Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that Packers quarterback Brett Favre has signed a letter requesting reinstatement, but that Favre might not send it until Monday or Tuesday.
Per Mort, Favre says that G.M. Ted Thompson “pleaded” with Favre to give the team more time to figure out the situation.
“I asked Ted [Saturday], ‘Am I welcome in the building if I report?’ and Ted was just about shattered,” Favre said. “He said, ‘Brett, you can’t do that — you’ll get me fired.’ I told him I’m not trying to get anybody fired. So Ted asked me to let the guys report and let’s try to resolve this over the next two or three days.”
Favre also said he’s getting pressure from his agent, Bus Cook, and his wife, Deanna, to move forward.
“Deanna, Bus, everyone here [in Mississippi] says, ‘You’re so stupid, letting [the Packers] play you like this,” Favre said. “They want me to get in there now. I may wait until Tuesday or so.”
Favre also said that he asked Thompson to let him genuinely compete for the starting job in Green Bay.
“I said, ‘Let me compete, you’ll know I’ll win this job’ and Ted said again, ‘Brett, things have changed. Aaron Rodgers is our quarterback.’ It’s pretty clear — and this is what I told the commissioner — that they want me to go away, stay retired. They would much rather see me in a Packers’ uniform, paying me $12 million to be a backup — which you know they really don’t want — rather than see in another uniform, no matter what they say. They’ll drag this out, asking a king’s ransom [in a trade], hoping it all goes away.”
And so the situation, which seemed two days ago to be destined to resolve amicably, is getting uglier. If Favre is portraying his call with Thompson accurately (and it’s possible that Favre is exaggerating, to put it kindly), the Packers are backed into a corner, and it very well could be that their only options are to genuinely welcome him back, or let him walk.
Finally, these latest developments make Taco Bill’s newest offering even more appropriate.
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July 27th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I worked with a Packer fan, and the level of guy love for Favre was odd to say the least. I cannot blame the Packers at this point, with the yearly will he/won’t he retirement drama. The Pack has to look to the future to avoid a Miami scenario where they are still looking for Dan Marino’s replacement.
If the Bucs do end up with him, they better make the trade conditional upon him playing out the last 2 years of his contract, meaning they trade a 2010 draft pick. For 2 full years, I’d give up a 1st. For one year, no more than a 3rd. Way it is now, think they’d only be bidding against themselves, ’cause here’s a shocker: I don’t think Favre knows what he wants to do.
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Rating: 3.2 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
“As The Packers Turn” continues. Yup, this would make one hell of a reality show, that’s for sure.
On a sad note: This has tarnished everything Brett has done in his career, and The Packers as an organization. I’m not a Packer fan, but you hate to see this kind of thing happen. You don’t have to be a fan of a team to respect them.
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Rating: 3.65 / 5 with 11 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Oh right, he plays his games with the Packers for 6 years, and bigtime for the last 3 years and they’re upset the Packers are “playing Brett” ?
And somehow I doubt Ted Thompson would have told Farve he was in danger of losing his job over this.
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Rating: 3.5 / 5 with 10 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
If I recall correctly, Favre said in an interview with SI back in January that kids at his daugther’s school told her ” Your dad stinks.
“. I think she’ll hear some even worse insults in September.
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Rating: 3.45 / 5 with 9 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
The time for Favre to decide if he wanted to play football was months ago. By initially deciding not the play, Favre enabled the Packer moved forward not just in terms of establishing Rogers as the starting QB, but also in their financial structure. By believing that Favre was done, Green Bay had an extra $12 million in salary cap for 2008 to use to sign other players; now, if Favre comes back the Packers now have a huge extra sum of cash to pay out.
I’m not a Packers fan, I don’t even live in Wisconsin, but what Favre is doing is the most selfish act that I’ve seen in professional sports, ever. He’s holding his hopefully former franchise hostage because of his indecisiveness and selfishness.
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Rating: 3.15 / 5 with 15 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
It’s been obvious from the beginning that TT hasn’t wanted him around since the end of the 06 season. Just more proof of that coming out now.
Either let him compete for the starting job or release him TT. I think your true colors are starting to show through.
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Rating: 3.3 / 5 with 19 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
I hate all the coverage that Favre-Gate gets.
That being said, if he actually gets to play in Minnesota…wow. That week 1 game in Lambeau will be incredible. I would probably pay $2000 for a ticket.
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 10 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
I’m not a Packer fan but I WAS a fan Farve until the past month. It’s a shame really, he’s nothing more than an annoyance at this point.
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Rating: 3.8 / 5 with 15 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Someone please tell Favre to zip it. He’s told so many conflicting stories he sounds like Bill Clinton. Is he above the league? Going to Goodell was like a school boy going to his teacher and saying, “If I have to play on Mikie’s dodgeball team, I’m not going to play.”
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Rating: 2.8 / 5 with 11 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
THIS WHOLE THING IS BECAUSE OF THE MADDEN CURSE, DON’T YOU GET IT!?
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Rating: 4.75 / 5 with 13 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
what can the commissioner do? Favre has a legal binding contract with the Packers. Let him ride the pine and pay him, or trade him for whatever they can get, and if he doesn’t report, it’s on him
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Rating: 3.45 / 5 with 7 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
The best move for the Packers at this point is to shop Farve for a couple of lower round draft choices, hopefully to entice a team out of their division to take a flyer on him. If no other team is willing to cough up draft picks for Farve in the next couple weeks, go ahead and release him. Farve has disrespected the Packers with all of this waffling and manipulation, and to bring him back to the regular roster would be a huge distraction for the team right now.
