It's Official: Favre is the enemy

[MOBB DEEP]

Favre is not the enemy. The Vikings are the enemy. Does anyone single out AD? Not really. Hate the team, love the individuals.

Fuck yeah!!!

lol, i actually used to cut my mustache like his when i was in highschool and me and my boy (a whimpy non-athletic cracker) signed yearbooks with hitler youth gang! i was SO twisted

[MOBB DEEP]

Favre is not the enemy. The Vikings are the enemy. Does anyone single out AD? Not really. Hate the team, love the individuals.

Hate the team. Hate the individuals that make the team. Hate the fans that root for the team. Hate the local radio broadcasters that call the games for the team. Hate for rivals runs deep, and it extends beyond any individual player.

FAR to much angst

ENTERTAINMENT

[Gunakor]

Favre is not the enemy. The Vikings are the enemy. Does anyone single out AD? Not really. Hate the team, love the individuals.

Hate the team. Hate the individuals that make the team. Hate the fans that root for the team. Hate the local radio broadcasters that call the games for the team. Hate for rivals runs deep, and it extends beyond any individual player.

FAR to much angst

ENTERTAINMENT

I don't feel the same way you do Mobb. It's more than just entertainment to me, and we'll leave it at that.

[MichiganPackerFan]

So, when people ask me how I came up with the name Bretta for my dog....what can I tell them, other than the obvious initial reason?

Say you named it after the water pitcher filtration system because your dog was always thirsty, but there was a typo on the birth certificate.

[MichiganPackerFan]

So, when people ask me how I came up with the name Bretta for my dog....what can I tell them, other than the obvious initial reason?

I suppose nobody would buy you naming her after a water filter?

DAMMIT - Hadn't seen this! Damn you and your instant wittiness, Scott Campbell.

[sharpe1027]

Favre is not the enemy. The Vikings are the enemy. Does anyone single out AD? Not really. Hate the team, love the individuals.

Hate the team. Hate the individuals that make the team. Hate the fans that root for the team. Hate the local radio broadcasters that call the games for the team. Hate for rivals runs deep, and it extends beyond any individual player.

FAR to much angst

ENTERTAINMENT

Personal preference. It is so much more fun to hate, just try it.

[Fritz]

Here's the deal:

And this isn't original with me, but I agree - yes, we love the team, and by and large the players come and go. However, it's in the league's interest to promote any player who appears to be the guy who stars with one team his whole career. So you connect the guy and the jersey, creating the myth that there is loyalty in the game, that it's more than business.

The media and fans jumped on the Favre bandwagon - and so did Favre. He made many comments about not being able to imagine playing elsewhere, about never wanting to play any where else, and so on. So all of us - well, almost all of us - bought into the myth. He was like Bart Starr or Don Hutson or Ray Nitschke.

Then cracks appeared in the facade. Favre still claimed he always wanted to be a Packer, but he also suggested at one point that maybe the Pack should just cut him if they felt he was no longer good enough (I think this was after that 8-8 season). He started hemming and hawing every offseason. And then after he retired and sorta unretired and re-retired, it seemed to some that he was trying to get out of GB.

In sum, he's just a football player like everyone else and it's really a business and there's very little loyalty in the nfl. Our myth has been shattered. So many people are pissed.

I'm pissed because Favre is still pretending that all he ever wanted was to QB the Green Bay Packers, and that the Packers cruelly cast him aside. That's bullshit, in my book. He said he always wanted to be a Packer, yet he's now going to have played for not one but two other teams. He said during the Joe Buck interview it wouldn't be fair to the Vikings to let them wait any longer than a week or two before training camp, yet he waited until a couple days before to make a decision - and then he changed his mind two weeks into camp.

He's still trying to pretend it's not just a business and that somehow he's different. But it's a business and he's not any different. If anything, he's become worse than others because once he had the power to manipulate the system, he did.

If he could be up front about the whole thing I'd have some grudging respect. But he's not upfront at all.

At all.

Now, I think that Favre thinks he is. I think he believes his own BS - how else could the guy do what he does and live with himself?

But just because he believes it doesn't make it okay.

[MOBB DEEP]

Favre is not the enemy. The Vikings are the enemy. Does anyone single out AD? Not really. Hate the team, love the individuals.

Hate the team. Hate the individuals that make the team. Hate the fans that root for the team. Hate the local radio broadcasters that call the games for the team. Hate for rivals runs deep, and it extends beyond any individual player.

