The Green Bay Packers' Management Needs To Wake Up!

Derek Lofland, NFL director for Fantasy Football Maniaxs.com

Since this annoying story broke at the beginning of July, I have tried to maintain the position that Brett Favre made a mistake by retiring early in March.

It would be wise for the Packers to try to make the best of a difficult position and either accommodate their legendary quarterback by bringing him back to the roster or trading him as soon as possible.

“As soon as possible” has since passed, and I am now at the point where I believe that if I were going to assign blame in this situation, I would say the Packers' management is 75 percent to blame, and that Brett Favre is about 25 percent.

The longer this story keeps dragging out, the more I am swayed into raising that percentage of blame on the Green Bay Packers. Here is my list of things that I think the Green Bay Packers have completely mishandled in this trying situation.

1) The Packers did not encourage Brett Favre to comeback in March

It is abundantly clear that the Packers did not really care one way or the other whether Brett Favre came back in February. They have moved on way too quickly and are way too comfortable with Aaron Rodgers at this point for that to be a credible idea. That is something I will expand on a little later when I discuss mishandling No. 5.

I want to be clear on something. I am not accusing Ted Thompson of telling Brett Favre that he did not want the quarterback on the Packer roster in 2008 and that he had to retire.

What I am saying is that I believe he did absolutely nothing to convince him to stay. He gave him the bear amount of encouragement to come back. He communicated to Favre’s camp that the Packers were lukewarm to the idea of him returning, and that they just wanted a decision one way or the other to be made as soon as possible.

People that disagree with me will point out that before the draft, the Packers were willing to take a private jet to Mississippi and bring him out of retirement, and that Brett Favre is the one that canceled and changed his mind.

My counter to that would be that around the same time Favre was telling Mississippi papers that he might consider coming back if the Packers asked him and Aaron Rodgers had gotten hurt.

Favre may have changed his mind because the Packers had not demonstrated that they were fully committed to him, and he had reservations about what his role would be with the organization.

At the time, my position was that Favre shouldn’t be making comments like that because it was speculation for the sake of speculating. Knowing what I know now, why would he have been saying that if there wasn’t some truth to the fact that the Packers had already moved on before he retired?

He was saying things in the papers within a month of retiring. Favre has been waffling. The Packers, in particular Ted Thompson, have not been honest. I don’t know exactly what to believe about why they were going to Mississippi for in March. For all I know, it could have been to convince him to stay in retirement or to come back as the second stringer.

This whole sob story that the Packers wanted him back until after the draft is nothing more than a public-relations position. When Favre had ankle surgery last season and couldn’t fully participate at the minicamps, I didn’t hear Ted Thompson complain once that this vital missed practice time would set the Packers back for the season.

I haven’t heard Tony Dungy say that Jim Sorgi will start the season at quarterback for the Colts in 2008 because the team can’t go on with a Peyton Manning that didn’t play in training camp.

The Packers want to spin it that they wanted Favre back all along but his waffling and indecision became too much, so they had no choice but to go down this road. They will try to spin it that they are past the point of no return. There is no way they are even close to the point of no return.

Not one game has been played since he retired, and Favre wouldn’t have missed a day of training camp if the Packers were not dragging their feet. Their actions and reasoning over the last four months are not very consistent with the view that they would have loved to have him back in March.

2) The Packers have been dragging their feet since June 20

All I keep hearing is that the Packers just need more time to come to a resolution. They need time to make a trade. Favre contacted the Packers on June 20, 2008, to inform them that he was seriously considering coming back.

It has been five weeks, going on six. Why has no progress been made? This isn’t baseball, where Favre has a no-trade clause. Call a team, propose a deal, and trade him already.

The answer to that question is very simple.

Ted Thompson doesn’t want Brett Favre to play for the Green Bay Packers. However, he doesn’t want Brett Favre to play for another team. The best answer for the Packers is for Brett Favre to stay retired. The Packers are so steadfast in that position that according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Packers are willing to pay Favre $20 million over a number of years for him to stay retired and play for no one.

That isn’t a fair position. If the Packers don’t even want him in their camp, he deserves to be able to play with someone that does want his services.

People will say that nobody had sympathy for Chad Johnson when he wanted out of Cincinnati. Why should Favre be allowed to just leave Green Bay?

Again, the answer is very simple.

The Bengals want to put Chad Johnson on the field as their starter. Johnson wanted to go to another team. Brett Favre wants to be allowed to come to camp. He wants to play for the Packers, but the Packers don’t want him. However, they don‘t want him in anyone else‘s camp either. That’s ludicrous.

