I understand the Green Bay Packers position. Really, I do.
And I agree that Brett Favre seems to love the drama and that he put the Packers in a bad position with his retirement flip-flop this off-season.
That being said, the Packers are wrong. Ted Thompson is wrong. Mark Murphy is wrong. Mike McCarthy is wrong.
Somewhere along the line, the relationship between Favre and, specifically, Thompson became personal. There is no doubt that Favre doesn’t like Thompson. It’s obvious in his comments. It’s obvious in Thompson’s attitude toward Favre that the feeling is mutual.
For Thompson’s sake, he better be right. He better be right that Aaron Rodgers is the better leader and the better quarterback in 2008 and 2009 than Favre is. It’s a decision he has staked his entire career on. If Favre plays for the New York Jets as he did for the Packers in 2007, not only will the Jets return to the playoffs but Thompson’s reign as general manager will be on tenuous ground.
Throughout this ordeal, through all of the numerous proclamations that Rodgers is the starting quarterback in Green Bay despite Favre’s desire to return, one question was never answered by the Packers. Not by Murphy. Not by Thompson. Not by McCarthy.
Which quarterback gives the Packers the best chance to win?
It’s a simple question, one the Packers don’t want to answer because they know the answer. They know that it’s Favre. The 38-year-old legend who owns every notable passing record was the best quarterback in the NFC last season. He finished second to Tom Brady in the balloting for the league’s most valuable player. He has started every Packers game dating back to Sept. 27, 1992.
Rodgers has never started a game. In his two chances to play extended minutes in relief of a banged up Favre, he suffered season-ending injuries. This isn’t to say that Rodgers isn’t going to be a good quarterback. It’s just to say that Favre gives the Packers a better chance to win the Super Bowl in 2008 than Rodgers does.
This is a significant factor. Green Bay isn’t coming off some 3-13 disaster. They aren’t in the process of rebuilding. The Packers were good enough last season to play into overtime of the NFC Championship game before an ill-timed Favre interception led to defeat at the hands of the New York Giants.
The Packers should be a Super Bowl caliber team. They would be if they had Favre under center. Don’t let everything else about Green Bay fool you. Yes, Thompson has done a nice job in rebuilding the team but it should be quite clear to anyone who watched last season play out that the reason the team was able to rebuild so quickly was Favre. He was the glue that held everything together and the engine that made it all go. He made Greg Jennings better. Ryan Grant too. And James Jones. And Donald Lee. Once upon a time, he did the same for Donald Driver.
Now? Now this group has to perform as ably with Rodgers at quarterback. And if Rodgers gets hurt again, perhaps it will be Brian Brohm or Matt Flynn, two rookies who have yet to make a 53-man NFL roster.
In a league where a stable, quality quarterback is the ultimate key to success, the Packers have thrown out the one advantage they have had over almost every other team in the league for the last 16 years. Every other team has had to worry about the quarterback position at some point or another during that span. Not Green Bay. But now they have decided to move on without that stability. The Packers now have three quarterbacks on the roster with a combined total of zero NFL starts after alienating, rejecting and jettisoning a future Hall of Famer who had not missed so much as a single start since being named the Packers starter in Sept. 1992.
Windows to win Super Bowls aren’t very large. Usually the window is open only a couple of seasons. With key players such as Charles Woodson, Al Harris, Mark Tauscher, Chad Clifton and Driver getting older, the window probably extends through next season, at most. Tell me, which quarterback would have given the Packers the best chance to win the Super Bowl through 2009?
You know the answer. I know the answer. And Thompson knows the answer too, only he refuses to answer the question. So he had better hope this works or his career is finished.
I doubt any quarterback has ever been in a worse situation than the one in which Rodgers now finds himself. The first time he fails to lead his team down the field for a winning touchdown in the closing seconds of a game, the refrain in Green Bay will be that Favre would have found a way to win it. The first time he misses a game injured, the fans will remind everyone that Favre never missed a start.
On opening night, a Monday night during which the Packers were at one point going to retire Favre’s number, Rodgers will make his first career start. A day earlier, Favre will have made his first start with the Jets in Miami, against a Dolphins team that won only a single game last season. It isn’t inconceivable that Favre could throw three touchdowns and lead an easy win in that game and have that hanging over Rodgers as well. And also know that the tickets to this game in Green Bay have Favre’s picture upon them.
The pressure will be on Rodgers like it has never been on any quarterback ever before. In the past, legends left on their own accord. Joe Montana was pushed out of San Francisco by Steve Young but the situation was different in that Montana had been injured for two years and in those two years, Young became the league MVP. But Rodgers, through Thompson and McCarthy, is pushing Favre out despite having no credentials in the NFL. Pushing Favre out even though Favre was the best quarterback in the NFC last season.
Good luck to him. Not only does he have to replace Favre and do it capably but he now has the fates of McCarthy and Thompson on his shoulders too.
Rodgers will always be measured against the legend of Favre, what he did in Green Bay and what he does now in New York. Thompson will always be judged by this decision as well.
The Packers point is understood. They thought Favre had retired. But people change their mind and they could have done the same, for the benefit of their team. Instead they pushed out a franchise icon and most beloved player to ever suit up for the Packers even though that icon gave the team the best chance to win a Super Bowl.
The Packers were wrong. The only way this decision will work out for them would be if Rodgers leads them to a Super Bowl right now.
The pressure is on.