FAR to much angst

ENTERTAINMENT

I don't feel the same way you do Mobb. It's more than just entertainment to me, and we'll leave it at that.

how DO you feel? that pro sports is more intimate/meaningful than say a denzel movie? HOW is it more relevant than a broadway play or episode of curb your enthusiasm at the end of the day??? impacts your life more significantly??

[MOBB DEEP]

Favre is not the enemy. The Vikings are the enemy. Does anyone single out AD? Not really. Hate the team, love the individuals.

Hate the team. Hate the individuals that make the team. Hate the fans that root for the team. Hate the local radio broadcasters that call the games for the team. Hate for rivals runs deep, and it extends beyond any individual player.

FAR to much angst

ENTERTAINMENT

Personal preference. It is so much more fun to hate, just try it.

i used to hate teams and players before i evolved; now i LOVE watchn randy moss, etc...VERY LIBERATING i might add

SO gay to hate another city lol

[MOBB DEEP]

Here's the deal:

And this isn't original with me, but I agree - yes, we love the team, and by and large the players come and go. However, it's in the league's interest to promote any player who appears to be the guy who stars with one team his whole career. So you connect the guy and the jersey, creating the myth that there is loyalty in the game, that it's more than business.

The media and fans jumped on the Favre bandwagon - and so did Favre. He made many comments about not being able to imagine playing elsewhere, about never wanting to play any where else, and so on. So all of us - well, almost all of us - bought into the myth. He was like Bart Starr or Don Hutson or Ray Nitschke.

Then cracks appeared in the facade. Favre still claimed he always wanted to be a Packer, but he also suggested at one point that maybe the Pack should just cut him if they felt he was no longer good enough (I think this was after that 8-8 season). He started hemming and hawing every offseason. And then after he retired and sorta unretired and re-retired, it seemed to some that he was trying to get out of GB.

In sum, he's just a football player like everyone else and it's really a business and there's very little loyalty in the nfl. Our myth has been shattered. So many people are pissed.

I'm pissed because Favre is still pretending that all he ever wanted was to QB the Green Bay Packers, and that the Packers cruelly cast him aside. That's bullshit, in my book. He said he always wanted to be a Packer, yet he's now going to have played for not one but two other teams. He said during the Joe Buck interview it wouldn't be fair to the Vikings to let them wait any longer than a week or two before training camp, yet he waited until a couple days before to make a decision - and then he changed his mind two weeks into camp.

He's still trying to pretend it's not just a business and that somehow he's different. But it's a business and he's not any different. If anything, he's become worse than others because once he had the power to manipulate the system, he did.

If he could be up front about the whole thing I'd have some grudging respect. But he's not upfront at all.

At all.

Now, I think that Favre thinks he is. I think he believes his own BS - how else could the guy do what he does and live with himself?

But just because he believes it doesn't make it okay.

good post

[jmbarnes101]

I'm going to enjoy watching the media whore leave Lambeau with his tail between his legs after the Packers D get their pound of flesh... each player that is. Shouldn't be much left after that.

The good lord tells me I shouldn't hate anyone but man, do I hate Brett Favre right now. I'm going to enjoy this season.

[Pugger]

You bet BF manipulated the system! He "retired" from NY to get out of his contract with them knowing the Jets would give him what TT wouldn't - his unconditional release. He fanagled his way out of NY so he could become a FA and go to the team he probably has wanted to go to since Shermy was canned. BF wanted to go to a team that will treat him like royalty just like Rhodes and Shermy did here before MM came along. If anyone thinks Chilly is gonna be able to rein in Mr. Interception Leader they are sadly mistaken.

[Rastak]

Pugger, there was zero chance they were going to keep him. Clemons, Sanchez and Favre?

They were tight against the cap......there's no way. They made the right call.

[HarveyWallbangers]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=4407750&sportCat=nfl

Favre's left Green Bay behind, for good
By Gene Wojciechowski

Monday night. Oct. 5. A date that will live in football infamy.

That's the night the Green Bay Packers play the Minnesota Vikings at the hearing-loss capital of the world -- the Metrodome. That's the night Brett Favre commits cheesehead treason.

Favre got what he wanted Tuesday. He got the team he craved, the salary he could live with and the NFC North Division he knows by heart. But the nanosecond he signed that $10 million to $12 million contract with the Vikings was the nanosecond he burned the last few remaining wooden bridges between him and Packers fans. He became Fredo Corleone in "The Godfather: Part II" -- the one who betrays the family. Packers fans became Michael Corleone, who tells his kid brother, "Fredo, you're nothing to me now."