The Packers are hoping that if they bury their head in the sand, that when they pull it back out, Brett Favre will have gone away. It isn’t going away. He has filed reinstatement papers and has said he would for the last month. It is time to take meaningful action.

3) The Packers are demanding a first-round pick as compensation

Who are the Packers kidding?

The Packers publicly stated that they can’t change course because the team is committed to Aaron Rodgers and are past the point of no return. This is the path they have chosen and they need to stay on it.

Favre has played 253 consecutive games and the Packers are past the point of no return, but if he were to go to a new team and a new offense, he would be worth first-round compensation?

This is sound reasoning.

No team is going to give up a first-round pick for a 38-year old player that has never been in their system and may only want to play one more year. The Packers are not dealing from a position of strength.

The other 31 teams know the Packers are in a bind. They know the Packers will tire of this headache. The Packers are out of their mind if they think they are getting first-round compensation, and Ted Thompson knows this.

He is asking, in Favre’s words, for a “king’s ransom”, hoping that the problem will just go away on its own. This is nothing more than a public-relations stand so that the Packers can plead with their fans that they tried to trade Favre but couldn’t find a deal.

That also leads to another point.

If Aaron Rodgers is that good and Brett Favre doesn’t have anything left in the tank, then why are the Packers willing to pay Favre $20 million to play for nobody? What is he really going to do to you on another team? What are they that afraid of?

If it’s worth $20 million to have him stay retired, it should at least be worth $12.5 million to keep him on your team and compete for the starting job.

The Packers' contradicting positions when it comes to wanting to start Rodgers vs. their view of Favre’s value in compensation and fear of playing for another team are such polar opposites that it boggles the mind as to what is going through the collective heads of the Packers' management.

4) The Packers flip-flop on wanting Favre back

Here is a sample of comments by Ted Thompson:

Thompson to the AP on Saturday, July 12, 2008: We've communicated that to Brett, that we have since moved forward," Thompson told the AP on Saturday. "At the same time, we've never said that there couldn't be some role that he might play here. But I would understand his point that he would want to play."

Thompson to ESPN on July 13, 2008: "It's not accurate," Thompson said of the AP report that Favre would come back as a backup. "We don't know what role that would be. He can come back as an active member of the Green Bay Packers."

Thompson press conference on July 28, 2008 speaking about where things were with Favre: “We have sort of agreed to disagree, and at that time he suggested he would probably delay coming to training camp for at least a couple of days to see how things worked out.

He asked me to present to you guys at some point, and I think now is an appropriate time, his reasoning behind that. His reasoning behind that is he cares very much about this team, cares about these players, his former teammates, so he doesn't want to do anything to disrupt from that.” (How is he welcome back to a team if the Packers are his former teammates?)

Thompson press conference on July 28, 2008, when asked if the Packers wanted Brett Favre back: “There are a lot of different scenarios and Brett and I talked about that. That's one scenario, where he comes back. We've said all along, we've never changed our message in this regard, that with his retirement and subsequent affirmation of that retirement, we have made a commitment to move forward.

He understands that. I'm not saying he's in total agreement, but as a football guy, he understands that, and that's where we are. What does that mean? Does that mean he comes back in a different role or something like that? That would just be determined as we go forward.”

Green Bay Press Gazette article on July 29, 2008: A source told the Press-Gazette that Murphy will meet Wednesday morning with Favre and his agent, Bus Cook, at Cook’s law office in Hattiesburg, Miss. “They’re asking him not to come up there,” the source said. “They don’t want him up there.”

I could make an entire book of quotes and positions, but I think you get the picture. The Packers are trying to take two stances. Ted Thompson doesn’t want to be perceived as the man that ran Brett Favre out of town.

Therefore, there are these comments that Favre would be welcomed back to the organization. However, it is clear they don’t want him back, and they don’t want him to report to camp. You don’t send the Packers' president to Mississippi to tell "No. 4" to stay there for $20 million if you wanted him back.

But they don’t want to release him, and they don’t want to trade him. They are hoping that if they make this as difficult and painful as possible, that he will just go away.

It is my opinion that the Packers believed that if they said Favre could come back as the backup, then he would never be open to that and he would stay in Mississippi. That way they could run him out of Green Bay without looking like they ran him out. They overplayed their hand, and now they have this PR nightmare. It is an absolute blunder and a stupid calculation.

5) The Packers won’t let him compete for the job

This is the most confusing part of the entire scenario. I understand that Brett retired. We can debate what his motives were for doing so, whether he was right or wrong to do that, and what effect that had on the Packers.

