The fact Brett Favre asked for his release from the Packers is not a surprise. What would be a huge surprise is if the Packers granted Favre his wish.
The reason the Packers will not give Favre his freedom is simple. His team of choice is Minnesota, in my opinion, in large part because Vikings offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell is a good friend of Favre's dating back to the three years (2003-05) Bevell was his quarterback coach in Green Bay. If Favre and agent Bus Cook, who, according to ESPN.com on Friday asked the Packers for Favre's unconditional release, believe that the Packers will allow him to go free so he can sign with Minnesota, they're crazy.
Now, this IS nothing more than Peter King's opinion. . .but if one man has done a more inordinate share of Favre butt-kissing over the years than any of the others, it would be Peter King.
King's right, though. . .there's absolutely, positively no way that Green Bay is just going to release Favre so that he can sign with Minnesota, and there's absolutely, positively no way that there's going to be a trade worked out between the two teams for him.
However, if Favre is serious about this comeback thing, there's one move that he can make to force the Packers' hand. Per NFL.com's Adam Schefter:
To be reinstated off the reserve/retired list, all Favre would have to do is simply send written notification to the Packers and the NFL of his intentions to play.
From the moment the league receives the letter, it would give the Packers approximately 24 hours to either activate or release Favre, an NFL spokesman confirmed Thursday.
Green Bay also could opt to activate Favre, then stash him on their 80-man roster until it was able to trade him. But Favre -- who was placed on the NFL's reserve/retired list the day before April's draft -- cannot be blocked from attending Packers' training camp.
Thus Favre controls whether he returns, and the Packers control where he returns.
So. . .THIS is what it's like to just sit back and watch another team go through an off-season of drama. I could get used to this sort of thing.
This is the sort of thing that has the potential to rip apart the Green Bay locker room, and it's all music to my ears. There are apparently players in Green Bay that are talking about getting "their quarterback" back. . .and by "their quarterback," they don't mean "Aaron Rodgers." The front office is apparently attempting to move on, what with handing things over to Rodgers and spending a second-round pick on Louisville QB Brian Brohm in April.
This leads me, once again, to one of the reasons that I outlined the other day for not wanting any part of Brett Favre on this football team, and something that the folks at The Viking Age summed up quite succinctly. Brett Favre, quite simply, does not love Green Bay as much as Green Bay fans love him. Period.
The man's an attention whore and a drama queen. He always has been. He always will be. Brett Favre has always. . .ALWAYS. . .been about Brett Favre, first and foremost. The entire Green Bay franchise has bowed to his will and bent over backwards to give him whatever he's wanted since he got to Wisconsin, and now that they've basically told him that his services are no longer needed, he's going to take the ever-popular "stomp my feet and cry until I get what I want" approach.
Honestly, do you know what the difference between Brett Favre and God is? God doesn't think he's Brett Favre.
And if I'm Aaron Rodgers and they bring this guy back, the first thing I do is pick up the phone and give a call to my agent, and the first words out of my mouth are "I'm sick of this crap." Not that I think that Aaron Rodgers is a great QB or is ever going to be a great QB, but for all the drama that Favre has caused, nobody has been more affected by it than he has. I can't even imagine. . .one minute, it would be "Okay, kid, we're going to move on, and you're going to be the starter." And the next minute it would be "Okay, Aaron, here's your clipboard."
I don't want that crap on our team, in our team's locker room, in our stadium, in our front office, in our city, or in our state. I am hoping and praying with all the energy I can muster that the Packers find a way to trade Favre somewhere else so that there's no chance of him coming here. There are 30 other NFL teams out there, and of all the teams in the league, the chances that we could get him through any means other than him getting outright released have to be pretty much nil. THOSE are odds I can live with.
Get your popcorn ready. I have a feeling that this drama is just getting to the best part. . .and, boy, I hope we get a happy ending out of this. And by "happy ending," what I mean is "a trade to any team in the league that doesn't play their home games at the Metrodome."
That's all for tonight, folks. . .we'll see you here over the course of the weekend.