Fredo got popped on a fishing boat in the middle of Lake Tahoe. Favre could get his on national television in the middle of the Metrodome. Or he could lead the team with the league's best running back and one of the league's best defensive lines to Super Bowl XLIV.

Anyway, he's a Viking now, which is what Favre wanted all along. Actually, that's not true. He wanted to be a Packer, but remember all that Packers management stuff about crossing the Rubicon River and protecting Favre's legacy? It was as sincere as Favre's first retirement announcement.

Bottom line: The Packers didn't want Favre as their quarterback, and equally as important, they didn't want Favre as the Vikings' quarterback. That's why they poisoned any deals with NFC North teams. And that's why Favre ended up in another conference with the New York Jets last season.

I've got zero problems with Favre unretiring again. It's his career, his body, his legacy. No matter what happens when he wears purple, Favre is still going to end up in Canton.

I love it when the Michael Irvins of the world say Favre should stay put, as if Irvin wouldn't have played longer if he could have. Favre can, and will. And he'll do it with a throwing arm that works this time, as opposed to the torn biceps tendon he played with during the latter part of the '08 season.

I've also got zero problems with Favre signing with the Vikings. Maybe it is personal -- I'm sure he'd love to stick it to Packers management -- but it's also business. If you're Favre, wouldn't you want to play for this team, in that West Coast offense, for that coach, in that division, for that kind of money? He isn't going there to be a ceremonial clipboard holder. He'll start for a team that was favored to go long and far, even before he signed.

Favre is 39 years old. He turns 40 five days after that Monday night game against the Packers. There are going to be times when he looks every bit of those 39/40 years. But Vikings coach Brad Childress, who's no dummy, must think Favre at 40 is better than Sage Rosenfels and Tarvaris Jackson at any age. If it doesn't work, all it will cost the Vikings is money. They'll still have Plan Sage or Plan Tarvaris to fall back on. And the franchise will pocket whatever percentage it made from all the Favre jersey sales.

This is a win-win-lose situation. It's a win for the Vikings: They get an experienced, Hall of Fame quarterback who is familiar with the division and intimately familiar with his former franchise, which just so happens to play in that same division. It's a win for Favre: He gets a playoff-caliber team, a potential Hall of Fame running back (Adrian Peterson), a killer offensive line, an offensive system he knows by memory, a speedy X factor in Percy Harvin, a domed stadium in the dead of winter and another chance to play. It's a loss for the Packers, who were hoping Favre would simply go back to Mississippi and stay there.

Of course, none of this guarantees that the marriage between Favre and the Vikings will live happily ever after. Some Vikings players can't be thrilled that Favre stiffed the team three weeks ago, but is now showing up halfway through training camp. And what happens if he struggles early, or a quarterback controversy unfolds, or if Favre decides he made a mistake? And what happens if he can't beat the Packers? Or the Chicago Bears? Or even the lowly Detroit Lions?

Favre's career has been a long series of risks. That's how he played the game. That's why he retired, unretired, retired and unretired again. Give him this much: He's never been afraid of success or failure, of praise or rip jobs.

Vikings fans are going to love him. Or love the idea of him. For them, it's the best of both worlds. They get an upgrade at quarterback (admittedly, one with some bald spots on the football tires) and they get the possibility of watching Favre beat the archrival Packers on Oct. 5 and maybe again at Lambeau on Nov. 1.

So think of this as the third and final act of Favre's playing career. There was the glorious Packers phase, the inglorious Jets phase and the still-to-be-determined Vikings phase. Whatever goodwill currency he had left with the Packers faithful is spent. There won't be many mixed feelings when he returns to Lambeau; they'll want to see him spend the day on his back.

Favre knows this. He knows there are green-and-gold die-hards who will never forgive him for wearing a Vikings uni. The only thing worse would be seeing him wear the Bears' navy blue. And if Minnesota somehow sweeps the season series against the Pack, or costs Green Bay a playoff spot -- well, then he can probably forget about attending a jersey retirement ceremony anytime soon.

Favre got what he wanted. There could be a reward, but there will definitely be a cost. It's the price you pay for being Fredo.

[MJZiggy]

So, when people ask me how I came up with the name Bretta for my dog....what can I tell them, other than the obvious initial reason?

Isn't Bretta the name of a gun??