I would turn around and get an even better job, and feel good about myself for doing so and be the best that I know how to be. That would be my revenge on my old company/boss. And it would be my old companies lose in the end. If someone treated me like crap, would I even go back to a job like that? Nope.

I think companies have to take their "good" hardworking people and pay them what they are worth, but in this day and age they dont do that anymore because you always have someone they can hire for much cheaper, but is it going to be worth it in the end? I dont think so. I would much have an employee show up on time and work their butt off then someone that don't give a crap.

All I can say is, I am glad Brett Favre is being treated great as a Jet, because what can I say hes still a great QB and great leader. I didnt really care where he ended up playing, as long as he got to play somewhere and I could still enjoy him every sunday. All hes ever been about is football. When someone is happy doing what they want to do in life then its worth it. 🙂

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Btw Zero im sure my boss wouldn't try sending me off to some small team that sucked, my Boss would say good luck hope you find a job, kinda like Ted Thompson did with Brett. oops my bad Ted Thompson didnt want to have to face Brett thats right. So like it was said that is apples to oranges. I still believe Ted Thompson wanted Brett out and that won't ever change. I won't rehash on the whole BS situation.

And why are you putting me in with Roddy that is a very low blow. You say im closed minded because i say the Packers would've probably won 2-3 more games if we had Brett. The leadership and confidence he brings to a team can make a difference, perfect example look at the Jets.

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Free Agency helps too, but yeah... I think our record improves this year with Favre, but I don't know about playoffs to be honest. He had a better shot with the Jets and I hope we go a little FA crazy this offseason.

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I like this article.

I still have tremendous respect for the guy and I'm glad he took some time to think about it and didn't go for the 'nasty' way after all.

I, also, still love to see him play. Whenever the Packers aren't playing, I try to pick-up as much as I can from the Jets game.

Before I begin, in full disclosure let me say I'm a Favre fan. Having lived through the hell of the 70s and 80s, I'm fully appreciative of what the team has accomplished since 1992.

With that in mind, I think your scenario is a little off and would like to propose another:

You lead your team to 1 step/1 play away from the Superbowl, carrying the offense through the early part of the season when there was absolutely no running game at all and teams were free to tee off on the passing game. You finish 2nd in the MVP voting. You've had a great year, one of the most enjoyable of your career. There's no reason that you wouldn't want to come back. The season ends, and suddenly the team you've led for the last 16 years tells you plainly that they don't want you back. You've been the Packer's ironman and you don't want to go play for another team. So you tearfully announce your retirement, but immediately have second thoughts. The team does everything it can to encourage you not to come back, announcing retirement ceremonies at the first date available, dismantling your locker. You're really not ready to quit, so you ask the team if they want you back, and the response you get is we've moved on (even though at this point, they really haven't done anything that would preclude taking you back). You watch them draft two quarterbacks in the draft. You start throwing the ball with the local high school team and the itch to play gets stronger. You decide that you want to play bad enough that you'd be willing to play for another team. At this point you're pissed with the GM, feel that you've been manipulated into retiring so that he wouldn't be known as the GM that ran you out of town. What better chance than to sign with a division rival, with the opportunity to compete head-to-head against the Packers twice a year?

My personal opinion is that the above scenario is pretty close to what happened, based on news conferences/statements made by Thompson, McCarthy, Favre this year and last.

During the Dallas game, I think Thompson came to the conclusion that Aaron was ready to start/take over the team. But he faced a delemma. He needed Brett to retire. He couldn't cut Brett or trade him after the future Hall of Fame quarterback had had one of his best years ever.

The last couple of years, as Brett contemplated retirement ad nauseum, (based on their comments in news conferences last year) Ted and Mike would call him and ask him if there were new wrinkles he wanted to incorporate into the offense, things he would like to try, etc.

This year, Mike said that in his phone calls to Brett he emphasized how much preparation was required (how hard it was to get ready for the season). Ted didn't call Brett at all. When the retirement issue blew up and he was later questioned why he didn't call, Ted said that this offseason was different and he didn't need to make the calls. The main difference that I see is that he didn't want Brett back, and making calls might lead to awkward questions or indicate an interest in having Brett back.

Brett's between a rock and a hard place. He's poured his heart and soul into the team only to find out they didn't want him to come back. So he retires, tearfully.

So Thompson's got his ideal situation--Brett retires and Ted gets the quarterback he wants gets to take over the team.