If he gets released and ends up with the Vikings, so be it-let them deal with the headache of a primma donna personality that the once-likable Farve has morphed into.
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Rating: 3.5 / 5 with 6 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
WOW. With that one quote, Thompson just lost ALL of his trading leverage. LMFAO! “You’ll get me fired?!?!?
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Rating: 3.25 / 5 with 8 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Mike McCarthy called Favre a liar in almost so many words yesterday. He said something like “My recollection of that conversation is different from Brett’s.”
White trash people don’t play mind games very well. Favre is now demonstrably full of 5h!7. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let him end up with the Queens.
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Rating: 2.15 / 5 with 7 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Hey Florio……..
Why not put up another clock to see how long this site can go without a Favre story. At this point, he has lost any and all credibilty on whatever tripe comes out of his mouth.
I would imagine that the clock should be in minutes/seconds as opposed to days like the “Turd Watch”
Being a lifelong Packer fan, I am sooooo F%CK8ng over this dickH$ad diva. FAVRE…JUST GO THE F^CK AWAY. Your like the cling-on girlfriend/boyfriend that just won’t walk off into the sunset. Any chance that the Pack can file internet/phone stalking charges on this moron?
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Rating: 2.7 / 5 with 12 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
As an eagles fan ,who doesnt really care what happens either way with brett farve, i have stayed mostly quiet on this circus. At first i thought it was stupid for farve to come back and start all this drama after they already got aaron rodgers in line. But now im starting to see if differently, this Ted Thomson GM is obviously a real moron. “Bret please dont come back or ill get fired”? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! Let the man compete or trade him away. If hes retired u wouldnt get anything from him, atleast he can bring u a 3rd and a 5th, or maybe even a 2nd from a desperate team.
And if the cell phone thing isnt true, they should clear that up publicly. Also, when Bret does get traded and starts the season somewhere, hes gonna realize it was a mistake. See: MJ (post bulls).
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Rating: 3.15 / 5 with 6 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Has anyone ever seen Ted Thompson display any type of emotion? While I’m sure he’d like to avoid Favre showing up, I have a hard time picturing Thompson “begging” Favre to spare his job.
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Rating: 2.85 / 5 with 9 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
“I said, ‘Let me compete, you’ll know I’ll win this job’”
You stay classy, Brett!
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Rating: 3.2 / 5 with 9 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
After reading the ESPN article….what I want to know is……why is he admitting he even KNOWS who Matt Millen is?????
1) I would never admit THAT.
2) Now he is going to get my (sad until this year) team into a (dumb) debate about trading for him……even if that is impossible…..
Who knows. Maybe that was just to throw everyone off. ” I talk to Childress / Millen all the time….you think I want to play for the Lions??? Of course not…. Same with the Vikings….”
How does he know Millen anyway??? From the booth???
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Rating: 2.15 / 5 with 6 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
he who talks the most is lying the majority of the time. it’s highly doubtful thompson would have given favre such naive ammo by that statement. he’s become a retired/unretired/retired/unretired arrogant, bipolar disgrace. shut up favre, go away.
go packers!
fan_of_football, it’s favre that’s not willing to compete, not thompson. they’ve offered him the right to come to training camp. as stated many times already, favre said he shouldn’t have to nor is he willing to compete for the job.
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Rating: 2.5 / 5 with 8 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Don’t see the Pack paying him $12 mill to sit on the bench. Time for them to just cut bait…
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Rating: 3.2 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
The commissioner and the Packers need to realize before they make anymore decisions that NO player is bigger than a team or the league. Brett Favre doesn’t deserve preferential treatment from the commish, he needs to just hang’em up and stop with his attention-whoring ways. Like someone previous already said, Brett has a contract, he he wants to play bring him back as the backup, all he really cares about is his consecutive starts record, sitting the bench for one game would break his will and force his hand. I am a Vikings fan and even if it would make us better I would never welcome Brett Favre to our team…
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Rating: 3.65 / 5 with 9 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
From Favre’s remarks it would seem TT is scared of losing his job if Favre comes back. But wouldn’t TT lose his job if Favre leaves and Aaron Rodgers turns out to suck? Seems like TT is betting on Rodgers over a HoF’er. Even with the problems of will-he-or-won’t-he-retire… that’s a stupid bet.
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Rating: 3.7 / 5 with 7 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
If Brett asked to compete for the job, then he should be allowed to in my opinion. Now he’s finally doing the right thing.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 9 rating(s)
July 27th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Favre is being pretty classless, but I still don’t understand why the Packers wont just cut him. If he ends up in Minnesota so be it, you can’t have your cake and eat it too, if you don’t want him on your team, let him go to whatever team he wants.
If Favre signed with Minnesota or Chicago, it would actually be a GOOD THING for the Packers. Playing for a division rival would be a slap in the face to fans who still call themselves fans of both the Pack and Favre.
While you can claim that the players do not have to be fans of the team they play for, Favre and the Pack have spent a great deal of time trying to convince us that Favre will always be part of the family/a packer. If Favre truly considers himself a cheesehead for life, he would not dare play for a division rival.
Cut him, if he plays for a division rival, hes a traitor.
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