I live in Wisconsin and there is no way the majority of the people support what Thompson and McCarthy did. Sure there are always going to be fans who have been extremely spoiled over Favre's 16 years and when they don't reach the Super Bowl will blame him for it and expect Rogers to lead them there without making the big mistake. I'm just grateful for an exciting season and to make the postseason. I hardly put that game all on Favre, yes it was a bad throw but what exactly did the rest of the team do to win that game? Everybody played like crap and McCarthy got outcoached. How many times does Eli have to complete a pass to Burress before you give Al Harris some help? Spoiled indeed. We should expect growing pains with Rogers? Ridiculous this team was ready NOW not years down the road. It's utter stupidity what they did. Emotional feelings yes, but logical moreso. To expect to do better replacing a legend with a guy who's never started a game and proved absolutely nothing is just plane lunacy. Everybody thinks they have the next big thing when they draft a guy and hope he develops into a great QB. How often does this really happen though? For every Peyton Manning there are 10 Ryan Leafs who never pan out. Thompson and McCarthy took a team that was ready to make a Super Bowl run and put it in the hands of a complete unknown. This decision was not based on football, this was personal. To argue that the team is better with Rogers in there rather than Favre is the silliest thing I've ever heard. Spoiled fans indeed. We will see how this all plays out but what Thompson did was utterly shameful.
Thank you for the nice post and apology 1969jets - I agree with you totally in regard to their ill-advised decision and everything else you stated and I, for one, will unite with you and all of the Jets' fans in our admiration for Brett. I will be rooting for you all this year - GO JETS
Thoughts from a Packer fan As someone who never would have thought they would end up on a Jets board for any reason, let me give my 2 cents.
TeriB - I tried to send you a PM but I don't have enough posts to do it. If you like, I can try and see if I can get you into the BF website. They are not accepting new people at the moment but it never hurts to try. Just let me know. BFG73
Or I could just post something blank. I am a Packer fan, first and foremost. I'm not a Packer fan during the good years, I was a fan watching Lynn Dickey, Randy Wright, and Don Majkowski. Good years, bad years, I rooted for the Packers, any team that could help the Packers make the playoffs and any team that played against a Manning. All that being said I've never paid much attention to the AFC, except rooting against the Colts. With Favre now being a Jet, I can't believe I'll be watching and rooting for a New Jersey team. The Packers screwed up this whole thing, as did Favre. But at the end of the season if the Packers go 8-8 (likely), McCarthy or Thompson gets fired. Anything worse, both do. If the Packers season goes south, I hope it goes completely into the tank just to see them get fired. I have nothing against Aaron Rodgers, and this year he's my boy, but he's an unknown quantity. How many 1st round QB's have been a bust? Favre gave the Packers the best chance to win, and now he's wearing a different shade of green.
Hello all, I am new here and let me start of by saying that I am a Packer fan. But please don't hold that against me. I am deffinatley not happy with the Packer organization at this time. I can't even stand to be on my favorite Packer board any more because of all of the Favre haters. The cool thing about this whole thing is I think the Jets will suprise a lot of people this year. Not just because of Brett but I REALLY like the O-line upgrades. I watched the Jets game the other night instead of the Packer debacle with Rodgers and was very impressed. I will always be a Packer fan I didn't abandon them through the 70's and 80's I will not now. But part of me will not be crushed if they have a bad season because Rodgers sucks. That will just make TT look like the dumba$$ that we all know he is. Especially when the Jets have an awesome season.
Also, to all you Jet fans. Having Favre as your quarterback is both the most rewarding and the most frustrating thing you can imagine. He will win games for you. He will also lose games for you, you can only hope that you're on the positive side at the end of the day. To me it's like being a battered wife married to a rich guy. You have a great life and the benefits are good, but every now and then you have to take a beating.
excellent analagy. now add the gb/jets twist and you kinda have wife-swapping to boot! i wonder if pennington was ever offered as wife-bait during negotiations. like jets: "we'd like to swap wives". gb: "sorry, your wife has a weak extremity". not sure what that means but it was funny in my head. anyway, welcome to the afc.
Actually Pennington is one person I feel bad for out of all of this mess. He got tossed aside like an old hooker for a newer one who ironically is older. I would guess that the Jets tried to include Pennington in the trade, but the Packers wouldn't need that kind of a salary cap hit for someone who wouldn't play. After all, Rodgers is the Pack's starting quarterback, no matter what according to the powers that be in Green Bay.
The bigger question which I haven't seen addressed (and I know it won't happen in a million years), but what if it was a Packers/Jets Superbowl. Who would a Packer fan (only of the Favre era) root for?
That's how I felt when the Knicks traded Patrick Ewing. They finally got some young guys with him like Sprewell and Camby, made the Finals and the conference finals, then traded him. I felt like they shortchanged themselves. At least Favre had the one championship from early in his career to fall back on, Ewing didn't have that. With Namath it was different, it ended with back-to-back 3-11 seasons and he couldn't move in the pocket anymore. Plus I was 9, I hadn't been watching him and rooting for him for a lot of years, which is what builds up your being a fan of a guy.
