Favre and the Hall of Fame: What's Your Reaction?

[MJZiggy]

Do you routinely go in to work voluntarily when you don't have to when you won't get paid for putting in the extra time? If the answer is No, once again you're no better of a person than Brett Favre.

Partial, Favre has a problem showing up for mandatory work, even when he IS getting paid for it. You know, minicamps, OTA's, etc. I may not have put in as much voluntary work as Favre has, but I've always shown up for the mandatory stuff in life. And I don't get paid millions of dollars to do it. Using this example specifically, I don't see how this makes Favre a better person than I.

What mandatory stuff has he missed? You mean like playing in every game?!?

Preparing for the season?


You know, minicamps, OTA's, etc.

He was given off by a coach for minicamp. Would you go in to work on Memorial day if your boss gave you off? OTAs are optional. Chuck Woodson did them for the first time in his career last year, yet he never gets flamed for it. I think it's pretty unfair to judge a guy for not going to optional work.

Okay, mandatory is the wrong word. What's the word for something the rest of your team is doing and you are not?

[Partial]

Okay, mandatory is the wrong word. What's the word for something the rest of your team is doing and you are not?

Mandatory isn't the correct word, I agree.

The rest of the team isn't doing OTAs. Guys like Clifton (vet), Woodson (vet), Harris (vet), etc are getting some R&R and recovering from the prior season. The OTAs and whatnot are for the young guys and the workaholics.

Strahan would skip OTAs. Ogden would miss OTAs. I'm sure I could continue, but you get the point. The vets don't have anything to prove in those situations.

[Zool]

He was paid fair market value. Money is absolutely irrelevant. If you had 100 million do you really think you'd care about the next 10 or 20?

This is the last time I'm going to say this to you. HE QUIT. He wasn't forced out. No one fired him. He wasn't cut. No one could possibly have forced him to make a decision. All he had to do was not retire and all this BS never happens.

[mission]

If my employer had paid me $100mil over the course of 16 years, I think I would do just about anything they asked me to. I'd be mighty fucking grateful.

If I had that kind of money, I sure as hell wouldn't be trying to go back to work!

You and me both. Plus you can forget about the farm, gimme an island!

[Partial]

He was paid fair market value. Money is absolutely irrelevant. If you had 100 million do you really think you'd care about the next 10 or 20?

This is the last time I'm going to say this to you. HE QUIT. He wasn't forced out. No one fired him. He wasn't cut. No one could possibly have forced him to make a decision. All he had to do was not retire and all this BS never happens.

Right, but you can quit your job and get another one. You can't in the NFL. They wouldn't let him compete for the starting job imo, but thats up for debate. With that said, he was essentially told he has to sit in meetings and record minutes all day, or sit at home and not work, since they wouldn't let him work for anyone else (until they caved and agreed to trade him)

[Partial]

Brett is the QB. Brett is the leader.

Leaders don't ask for or take off days.

I agree with you and I don't think its right, but it is what it is and its pretty common throughout the NFL. I don't think Favre received any more extra care than say a Strahan, for example, who was another teams leader.

[mission]

Brett is the QB. Brett is the leader.

Leaders don't ask for or take off days.

I agree with you and I don't think its right, but it is what it is and its pretty common throughout the NFL. I don't think Favre received any more extra care than say a Strahan, for example, who was another teams leader.

Now you're really grasping, Partial ...

[Scott Campbell]

Okay, mandatory is the wrong word. What's the word for something the rest of your team is doing and you are not?

Prima donna?


A temperamental person; a person who takes adulation and privileged treatment as a right and reacts with petulance to criticism or inconvenience.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Brett is the QB. Brett is the leader.

Leaders don't ask for or take off days.

I agree with you and I don't think its right, but it is what it is and its pretty common throughout the NFL. I don't think Favre received any more extra care than say a Strahan, for example, who was another teams leader.

QB is always the top leader. Nobody talks about getting rid of lineman because they aren't leaders.

Favre got lots of special attention and was allowed to slide.

[Bossman641]

He was paid fair market value. Money is absolutely irrelevant. If you had 100 million do you really think you'd care about the next 10 or 20?

This is the last time I'm going to say this to you. HE QUIT. He wasn't forced out. No one fired him. He wasn't cut. No one could possibly have forced him to make a decision. All he had to do was not retire and all this BS never happens.

Right, but you can quit your job and get another one. You can't in the NFL. They wouldn't let him compete for the starting job imo, but thats up for debate. With that said, he was essentially told he has to sit in meetings and record minutes all day, or sit at home and not work, since they wouldn't let him work for anyone else (until they caved and agreed to trade him)

Then he shouldn't have quit.