But Brett starts having second thoughts (enough so that the team was looking at sending a plane load of people down to talk to Brett at the end of Mar). McCarthy, in later comments, said that Brett never asked to come back during this period, just asked if the team wanted him back, and he always responded that they'd moved on. I believe Brett's questions were directly related to the signals he had been sent by Ted and Mike, and directly related to his not wanting to force himself back on a team that suddenly didn't want him anymore. But I also believe that Mike's comment is disengenuous. If Brett's asking him during this period "Do you want me back" that has GOT to indicate an interest on Brett's part in coming back. To say that he never said he wanted to un-retire is BS--he's sending clear signals.

At this time, Thompson is almost frantic to keep Brett retired. Brett coming back would ruin everything. Either he would have to bench Rodgers--delaying his development another year and possibly losing him at the end of his contract--or bench/cut/trade Favre, and Ted did NOT want to be known as the GM who benched/cut/or traded Favre.

And we all know the sorry mess it became as it went downhill from there.

My opinion, both sides were to blame. I lay the blame heavily on Thompson/McCarthy early, and heavily on Favre when & after he decided to unretire.

As events unfolded, my little boy kept asking me how could the Packers not want Brett back after last year. I was never able to satisfy him with any of my answers. He still doesn't understand it.

Brett was Mr Green Bay Packer, the persona/personality of the team. It killed me seeing him in a Jets uniform.

I understand Brett's bitterness and desire for revenge. Shoot, I was bitter. But I was really disappointed in how he handled the situation. I lost a fair amount of respect for him.

My opinion, this season was doomed at the start, no matter what happened. Unless the Packers made it to and won the Superbowl, there would be continual "we would have been better with Favre" controversies. No matter what happened with the Jets, there would also be controversy.

Jets make the playoffs, and there would be the "they were 4-12 without Favre last year, and look what they did with Favre this year" comparisons. If the Jets sucked, the Favre supporters (and I consider myself to be one of those) would never forgive Thompson for trading him to a horrible team at the end of his career, where he was doomed to struggle. And the worst scenario would be if Brett gets injured playing for the Jets behind a somewhat suspect offensive line.

Bottomline for me, though, is we need to get over it and move on, otherwise it could end up poisoning the Packer family for years to come. Nothing would please the Bears/Vikings/Lions fans to see us bickering among ourselves for years to come. We need to refocus on our priorities, which MassPackersFan put so elegantly: "Beating the bloody piss out of the Bears (/Vikings/Lions)" and put this whole sorry episode behind us.

I've been trying to move on, but it's hard to do that with it continuing to pop up on the board and so it boiled over. Sorry about the long post.

The big factor you never consider in your long, impassioned, and articulate analysis is the plane the Packers chartered. Are you convinced they lied about that too?

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Are you referring to the one that they had going to the draft? N/m i'm not going back to all the he said, they said BS its done and over with we are stuck with what we have and will have to live with it.

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I didn't say anyone lied. What I said was that I felt it was disengenous to say that Favre hadn't said he wanted to un-retire (McCarthy painting the verbal picture that Favre had not indicated to him that he wanted to come back) when Favre had been asking "do you want me back", which to a reasonable person would indicate he did want to come back.

I believe the Packers told the truth about scheduling the plane. But you need to ask yourself: why would the Packers schedule a plane to go visit him if Favre HADN'T given signs that he wanted to come back.

You can tell the absolute truth, which is what McCarthy did (Favre never explicitly said to him during that period "I want to unretire"), and still paint an inaccurate picture of what happened.

Are you saying that you don't think that Thompson thought Rodgers was ready to start?
Are you saying that you don't think that the only viable solution for Thompson was if Favre retired?
Are you saying that you don't think that Thompson, needing Favre to be gone so Rodgers could start, wouldn't send signals to Favre that the team didn't want him to come back?

I like Ted Thompson. I think he's done a great job turning around the mess he inherited from Mike Sherman. I liked Sherman as a coach, but thought he was running the team into the ground as a GM. We were losing all of our depth. We were OK as long as no one got injured, but if someone got hurt we were in trouble. Now, if someone gets injured, we've got pretty capable backups to step up and take their place at most positions.

Liking the guy and the overall job he's doing doesn't mean I have to like every individual thing he's doing. And it doesn't mean that I should close my eyes to whatever flaws he has. NOBODY is perfect.

And I like Brett. He took us one step away from the Superbowl last year, took us to the Superbowl twice, winning once. You only have to look back at the record over the 20 years before Favre came to see what an achievement it is to have the success we did over the last decade and 1/2.

I'm not taking one side over the other. As I said, I was disappointed in the way Thompson/McCarthy handled it, and I was very disappointed in the way Favre handled it. They combined to put us in a no-win situation that was guaranteed to end badly.

No, there was one at the end of Mar/early Apr where they were going to go down to Miss.

And I agree with you 100%: it's done. We're stuck with it. Let's move on.