” posture every off-season and held the hopes and dreams of all Packers fans hostage while he pouted about not getting his way. This last month he really over did it with how it played it out in the media and used public support to get his way. The whole Greta Van Sustern interview (she is a friend of Deanna Favre) was a ploy to force Green Bay’s hand. It didn’t need to go there. He did that because Thompson was doing his job. It is Thompson’s job to look out for the team and keep the team moving forward and that means not letting it be held hostage by one man, even if that man is a legend. I actually have more respect for Thompson for not backing down on what he believed to be the right move in the face of public pressure. It is his job to think about what is best for the green Bay Packers.

I hope all of this brings the Packers closer as a team.

All of this happened in Dallas with Emmit Smith. He was traded to the Arizona Cardinals under similar circumstances. But Emmit never announced a retirement. Emmit never used the media to sway public opinion. Look how that turned out for Emmit. He finished two pointless seasons in AZ and never did anything worth mentioning. Then he realized that he should have hung it up instead of playing the “I want my way or else” card. In the end Dallas let him retire as a Cowboy.

If Chad Johnson were to do this to the Bengals you would probably say “fuck him, they should just trade him. The team is more important than he is”, but because it is Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers you feel differently. We don’t know all that was said behind closed doors, we never will. We only know what Brett Favre has told his friends in the media trying to use us to get his way. Thompson and McCarthy haven’t tried to manipulate the media to say anything negative about Brett Favre , only Brett Favre has said anything negative about the other side.

Actually NY is not as cold as WI. Winters here suck!

I agree with your very well put statement, if all he really wanted to do was play…

I just saw the Jets press thing on ESPN where he says he only ever wanted to play for the Packers. I am confused isn’t it you Brett that just had to say you were committed to playing for the Packers to McCarthy and we could have moved forward? Isn’t it you who said that you couldn’t get past your feelings being hurt? If you “only wanted to play for the Packers” you would have.

I am sorry if I offend any Brett Favre fans. I am a Packer fan and I feel that he betrayed my team. I have an autographed Brett Favre picture on my wall from the ’96 championship. I will still have fond memories of #4 as a Packer, but his light isn’t as bright for me anymore. That sucks more than any WI winter ever has. I was not happy with him retiring but accepted it knowing that it had to come sooner or later, but this is hard to swallow.

As someone was quoted as saying “Brett Favre wearing a jets jersey isn’t right, it never will be”.