Favre seriously considering pack’s $20 million offer to stay away

There’s an old saying that “everybody has a price”.  Brett Favre’s might just be in the neighborhood of $20 million dollars.  Favre didn’t display Johnny Unitas-like dignity on Thursday as he sent equivocating text messages on his thought processes to several media outlets.  Alternately reporting that he was ‘seriously considering’ taking the $20 million offered by his former team to stay retired, and at other times that he ‘really wanted to play’, Favre sounded more like a lovelorn teenager than a NFL QB who was the personification of toughness and character during his career.

Favre is now coming to several realizations that he should have known all along—that his “un-retirement” isn’t exactly fair to his former team and to his replacement under center, Aaron Rodgers and that should he return he’d not be the team’s starting QB.  He could probably force the team’s hand by making a public stink about it to the media and to the Packer faithful, but this would further exacerbate the long term detriment to the team that his presence would cause.   Of course none of this talk about wanting to “do the right thing” began until the Packers organization offered him $20 million reasons to do so.  Ironically, Favre was vocal in his criticism of players like wide receiver Javon Walker that attempted to “hold out” and not honor a valid contract during his tenure with the Packers.  Now he’s doing something that’s almost worse—refusing to honor his decision to retire and essentially holding up the team for $20 million under threat of plunging the franchise into chaos.  Favre retired as one of the more universally respected players in the game, and regardless of the outcome of this situation his legacy will take a serious hit. 

Hoping to avoid what appears to be an inevitable “train wreck”, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell delayed his action on Favre’s reinstatement request by another day.  Best case scenario for the team and the league would be a negotiated “settlement” where Favre takes a nice chunk of the Packers’ money to stay home.  Should that not transpire, the approval of Favre’s reinstatement is a mere formality and he’d then be forced to report to training camp.  At that juncture the Packers would have 24 hour hours to decide what to do with their long time franchise QB. From the team’s standpoint none of their options are particularly good ones—they can get rid of Favre by trading him (an option that’s off the table at this point by most reports) or releasing him.  There’s serious hesitancy to release him, however, since there’s a strong suggestion that he’d immediately sign with division rival Minnesota.  The other option is to return him to the active roster and essentially capitulate to Favre’s demands to return to the team.

Permeating the entire drama are some other serious concerns about team chemistry and a potential PR disaster among the Packer fan base.  It clearly puts Coach Madsen and QB Rodgers in a bad situation, and could cost members of the Packer front office their jobs should they play it wrong.  Bringing him back would open another set of issues, not the least of which would be a $12 million plus hit to the team’s salary cap. At this point, the team is up against the wall without a clear cut course of action to head off what could be a horrible situation.

At this point, like it or not, the Packers may be forced to welcome #4 back to the team simply to mitigate their damages.