We can debate how the Packers should be reacting to that. I understand the wide range of opinions from "Favre can do no wrong" to "Favre’s antics have become annoying".

Favre has brought that upon himself with his stand-up play that adores him to fans and his waffling retirement that has become an annoyance to others. He made that bed and he has to live in it.

The problem is that people are allowing their emotions to cloud their common sense. The NFL is a league of competition. The goal of every team is to put the best 53-man roster together to win that season’s Super Bowl.

Al Harris is the starting cornerback from last season and this year heading into camp he holds that same position. But if someone beat him out by playing better in camp and preseason games, Al Harris would be demoted to the second cornerback spot or the nickel.

Quarterback is a different position than anything else in sports because it is not only a position of skill, but of chemistry and leadership. The intangibles are often what determine the fate of a signal caller.

Skill-wise, there is little difference between Jeff George and the quarterbacks in the Hall of Fame. The intangibles were the difference. You can’t yank a quarterback because he has a bad start or go with the backup because he had a good week of practice.

It isn’t a position that can be evaluated on play-by-play performance. Doing so is a recipe for disaster and has proven to be so time and time again.

That being said, you also have to earn the job and earn your job security. This isn’t like some high schools where you become a senior and thus earn your turn by the date on your birth certificate. You have to prove you are able to handle the job.

The list of quarterbacks that are in that position are as follows: Tom Brady, Marc Bulger, Matt Hasselbeck, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Donovan McNabb, Carson Palmer, Ben Roethlisberger, and Tony Romo.

That is nine guys out of 32. Those nine guys will not lose their job, no matter how poorly they play in camp or how great their backup plays.

The other 23 guys have varying degrees of safety, from Rex Grossman, who has absolutely none, to a guy like Jon Kitna, who would be pretty hard pressed to lose his job. But if Detroit’s No. 2 man blew up camp and Kitna stunk, don’t think for a minute that the Lions would not change course with the snap of a finger.

The above list of quarterbacks is distinguished. Super Bowl Championships, Super Bowl appearances, League MVP awards, Super Bowl MVP awards, Pro Bowl appearances, 30-touchdown-pass seasons, 4,000-yard-passing seasons, and NFL record holders.

Then you have Aaron Rodgers, who brings his 59 career passes to the list. Why is Aaron Rodgers in the group of nine and not 23? Someone explain to me what he has done to earn job security?

In my opinion, if Brian Brohm blew up in camp and looked like the better quarterback, the Packers should go with him to start the season. Rodgers’ service as a backup will be rewarded by a NFL paycheck. He is not entitled to a guaranteed starting job because of that service.

Critics of that point of view will say that allowing Favre to compete for the job would make the Packers look hypocritical, that they would be going back on their word.

Let me ask this.

If Tom Brady suddenly was disgruntled with Patriot’s management and demanded a trade today and listed the Packers as his No. 1 destination, I guess the Packers couldn’t entertain that trade because bringing in Brady would go back on this golden covenant that Packer management made with Aaron Rodgers.

If the Chargers called and said they would trade L.T. for Rodgers, straight up, the Packers couldn’t entertain that trade, because they owe Rodgers their word. It just wouldn’t be fair to make him a backup in San Diego because NFL football isn’t about putting the best product on the field. It’s about relationships and being true to your word. It’s about caring for one another and always obeying the golden rule.

Please!

Promises change as situations change in professional sports. That is part of the business. It’s that simple. If Aaron Rodgers can’t handle that, he should get out of Dodge. So far, he has handled the situation perfectly and deserves nothing but applause.

I’ll tell you how I would handle the situation if I were Ted Thompson. I would call Aaron Rodgers in my office. I would say, “Son, back in March when our starter retired we made a decision based on what we had on our roster that you would be the most qualified player on our roster to be the starting quarterback of the Green Bay Packers in 2008.

Recent developments have allowed us to reacquire our previous starting quarterback who was second in the MVP voting last year. We think we would be foolish not to see if this guy puts our team in the best position to win. He will be reporting to camp to compete with you for the starting job of the Green Bay Packers. It will be a fair competition.

If we determine you are the most capable player to lead the Packers going forward, then you will be awarded the starting job. You should have every advantage to do so as you have been working with these guys throughout the offseason and we have been impressed with your performance. We have confidence you will be our starter. In the event No. 4 outperforms you, we will be going in a different direction. Good luck.”

Then I would call Brett Favre into my office. I would say, “This organization is grateful for the 16 years of service you have given it. It has been a very successful era of Packer football. The past is the past. Your retirement forced us to go in a different direction this offseason and we have another gentleman who we believe can lead this team going forward.

