There are conflicting reports and suggestions about whether quarterback Brett Favre can accept the team’s proposed multi-million-dollar “marketing” deal and still play football for another team in 2008.

Per the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Favre can have his Packers cake and poop on it, too.  The Journal-Sentinel reports that Packers president Mark Murphy broached the subject of a long-term post-football deal with Favre at the time he retired, and that one of the purposes of Murphy’s Wednesday trip to Mississippi was to finalize the arrangement.

Writes Tom Silverstein of the Journal-Sentinel:  “He told Favre and his agent, James ‘Bus’ Cook, that the deal was on the table regardless of whether Favre decided to come back.”

But Favre, in the longest text message ever written, strongly implied to ESPN’s Ed Werder that taking the money would likewise end Favre’s effort to return to the gridiron. 

“There isn’t a perfect solution to this, but Mark Murphy’s at least trying,” Favre thumb-typed to Werder.  “We know what they want and where I stand.  His solution, although awkward and unsettling for most, may be the best in the end.  My intentions have been to play, and with Green Bay.  They say no.  So I still want to play in this division for obvious reasons, which I made clear to management.  If they won’t let me play in Green Bay, let me play against you.”

Translation:  “I only want to play for the Packers, Vikings, Bear, or Lions.  But if they want to pay me $20 million not to, I just might take them up on it.”

And so it appears to us that the Packers are putting out bogus facts about the marketing deal, in order to avoid the negative P.R. hit that surely would come from the perception that they are buying Favre off.  Indeed, the Journal-Sentinel article includes an express acknowledgement that ”[a]n NFL source who wanted the Packers’ side to be explained said Murphy’s financial offer was wrongly being portrayed as a bribe.”

If Favre takes the money and doesn’t play, it’s being accurately portrayed as a bribe.  Because it is a bribe. 

Do the Packers think we’re all stupid? 

If this was a deal that the team first proposed in March, why did it take five months for the team to attempt to finalize the thing?  And why were the efforts to do so made on the eve of Favre forcing the team’s hand by returning to the field?

Clearly and obviously, the Packers are caught in a bad situation.  And they’re trying to buy their way out of it.  And Favre apparently is preparing to let them do it.