Thompson: Favre isn't holding up the team.

[woodbuck27]

Thompson: Favre isn't holding up the team
He says Packers are proceeding normally

By TOM SILVERSTEIN
tsilverstein@journalsentinel.com
Posted: April 10, 2006


Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson admits that quarterback Brett Favre's indecision on whether to return next season has affected off-season operations, but he rejects the idea that Favre is holding the team hostage and forcing them to make the decision about his future.

Does Ted Thompson need to know Brett Favre's plans? The Packers already have a candidate to replace Favre in Aaron Rodgers.

Thompson said he had a pretty good idea Favre wasn't going to announce his intentions at his charity golf tournament last weekend because Favre didn't call him to say he had made a decision on whether to retire. Favre has until Saturday before the roster bonus deadline in his contract hits again, so it was understood he could take at least until then to make a decision.

Thompson said Favre was not holding up the team.

"I wouldn't put it like that," he said Monday. "For whatever reason, it's taking him a little bit of time. It's a decision he has to make."

Asked if he thought Favre was trying to get the Packers to make the decision for him, Thompson said, "No. I think he's just working through it."

It has been assumed that Thompson needs Favre's decision before the draft April 29 and 30 so the Packers can be sure what their quarterback situation is. Given that three of the top seven or eight selections could be quarterbacks, the Packers probably need to know whether they need to take one with the fifth pick.

But Thompson has said many times that he believes in taking the best player available regardless of position and when asked about selecting a quarterback at the scouting combine in February said he didn't want to risk passing up a franchise player because he was chasing a need in the draft.

So if Thompson truly would take the best player available and it happens to be either Southern California's Matt Leinart, Texas' Vince Young or Vanderbilt's Jay Cutler, would it make any difference if Favre had yet to commit to playing next season? The Packers already have a candidate to replace Favre in 2005 first-round pick Aaron Rodgers, so it would seem the Packers wouldn't necessarily have to know of Favre's decision before the draft.

"I don't know," Thompson said when asked if he absolutely had to know something before the draft. "What's absolutely, in life? Nothing's absolute. Brett and Deanna and his family are trying to make the right decision and I think they understand and I think he has even alluded to the fact that he's anxious to make the decision himself.

"It will happen in time. It's a tough decision he's making. We're going about our business the best we can. It's not ideal circumstances, but it's not ideal for anybody, it's not ideal for Brett I'm sure."

Although Thompson said the Packers were proceeding normally despite not knowing if their starting quarterback was coming back, he did acknowledge the uncertainty could be affecting free agency. Favre has long been a drawing card for other players who thought they had a shot at winning a championship with him at quarterback but they haven't been able to sell that this off-season.

The Packers have not been particularly active in free agency and it's unclear if they've been blown off by some free agents because Favre hasn't committed to playing again.

All but one of their signings from outside has been on defense. "I guess it's theoretically possible we may have been in the running for a free agent or two, but we didn't get because of the uncertainty," Thompson said. "But I don’t know if that's the case."

Thompson said the only place he knows for sure Favre’s uncertain status has affected the Packers is at the quarterback position. Had the Packers known right away that he was retiring, they could have gone after free agents like Drew Brees, Brian Griese, Aaron Brooks, Jon Kitna and Jeff Garcia.


From the April 11, 2006 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

[HarveyWallbangers]

Saturation of meaningless opinions
Media, others making too much of Favre's decision
Cliff Christl

Green Bay - If Brett Favre retires, it will be the biggest news story of this off-season and that's saying a Gilbert Brown mouthful considering the Green Bay Packers have already fired and hired a coach since their last game of the 2005 season.

In fact, it might be the biggest off-season news story involving the Packers since the Reggie White signing in 1993. Yes, bigger than Ron Wolf's retirement or Mike Holmgren's decision to bolt for Seattle. And maybe it'll even qualify as a bigger story than when White announced he was coming to Green Bay. It might be the biggest off-season news story since Vince Lombardi stepped aside as coach in 1968 or since Curly Lambeau resigned in 1950 following a bitter power struggle.

News of Favre's retirement will be about as big as a sports story gets in our little nook of the world.