[Partial]

Now you're really grasping, Partial ...

Am I? I'm a 100% believer that your QB is your leader. It comes with the territory. However, the older HOF type studs around the league often skip that stuff. It's pretty common.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Now you're really grasping, Partial ...

Am I? I'm a 100% believer that your QB is your leader. It comes with the territory. However, the older HOF type studs around the league often skip that stuff. It's pretty common.

Grasping.

[Partial]

He was paid fair market value. Money is absolutely irrelevant. If you had 100 million do you really think you'd care about the next 10 or 20?

This is the last time I'm going to say this to you. HE QUIT. He wasn't forced out. No one fired him. He wasn't cut. No one could possibly have forced him to make a decision. All he had to do was not retire and all this BS never happens.

Right, but you can quit your job and get another one. You can't in the NFL. They wouldn't let him compete for the starting job imo, but thats up for debate. With that said, he was essentially told he has to sit in meetings and record minutes all day, or sit at home and not work, since they wouldn't let him work for anyone else (until they caved and agreed to trade him)

Then he shouldn't have quit.

This is a really ignorant approach. Put yourself in that position and you'd feel trapped.

Plenty of other players (Jordan, White, Holyfield) have entered and exited retirement multiple times yet they were always welcomed back to their respective sport.

Had Rodgers not been a promosing prospect, I think the Packers would have handled the situation differently. Also, if he was 30 instead of 39 I think they would have handled the situation differently.

It's over and done with, but I think you guys are taking a pretty jaded view towards this. Favre was a good guy for the most part and a good teammate who made a bad decision and ultimately paid dearly for it. Was it fair? I don't really think so given he's a vet and plenty of other vets have done similar things and were treated much better by their clubs. It's open to interpretation though I guess.

[Bossman641]

This is a really ignorant approach. Put yourself in that position and you'd feel trapped.

I think I'd also place most of the blame on myself for realizing I was the one who made the decision and if there was a mistake made it was my mistake.

Plenty of other players (Jordan, White, Holyfield) have entered and exited retirement multiple times yet they were always welcomed back to their respective sport.

Reggie White? Retired once
Holyfield? Comparing an individual sport to a team sport? I hope you can do better than that.
I honestly can't say for sure why Jordan retired the first time. He said it was because he no longer had the desire to play after his father's death. It also could have been because he had accomplished it all and had nobody else to push him. The conspiracists would have you belive the retirement was a cover and Jordan was suspended for a year to deal with his gambling problems. Jordan's second retirement came at the dismantling of the Bulls' championship team. Phil Jackson, Pipper, and Rodman gone. Maybe he didn't want to deal with a rebuilding team. He also didn't do the yearly will he or won't he that Favre has done for many years running.

Had Rodgers not been a promosing prospect, I think the Packers would have handled the situation differently. Also, if he was 30 instead of 39 I think they would have handled the situation differently.

Ya think? Favre wasn't 30 though. Maybe the organization thought Rodgers was better than Favre. Maybe they feared Arod would request a trade or not resign if he was forced to sit on the bench again. I'd gladly take 6-8 years of Arod in his prime and not having to groom another QB over 1-2 years of a 39 year old Favre.

It's over and done with, but I think you guys are taking a pretty jaded view towards this. Favre was a good guy for the most part and a good teammate who made a bad decision and ultimately paid dearly for it. Was it fair? I don't really think so given he's a vet and plenty of other vets have done similar things and were treated much better by their clubs. It's open to interpretation though I guess.

I'm not sure how much of the good teammate line I buy. He turned me off with how he treated Rodgers, but I'm not gonna sit here and argue his character. I'd love to hear about all these other vets, specifically QB's.

[Partial]

The Packers forced him to make a decision. They pressured him into it. Knowing they have Rodgers there anyway, what was the rush?

White retired from the Pack and came back w/ Carolina. No bitter divorce. Jordan had a very bitter divorce and his retirement was the reason the team was dismantled, not the other way around.

I agree with you on the points below this. I think it's a shitty way to treat a veteran player, though.

There is a story on Yahoo right now how Brady no-showed at the Pats camp (I recognize he's injured). He's been working out at facilities at other times during the off-season, yet he skipped OTAs.

Chris Simms is skipping OTAs. Jay Cutler is too. Adrian Wilson as well. Jared Allen as well. Urlacher too.

Look up Jonathan Ogden skipping OTAs, Strahan most of camp as well. Why does it matter if they're a QB?!? They're all veteran, HOF players who know the game inside and out and have delivered year after year despite missing OTAs.

Lots of players skip OTAs. Is Nick Collins a bad person and teammate for skipping OTAs? Chuck? Harris? Clifton? It's a vet thing.