OFFICIAL REGGIE THE LIVING, um..., ETERNALLY RESTING LEGEND

[pbmax]

Reggie White said God told him to go in Green Bay and help the poor paper mill workers and lumberjacks. He said he would always be a part of the Packers. Then he retired. ACTUALLY retired for a year, then came back to the Carolina Panthers to protect his sack record from Bruce Smith. That was after Ron Wolf took his first call and told Reggie is was not April 1st anymore and hung up on him.

I did not have an internet forum then to register my entirely black and white -- binary reaction to this betrayal.

It was OK by me.

[Joemailman]

My recollection is that the Packers weren't especially happy with what Reggie did but decided not to make an issue of it. They had let Reggie out of his contract because they thought he wanted to end his career in his home state of Tennessee with the Titans. If they had known he was going to shop himself to other teams, they might have asked for some compensation.

All in all, not a big deal. Now if he had signed with the Vikings....

[Fritz]

I don't know if Reggie believed his own bullshit, but I didn't.

I'm just glad God is a Green Bay fan. But does this mean Brett Favre is going to hell for playing for the Queens?

[MJZiggy]

I don't know if Reggie believed his own bullshit, but I didn't.

I'm just glad God is a Green Bay fan. But does this mean Brett Favre is going to hell for playing for the Queens?

Yes.

[gbgary]

I don't know if Reggie believed his own bullshit, but I didn't.

I'm just glad God is a Green Bay fan. But does this mean Brett Favre is going to hell for playing for the Queens?

Yes.

this!

[bobblehead]

I don't know if Reggie believed his own bullshit, but I didn't.

I'm just glad God is a Green Bay fan. But does this mean Brett Favre is going to hell for playing for the Queens?

Yes.

See MJ, you can reach such simple and obvious conclusions same as me on the packers....why can't we agree in politics?

[Gunakor]

I don't know if Reggie believed his own bullshit, but I didn't.

I'm just glad God is a Green Bay fan. But does this mean Brett Favre is going to hell for playing for the Queens?

There are horns on the sides of his helmet. I'm pretty sure it's a given.

As far as Reggie is concerned, especially as compared to Favre, it's not as simple as just wanting to be let out of his Packer contract. It has more to do with the way it was handled. The tipping point in the Favre saga was when he did Greta IMO. White never used national media to air his gripes. The media will certainly cover a story either way, but one player made it a point to seek out the media as a forum for complaint while the other did not. The difference between media seeking out a player and a player seeking out the media is significant, even moreso than the player's choice of destination.

Though, to be fair, I'm certain White would have caught plenty of flak for choosing the Vikings regardless of how he went about getting there. We Packer fans generally don't appreciate the legends of our franchise jumping the border to play for an archrival.

[Scott Campbell]

Re: OFFICIAL REGGIE THE LIVING, um..., ETERNALLY RESTING LEG

It was a mildly awkward moment for the Packers, and didn't approach the Favre trainwreck status. I never got the feeling that Reggie was acting out of spite.

[gabe]

I most certainly could be wrong, but didn't him donating a ton of money have something to do with his comeback?

[pbmax]

I most certainly could be wrong, but didn't him donating a ton of money have something to do with his comeback?

Maybe. But losing a significant number of donations to his church rebuilding effort in the South probably made people wary of his philanthropic efforts as well. He was clearly imperfect, but didn't seem to suffer from a constant need to explain himself. And that, oddly, seems to have been easier to accept in Packerland. Between the money lost and the trainwreck of a speech to the legislature, I actually came to regard him more fondly than previous incarnation. What he lost in credibility (measurable, but not total) he gained in my estimation by having his heart in the right place (no pun intended) but his brain all over the map. I am, after all, entirely familiar with that condition.

Actually, this thread was intended entirely as a parody of the self-immolation of the Favre thread. But its been fun to think of Reggie again.

The reaction to Brett was clearly going to be different due to his identification as THE Packer of the era. Plus his position at QB. Plus each side tried to win the PR battle and the question of revenge/avoidance. It was tailor made for people to choose up sides. Its too bad it didn't happen more like Reggie's unretirement.

I once wondered why careers like Marino's always seems to end in acrimony or divorce. The answer seems to be that its when each side is sufficiently concerned with their image and power that it becomes less a football decision and more of a standoff.