That alone justifies having so many hard-working, earnest members of the media pursuing the story, including going on a wild goose chase last weekend to Mississippi. And it also helps explain why so many fans are so curious about what Favre will decide and are eagerly awaiting his announcement.

But, as this story unfolds or remains in a seemingly endless holding pattern, whichever way you want to look at it, here are the people I have a beef with both in the media and out on the streets.

One, those who have offered the opinion that Favre is being selfish by delaying his decision or that he's hurting the franchise or that he's holding it hostage.

Retirement is strictly a personal decision. If Favre is thinking only about himself, he should be. He owes nothing to the Packers and the Packers owe nothing to him at this point.

That's just the harsh reality of life in the NFL.

You don't buy that? Well consider this.

Hall of Famer Forrest Gregg retired three times during his 14 seasons with the Packers and was persuaded to return each time for the good of the team. After he announced his retirement for a fourth time and was no longer needed, he was cut and finished his career with the Dallas Cowboys. Hall of Famer Ray Nitschke put off retirement in 1971, was unceremoniously demoted and spent his last two seasons stewing on the bench. Before Hall of Famer Paul Hornung was given a chance to retire, he was exposed in an expansion draft and selected by New Orleans.

Next on my list are those who find Favre's indecision unusual and tiresome.

Twenty years ago, maybe even 10 years ago, nobody would have expected Favre to make a decision before training camp. And there's really no reason why he can't wait that long now.

Maybe it's important that he attend mini-camps with a new coaching staff on board, but it's not essential. Ahman Green isn't likely to participate. Neither is Javon Walker. If the Packers crossed off their roster, everybody who isn't going to practice in May, they might not have enough players to field a team come September.

The media has turned this into a feeding frenzy, not Favre. Again, not too long ago, before talk radio and internet chat sites and newspaper overkill, there probably would have been some speculation about Favre's future immediately after the season and the subject wouldn't have been revisited until he made an announcement.

If the topic has become tiresome, it's only because of the constant flow of opinions from people whose opinions don't matter. And the people who are becoming the most impatient with this story are people who aren't part of it.

Here, again, let's use Gregg as an example, this time to show how much things have changed.

Nobody waffled and officially retired more than he did, but it was never a big issue.

As early as 1964, Gregg took a job as an assistant coach at Tennessee. Six weeks later, he changed his mind, resigned and rejoined the Packers. He retired again following the 1968 season, joined the Packers' coaching staff a month later and then came out of retirement a second time in early September. During the winter of 1970, he weighed an offer to join the staff at Florida. Gregg turned it down, announced his retirement again, but said he would stay with the Packers as an assistant coach. In mid-September, he reversed his decision for the third time and played another year for the Packers.

Or how about Don Hutson, the greatest Packer ever before Favre?

He broke into the league in 1935, talked about retirement as early as 1939 and pretty much every year thereafter until he retired for good following the 1945 season. In 1944, Hutson returned to the team on Sept. 2 after announcing his decision to retire. In 1945, he changed his mind and decided to play on Sept. 29, the eve of the season opener.

Admittedly the game has changed and so have the demands on players, but human nature hasn't changed. Hutson took seven years to come to grips with retirement.

Finally, the people who are the most nauseating are the busy bodies who hold an opinion about everybody else's lives - it just happens to be Favre's at the moment -- and think they have all the answers about character and motivation, decency and indecency.

Who knows what drives players to keep playing or into retirement? Let's look back at the end of Bart Starr's career.

In 1968, he missed 28 of 56 quarters, or half the season, due to injuries. In 1969, he missed 27 of 56 quarters or just under half a season. Near the end of the 1970 season, after missing the equivalent of more than three games and with the Packers heading toward their worst finish in 12 years, he sounded a lot like Favre.

"I'll tell you there's no fun to it when you're not winning," he said in December of that year. Nearing his 37th birthday and on the verge of throwing more interceptions than touchdowns, he also talked about how he thought he could still play and contribute and that if he didn't sincerely believe that, he'd quit.

In the summer of 1971, Starr underwent two operations on his right arm, but still refused to retire and wound up playing in four of the Packers' final five games. The Packers went 1-3-1 over that stretch and Starr finished with a passer rating of 45.2.

Was he playing for the money those last four seasons? Was he being selfish and impeding the progress of the team's younger quarterbacks? You can be sure a lot of today's pundits and fans would have all the answers.

