Green Bay Packers trade Brett Favre to New York Jets
By Finrod Comments (7) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Since no one else here has posted about this yet, let me insert my $0.03.
Being a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I don't have as much to say about this whole fustercluck between Brett Favre and Green Bay as some. Yet, from afar (well, the AFC), I've always admired both Green Bay and Brett Favre. Very few players play the game as hard or have as much fun on the field as Favre; as such it's difficult to find anything negative to say about him. Similarly with Green Bay-- they're the only franchise owned by the town and the people of its town, and I've always found that to be an uncommon bright spot in this world of teams switching cities. Yet I find myself taking Favre's side in this kerfluffle. I had wondered back in March why he chose then to retire-- unfortunately, it ended up being pressure from Green Bay to decide that pushed him into making that bad decision then. It's very sad to see a quarterback with as many consecutive starts as Favre has had for Green Bay being shuttled off to another team-- in 10 years, whoever Green Bay chooses in the draft pick they get from the Jets is going to be the answer to a trivia question in the category 'Most Bone-headed Trades Of All Time'.
Furthermore, this trade makes the already-imbalanced talent levels of AFC vs NFC quarterbacks even more ridiculous. Favre now joins Brady, P. Manning and Roethlisberger as the top quarterbacks in the AFC (scary thought: since only 3 QBs go to the Pro Bowl, one of these four will be watching from home next year); who is there for top QBs in the NFC now? Romo and E. Manning. That's 6 Super Bowl wins vs 1.
My prediction: Green Bay will not make the playoffs for the next ten years. Fans in Green Bay will blame the Brett Favre trade.
Err...
by drothgery
A few things
1. I blame Brett slightly more than the Packers for this mess (mostly because of the aborted comeback attempt in April). At the end of the day, I probably would have resigned myself to Aaron Rodgers leaving when his contract runs out and decided to go ahead and let Brett come back to the Packers (especially if he could convince me he was staying for two more seasons), but I'm very high on Brian Brohm (the second-best QB in the NFC central, the best being Rodgers of his half-game of NFL experience) and I think the Packers have a chance to be very good this season so I'm willing to gamble that I'd get to the Super Bowl by giving Favre another year with his receivers and Ryan Grant for the whole year.
2. Since it's unlikely Favre will do more than lose a wild-card game with the Jets (not his fault; the Pats, Colts, Chargers, and Jags are too good), or play more than two more seasons, getting a first-day draft pick for him is certainly adequate compensation.
3. The top QB in the NFC right now is Drew Brees, and it's not even close. Next is Romo or McNabb (just because Rush thought the media overrated him doesn't mean it's true). Fourth is Hasselback. Only then do you even start thinking about Eli.
Top QBs...
by dbecraft
Mighty nice of you to include Romo (I know that was hard), but since you did not include the Cowboys in your top 4 contenders, you gave away the game... Well, I will correct that for you... The top contenders are Pats, Colts, Cowboys, and Chargers, and maybe the Chargers...
Now wasn't that easier than you thought?
Formally known as Deagle... "Golf is a way of life..."
Cowboys aren't in the AFC
by drothgery
... so if the Jets can't beat the Jags, Chargers, Pats, or Colts in the playoffs (and I don't think they can, even if Favre is in MVP form), and might not be able to beat out the Bengals, Browns, Steelers, Ravens, Titans, and Texans to even get in the playoffs, then whether or not they could beat the Cowboys or Packers or Saints or Eagles or Seahawks (who have a real shot despite somewhat less talent than the other likely contenders because hey, NFC West) in the Super Bowl is somewhat irrelevant, isn't it?
Im with the Fin on this. How can any of yall blame #4 for this? I mean, when did I get off the plane headed for Bizaro world?
Heres my take:
Brett Favre had been doing his Diva act for several years now with his "Will I or Wont I" thing. Pack got tired of it, and with new long term contracts for GM and Coach, decided to play hardball. They gave Brett an early date to decide his future, and told Brett the date was set in stone. Favre, being a Diva, got pissed. He intentionally told the Pack he was going to retire, knowing full well he wasnt. Why? Because if your going to play hardball with me, Ill play hardball with you. At least thats how I saw it, nothing more than a pissing match really.
But lets take a step back. Does anybody really think the Packers have a better chance to win with Aaron Rodgers who? as QB? Didnt think so. So the team intentionally got worse, just so it could get rid of Favre. Seems dumb to me. If this was a company you owned stock in, and they fired their legendary CFO just so they could replace him with an unproven one who had some friends on the board, you would be demanding blood. You wouldnt be blaming the legend for getting railroaded outta town.
"I am a jelly doughnut"
It's not about this year
by drothgery
If Favre plays this year and next year, then you either have to let a #1 pick -- which you wouldn't have made in the first place if you'd known he would be around for 5 more years -- walk and start over with a new quarterback, or give him starter money based on almost no in-game experience.
Unless you've got an amazing degree of confidence in Rodgers (so much that you'll pay him big money despite no real experience) or in Brian Brohm (so much that you're sure you can let Rodgers walk), then trading a win or two this year in a division you'll probably walk away with anyway (about the marginal benefit of Favre over Rodgers) for the success of the 2010-2015 Packers is probably not a good business move.
Now, because A) I'm a fan, not a GM and B) First preseason game notwithstanding, I still really like Brohm, I'd probably have taken Favre back and lived with the consequences because I think the Pack with Favre would have a very good chance at the Super Bowl, but that's a tough call to make.
than the owner of the franchise. Do I really need to explain that the Packers moved on and had contracts/money commented. Yes, it would have been nice to bring Favre back at such a late date, but after all, management has to make decisions much earlier than he gave them. You can make all the excuses that you want, but when it comes down to final decisions, they do have to be made with some advance warning.
Yes, they might be better off this year (and maybe another) by bringing Favre back, but, he put them in an untenable position at the last moment. If I were the owner, I would not have it come to that... In the end, they will have to learn to get along without him anyway - and advance...
Formally known as Deagle... "Golf is a way of life..."
but Farve setup his own demise here... He left Grand Bay in an untenable position. He retires, they proceed with the future, he changes his mind. If I were the CEO of the Packers, I would have not only done what they did do, but I would have destroyed his reputation because of his antics. He turned out to be a narcissistic self aggrandizing self-centered creep (other words fit here). If he really cared about Green Bay and its franchise, he would have gracefully retired or requested a transfer earlier. And yes, I just don't care about his statistics or potential as an almost 40 year old quarterback.
You place blame on the wrong folks...
Formally known as Deagle... "Golf is a way of life..."