However, based on your terrific play last season, and previous years of outstanding service, we would be crazy not to at least consider you for the job. We would love you to go to camp and see if you are still the best man for the job. In order to win this competition, you will have to clearly be the better player.

If you are clearly better, you will be our starter in Week One. If it is a tie, the nod goes to Rodgers. In that event, you will be the backup or released based on what we determine is in the best interest of the Green Bay Packers. Because of the difficult position your retirement has put us in the last couple years, we can no longer consider your starting streak of great importance.

If you play badly in the regular season or the team plays badly in the regular season, and all hopes for the playoffs are lost, we will bench you and evaluate the younger guys. Based on your tendency to waffle, we have to be prepared for the fact that one year you might not get the itch back to play.

You are a flight risk in our minds, and we have to know what we have besides you to protect ourselves going forward. We will not be put in this ridiculous position again. If you are okay with that scenario, we will see you in camp tomorrow. If you aren’t, we understand, but you should stay retired. Thank you and good luck.”

Unfortunately that will not happen because that would involve checking your ego at the door, common sense, and leadership. Those are three qualities that Ted Thompson has demonstrated that he severely lacks in this ordeal.

While Brett Favre is my no means a saint, nor has he handled this situation perfectly, it doesn’t entirely surprise me. It’s hard enough to figure out what goes on in the minds of professional athletes. They are a different breed. To figure out what goes on in the mind of a player that hasn’t missed a start in 16 years is borderline impossible.

I gave up on understanding Brett Favre a long time ago, and that is one of the things I have always liked about him. He is one of a kind. In a sports world where so many of the personalities are the same bland thing, he is refreshingly unique. That’s why some people love him and others don’t.

While I had hoped he would be able to walk away from the game cleanly, it doesn’t surprise me that a guy that played through broken thumbs, bum ankles, pinched nerves, family tragedy, and countless other obstacles would be this hard to get off the field.

It is obvious that unless Favre wins a Super Bowl in his final game, he will continue to chase the goal no matter what his body or mind tells him in March.

All I know is that while I am disappointed with some aspects of how Brett Favre has handled this, I am growing more tired of the Packers' management on a daily basis. This is a circus because of their incompetent handling of this situation.

Imagine an athlete not behaving the way management would like. The gall. The nerve. It’s time for the Packers to put the past four months behind them and deal with the situation in front of them. It is time for them to stop wishing a different situation existed and deal with it.

They need to go back and remember their goal as an organization. It isn’t to stroke their ego. It isn’t to make Aaron Rodgers feel loved and wanted. It is to put the best 53-man roster together for 2008. It is to act like you are running a professional football team and not a country club.

Ted Thompson’s job certainly isn’t to make stupid comments like this. This is my favorite exchange from his July 28, 2008 press conference:

Ted Thompson: “Again, I thought it was important for me to be perfectly honest with Brett that we have started down this path and it doesn't make sense for us to turn around and go back now. We have to continue down this path. Where that leads, I don't know, but I didn't want to be dishonest or disingenuous and say okay, we can do this and then change our mind. I think Brett Favre deserves more than that, so we told him the way we felt.”

Reporter: “But why do you have to continue down this path? Why not let him back and say the best quarterback wins?”

Ted Thompson: “We believe that this is the path that we should be on. We believe this is the best thing in the best interest of the organization, both in the short term and the long term.”

Is that for real? Did he really say that? Who is going to respect that?

The players certainly won’t when they start the season 1-3. The fans aren’t going to buy that in December when the team is out of playoff contention. He doesn’t even know where the path leads, but he believes it’s in the best interest of the franchise both short term and long?

Would you let that man run your business?

I certainly wouldn’t let someone take me down a path that he doesn’t even have the foggiest notion where it leads. I would be infuriated at someone that did that when arguably the most certain thing in the business is filing reinstatement papers and is ready to join the mix.

Ted Thompson doesn’t even know where the path leads and he won’t even let Favre report to camp to compete for the job? That takes brass, son.

Keep it simple.

The goal in the NFL is to put your team in the best possible position to compete for the playoffs and hopefully the Super Bowl. If they keep that goal in mind, the players will respect whatever decision is made.

This turmoil, no matter how big it seems now, shall pass. If they don’t make winning the priority, they are going to have one of the biggest NFL disasters in recent memory. I’m betting on the disaster.

They say the path to Hell is paved with good intentions.

I can only imagine where Ted Thompson’s Path of Bad Intentions will take the Packer Nation. Buckle up, Green Bay. This is going to be a bumpy ride.