I can see where you're comming from here, but try and take a different prospective. I can't argue with you on this: the team was set to make a huge run behind that O-Line with Gregg Jennings, Donald Driver, Donald Lee as the main targets, Ryan Grant running the ball and DeShawn Wynn backing him up. Add the defense in the mix and keep Favre and you have a team that can scare a lot of people in both conferences. However, here's what you also get with Favre: indecision. Every year it is a media circus during the offseason about whether or not Farvre is playing the following year. The guy is 38, about to be 39, years old and he's taking his sweet-ass time to let the organization know who is going to be suiting up for the next season. In any other profession this would not be tolerated. Favre himself has been praticing bad business by doing this, he's not endearing himself to anyone in front office by keeping them on the edge of their seat like that. Meanwhile they have a first round pick and a log of money invested in Aaron Rodgers who is spending his time with his WRs, learning the playbook, and doing everything else a quarterback should do. Ted Thompson has to look at this and see two things: 1) he has a HOF player who may or may not want to play this season and 2) he has a guy who he drafted with the confidence that he could be something special, who has the support of a lot of the players in that locker room, and who, if Favre chooses to return, runs the more and more likely risk of playing out his contract with out seeing any significant time on the field. So yeah, for Ted Thompson, in a sense, it was personal. It was his job on the line. Spending first round money on a player to have him ride the pine for all but the last year of his contract and hit the open market after the final year is played out would have been a terrible management decision. If Favre sticks around for another two years and Rodgers decides to leave, Thompson winds up looking like an ass for not having a back-up in place. It's a lose-lose situation. If Rodgers leaves and succeeds in another market, Thompson looks like a fool for letting him go. If Rodgers leaves and fails, Thompson looks like a fool for drafting a poor QB. Taking a third dimension into account, Thompson could resign Rodgers. The problem here is that it also puts Thompson in a bad circumstance. Rodgers would have no leverage in negotiations and have to sign for a relatively small amount. Now, if Rodgers produces and is being payed the middle of the road salary an unproven 5 year veteran (assuming that's how long Favre plays ahead of him during the course of his contract) he's guaranteed to make some noise that would cast management in a bad light. If, on the other hand, Rodgers fails, than Thompson and the rest of the FO become idiots for investing more money into a guy that was essentially useless to the team. This is why now was the best time and best business decision to get rid of Favre. Thompson still has some time to evaluate Rodgers in actual play. If Rodgers succeeds than the FO made the right choice and if Rodgers fails they still have time to evaluate Brohm and Flynn or look for a back-up plan in FA or the draft. Favre still had trade value and could have been an asset to the team in that sense. What made it even easier were Favre's actions. He went on national television multiple times and essentially called Thompson and McCarthy liars. Again, if this were any other profession, good look getting hired someplace else. Furthermore, he made it all about himself instead of about the Packers which had to burn at least a couple of bridges in the lockerroom. Favre put the team in this situation and Thompson, the FO, and CS were left to look like asses in the eyes of the fans since they were going up against Green Bay's golden child. Favre could have bowed out gracefully after the past season but instead just had to be stubborn and try to force a release that could have landed him with, arguably, the Packers' biggest division rival and his top choice in Minnesotta and the most dangerous team within the division that they will have to contend with this season. If you were running the team there is no way you could let that happen. Favre is as much to blame in this situation as the Packers' management is, if not more so. Lastly, this team is ready to win down the road. Driver may be 33 but Jennings is only 24, Grant 25, and Lee is 27. The oldest player on the O-line is 32 but O-lineman play well into their mid thirties. The defense is still in good shape with Hawk, Barnett and Biby all under 28 years old and all of them are the types of players you want to build a defense around. The Green Bay Packers are not built to be a "win now team".
They won't win down the road if Rodgers can't play. I don't care how great he is in practice, he has not done it yet on Sunday. We don't have a single QB that has started a game on the roster. The NFL is a win now league, with Favre I felt we had a real shot this year, with AR probably an 8-8 team. Just doesn't make sense to me to trade a contender now for possible, maybe, don't know for sure, good team in the future. And I suspect that all that "talent" that TT has supposedly acquired, won't look quite so good without #4 to lead them. Ryan Grant is a good example, it will be interesting to see how good he really is, without Favre backing the defense off. MM and TT won't get fired, they used a surprise 13- 3 season, and Favre's leadership and arm, to get contract extentions, raises, for both of them.
Hey Green Bay fans, not to change the subject from Favre, but how come your secondary looked so bad against the Giants, and what has the team done to address that in the off season?
We haven't done anything to address it, Plax ate Al Harris's lunch. TT only gets help through draft, he would not pay any big time free agent. TT does love his picks, he likes to trade down, so he can get even more. I'm sure it thrilled him no end to get a 4th for Favre. First 2 picks this year were receiver and QB. Last year's #1 pic, Harrell, defesive tackle, is still hurt, has played very little. Couldn't run the ball that day either, running game needed in that kind of cold. No pass rush didn't help either.
It's cool to see all this support from Green Bay fans. I expected a lot of New Yorkers would start to root for the Jets once they got Favre, but I didn't expect all this support from Green Bay fans.
Look, the Packer fans have to understand one very important thing; Brett Favre is 38 y/o, and can't play forever. He's been unsure about retiring the last 3 years. The Packers needed to start the Aaron Rodgers era sooner or later. Why not now? The Packers could not be held hostage by Favre, anymore. It was'nt fair to them or the fans. Favre retired, and the Packers drafted a QB because of that. Now he wanted to come back and play again? How could the fans, in Gb, not understand managements displeasure? Thier whole draft stratergy was based on no more Favre. I really think, if anyone was wrong in this fiasco, it was Favre. The fans in Green bay should realize that. No one player is bigger then the team, as a whole. Favre thought he was. Shame on him.
Yet I don't see how the Packer management's mood will improve if this year goes how it looks like its going to go for them. Also, Favre suffered indecision about a life changing decision which involves him retiring from something he loves to do. I would HARDLY equate that to Favre thinking he is "bigger" than the Packers.
