Originally, I was on the Packers side. I didn’t think he would retire in the offseason, but he did. I thought he had 1 year left in the tank. I was there at the NFC championship game and I was quite depressed after that loss for at least 2 weeks. So he retired and I moved on. And I was optimistic about Rodgers, even though I was a nay-sayer before the Dallas-GB game in November.
Rumors circulated about Bus putting out feelers etc. And I started to give merit to the fact that he is going to come back. I wanted him to stay retired. I had accepted him leaving the game, especially on the last pass he threw. Walking out of the stadium that night you could have heard a pin drop.
I started out being on the side of the Packers mainly because I had accepted his retirement. Then I progressed to a seeing both sides of the argument. Finally, I wanted him back. Why? Because Sunday night I went to the Packer scrimmage at Lambeau. If any of you watched it or saw highlights of it (I doubt it if you were outside of Wisconsin), you would have been seriously concerned. Rodgers was horrible. He scrambled straight back when rushed. He under-threw passes and easily got flustered. He went 7 of 20 against a mostly 2nd string defense and through a pick in triple coverage. 7 of 20 in a scrimmage? What’s the regular season going to be like? Brohm did almost as good as him for crying out loud.
And for the whining? Yeah I can see you seeing it that way. But I don’t see Brett or the Packers holding hourly press conferences on the issue. The media has created this storm, the Packers are trying to do business. As much as they are trying to keep this behind closed doors, sports reporters are itching for their big breaking news story. The sports new market has become so saturated by over-reporting of this issue that it has turned the public against the Packers/Brett, not the media itself.
It’s clear that the Packers/Brett do not want the attention but the news agency are creating the storm. So give credit to where credit is due. I listened to the Van Pelt radio show yesterday and he said the comments “I’m officially sick of this story, just get it over with.” Really? You WORK for ESPN. Your job is to report and broadcast sporting events. You’ve created your own sickness.
But the media is pretty much reacting to demand. I’m sure their polls and ratings warranted the supply of news and ‘Favre Watch’ that was created. So when you complain of this story, remember who is reporting the news and who’s watching/listening to it.
It saddens me that he will play for another team, but we don’t hate Namath, Unitas, and Montana for doing the same. The odds are that Favre this year will be pretty disappointing. And the odds are that Rodgers season will be just as bad.