[MadtownPacker]

Great articles.

The first only solidifies my belief that Favre will not announce anything before the draft and TT will rob someone for draft choices while still getting one of the impact players. The second is just the truth that Favre bashers ignore.

[woodbuck27]

The waters are finally calming,again.

The Lesson.

Leave the man to his decision because it's all his. I'm afraid he's going to get pissed off and retire, and that would IMO be a huge mistake for him, as the years away from the NFL advance.

Brett Favre is all about wanting to play football and wanting to be successful at that , and that means winning and having some fun.Winning is the high and proof of fun.

There is a football analyst up here in Canada that puts it all in perspective.He says that one losing Season will not stop the likes of a Brett Favre and he will return to redeem that.He will not go out on a losing note as that isn't Brett Favre.

I just hope that those in the POWER to do so .Give him a REAL chance of getting, just that.

[BENZITO]

Woodbuck i agree with you. I have been fearing that the constant pressure for from media towards Favre to make a discision can only be a negative thing.

It seems that the packer organazation is giving Favre all the time he needs, so the media should do the same thing and stop pressing him. All this media attention is only hurting Favre and the Packers.

[woodbuck27]

Woodbuck i agree with you. I have been fearing that the constant pressure for from media towards Favre to make a discision can only be a negative thing.

It seems that the packer organazation is giving Favre all the time he needs, so the media should do the same thing and stop pressing him. All this media attention is only hurting Favre and the Packers.


Yes and I posted this on another forum this AM so I'll drop it here also.It's a follow-up on the Charity Golf Tourney fiasco.


For the RECORD :

For Favre, good help becoming hard to find

By Adam Schefter
NFL Analyst

(April 11, 2006) -- If Brett Favre were running the play, it would have been nice for someone to tell him what it was.

But those who know Favre say the Packers quarterback had no idea that the family's personal assistant, Becky Stuart, told the media that her boss would make a significant announcement regarding his future on the morning of April 8.

Favre didn't learn what Stuart had said on April 7 until after he had addressed the media on April 8, in what was his usual, annual charity golf tournament press conference.

And Favre, apparently, was none too happy about it.

It might be that Brett Favre feels people are letting him down wherever he turns.

It helps explain why Favre was surprised to see the media turnout be as large as it was, and why he called the whole the circumstances surrounding the press conference "a joke."

The joke turned out to be on him. Stuart's statements made Favre look selfish and silly, indecisive and indifferent to the Packers and the fans that follow him.

But from all accounts, Favre didn't even know that the masses had assembled to hear something definitive from him, not the "no change" in his plans that he uttered.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Woodbuck i agree with you. I have been fearing that the constant pressure for from media towards Favre to make a discision can only be a negative thing.

It seems that the packer organazation is giving Favre all the time he needs, so the media should do the same thing and stop pressing him. All this media attention is only hurting Favre and the Packers.

I wish that was the case, but the media can't help themselves. I just wonder what it would be like if this was John Elway. Favre gets a lot of good publicity, but it seems like there are a lot of folks out there who are jealous because of it, so he's been getting a good chunk of negative media as well the last few years. To me, he hasn't changed, but the media's perception of him has changed a bit.

[woodbuck27]

Woodbuck i agree with you. I have been fearing that the constant pressure for from media towards Favre to make a discision can only be a negative thing.

It seems that the packer organazation is giving Favre all the time he needs, so the media should do the same thing and stop pressing him. All this media attention is only hurting Favre and the Packers.

I wish that was the case, but the media can't help themselves. I just wonder what it would be like if this was John Elway. Favre gets a lot of good publicity, but it seems like there are a lot of folks out there who are jealous because of it, so he's been getting a good chunk of negative media as well the last few years. To me, he hasn't changed, but the media's perception of him has changed a bit.

Yes.I can't get a handle on this - Favre has to do this or that ultimatum.

I'm just wondering if it has anything to do with the fact he is threatening Marino's Records (certainly most TD pass's and completions with another year in the league).

Is it a Marino is a strong media guy now, and we support his records, or an AFC versus NFC thing? It's almost hateful and the worst part it's spread to so many Packer Fans.

That really bothers me.