It’s terrible being a Green Bay Packers’ fan right now. You have a region divided by those who want Brett Favre to return and those who want to give Aaron Rodgers a chance to be the starting quarterback.
Read that last sentence carefully. There’s not a single Packers’ fan who does not want Brett Favre to return. However, there’s a large percentage of fans who feel that a sense of fair play is in order.
Aaron Rodgers has been the quiet backup for Favre for the past 3 seasons. By all accounts he has a great arm which can lengthen the Packers offense.
No matter which side you stand on, it’s not easy. Brett Favre has done more for the Packers than any other player for that franchise whose last name isn’t Starr.
But as great as Favre played last season, one memory endures, the final play in the playoffs when Favre gambled again and lost badly throwing a terrible interception in the NFC Championship against the Giants.
The real problem is that there are still a large percentage of Americans who root for the underdog. Favre has had his way in Green Bay for a while (translation: about 16 years). He was considered an untouchable, and no matter how much better Rodgers looked in practice than Favre, as long as Favre could walk on the field, Rodgers was on the sidelines. So, for being the good soldier and keeping his mouth shut, Rodgers is now being rewarded by a large percentage of Packers’ fans who feel that it’s time to give him a chance.
The other problem is that there’s a part of Favre that’s difficult to like. It’s the part that led to his getting kicked off the greens at his hometown Hattiesburg Country Club in Hattiesburg, MS when he refused to follow club rules and tuck in his golf shirt. It’s the Favre who made it clear that he didn’t want to have anything to do with mentoring Rodgers. It’s the Favre whose agent Bus Cook captured beautifully when he told reporters after Favre’s formal retirement announcement on March 4, 2008 that, “Nobody pushed Brett Favre out the door but then nobody encouraged him not to go out that door either.”
Huh? So, after all these years, whether Favre plays or not depends on how much Packers management is willing to stroke his ego? Shouldn’t the decision about whether or not to continue playing reside within Favre’s own soul?
And so Favre did what a lot of famous people have done: he was upset that Packers management wasn’t begging him for another season as they had done 2 years ago. He felt “unwanted”, and he reacted emotionally and announced his retirement.
Is Favre allowed to change his mind? Michael Jordan started the trend by “un-retiring”, and then a slew of other athletes followed (with varying degrees of success).
The Packers can say that they’ve completely retooled the offense to take advantage of Rodgers’ abilities. That’s a smokescreen. The season is a good deal away, and if the Packers’ completely threw out their new play book and went back to the old one from last season, does anyone really believe that the players would have more problems remembering last year’s playbook than this year’s brand new one? Please….
Here’s a big problem that the Packers just have to realize, and it’s the single most important reason not to take back Favre: it’s tough to build a strong team that competes every year when the coaching staff can’t plan for more than one year at a time. Even if Favre returns and plays in Green Bay this year, the same scenario and questions about his possible retirement after the 2008 season are going to resurface.
Look at a team like the Patriots, they made a commitment to go with Tom Brady, and Tom Brady made a commitment to be with them for the long haul (translation: he took much less money to give the Patriots cap room to sign quality players to complement him). Coach Bill Belichik and Brady have built tremendous rapport and are able to constantly plan for a few years ahead of the current time.
But when Favre keeps everyone guessing about whether he will retire or not, what does it mean for the Packers? Their coaching staff loses its free time in the off-season, because they have to constantly try and prepare two different playbooks. Management can’t decide on a strategy for the long-term.
Why?
Because as tough as Brett Favre is – and that’s tough – the Packers understand that he’s getting older and more prone to injuries. So, they have to spend more money pulling in offensive lineman who can really protect him as opposed to spending more money on speedy wide receivers who can really stretch the field because of a more consistent deep threat pass from Rodgers. And that affects the rest of the offense, because it means that it’s more difficult for guys to run effective and higher percentage short routes because the defense is cheating and making a pretty educated guess that Favre is not much of a threat to throw an accurate deep pass as he used to be.
In the end, it’s tough not to want Rodgers to get a shot. He’s been a good soldier and that has allowed the Packers to avoid a quarterback controversy the past couple of years.
There are consequences to every action, and once Favre made the emotional decision to retire, he had to accept the consequences that come with that decision.
In many ways, the person to feel sorriest for is Aaron Rodgers. If he does anything short of leading them to the Super Bowl, then the Favre supporters will give him a hell of a hard time. They’ll say, “Well, if Favre was still the QB, we probably would have won the whole thing!!!!”
The same holds true whether Rodgers wins or loses a game during the regular season. If he loses, the Favre fans will say, “Well, if Favre had been here, we would have won that game.” Even when Rodgers wins, Favre fans will say, “Well, if Favre were here, we would have won by 2 more touchdowns.”
For a franchise that has shown tremendous solidarity behinds its star quarterbacks, the Packer fans need this whole drama to end. They need to give Favre a message that no one player should ever hold a team at ransom. If Favre decides to play one more year, that’s just not good enough. The Packers need to be able to plan for 2-3 years at a time.
No matter which way management and Brett Favre go, one thing is for sure: it’s not easy being a Packers’ fan right now.
Keywords: Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre, Green Bay Packers, NFL
