I struggle to believe the notion the Packers would divulge that kind of a comment to a free agent. What do you think about this interaction?

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Maybe they didn’t. Maybe he got the info from Favre himself.

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They shared the same agent so more info was shared due to that I would think

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I don't fully trust Moss, because I feel like he has told different versions of the same story. Including one where he claims Thompson was attempting to explain his expectations to Moss (including letting Driver lead), and Moss claims he hung up the phone because he didn't want to hear it and because after he heard the Patriots were interested, that's where he wanted to be traded too. (Plus Moss was demanding a one year deal, which the Patriots were offering, while the Packers wanted a two year deal).

But I do believe that Thompson always consider whom the Packers positional locker room leaders were, and always attempted to keep them happy and the highest paid, which is why after signing Woodson to the highest Packers DB contract, they redid Harris' contract so that he then got more than Woodson. I also think that's why they released Woodson/Sitton (and maybe Nelson) instead of asking them to take pay cuts.

Unfortunately, I can't find anything about Favre signing anything in that time range. But I think I found where Andrew Brandt wrote that they signed Favre to a 10 year contract in 2001. So it's unlikely he'd be signing an extension in 2007. BUT they got very cap tight in Sherman's years and they often manipulated the cap by having Favre redoing his contract, so he got more guaranteed money and less base contract (the same amount, just spreading it out). So it's possible he could of signed something for the sake of cap adjustments, but the amount Favre was getting was the same (just the guaranteed became more).

Though I sorta doubt Favre was willing to share money with Moss, because I remember one former OL (I want to say it was OG Whale maybe?) and he suggested that why they all loved Favre, he was infamously frugal and wouldn't spend his money on them. Even telling a story where they thought Favre bought all of them a free vacation trip to Mexico, only to realize Favre didn't tell them the whole story... and after spending the night in the hotel, Favre then told them it was an autograph business trip for some rich guy who was paying for all of them and that Favre didn't pay a dime.

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The Packers wanted Randy Moss on a two year deal, Moss refused and wanted a one year deal so he could "prove it" and earn a large contract. The Packers didn't want to give up a draft pick for a rental on a player (I assume here) they weren't sure was the same ole Randy Moss. That took the Packers back and then the Patriots came in with a little sweeter deal and Raiders didn't ask the Packers to beat it and took the deal. I've often read that the Raiders just shunned the Packers, but thinking about it more, the Patriots may have said "take it now or leave it" and Raiders took it.

I struggle to believe Donald Driver (remember his later years here) would have balked at Randy Moss making more than him.

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I think the negotiations problems were with Randy Moss, and not the Raiders. The Raiders probably would of prefer Moss be in the NFC, so I highly doubt they shunned the Packers (unless Al Davis had some personal beef).

I think the biggest problem was that Randy Moss had leverage, in that he had a two years and 21 million left on his current contract, that no one was going to paid at that time. So teams had to negotiate with Moss on a reduced contract.

Here is an article by Andrew Brandt (who I believe a lot more than Randy Moss). First Brandt agrees that Randy's contract amount was a problem, and then claims the deal breaker was the contract length as Moss was demanding a one year deal... Patriots gave him the one year offer, the Packers stuck with two year offer.




I agree, Driver probably wouldn't as long as it made the team better. But I think it is (or was) Packers management general locker room management philosophy, and a specific player (in this case, Driver) opinion would not be asked or considered, as they would stick with their philosophy, that they believe the guy they want leading the position group, should be the highest paid.

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I do recall some talk at the time, that Moss would have to show respect to DD as a team leader. Bottom line is, Bert was making a power play. He wanted to show he was running the team. Fortunately we had an all time great GM in place who knew how to conduct business.

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Maybe Brett offered to renegotiate but no way did Moss go to Boston because of DD. The Brandt story sounds familiar.

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