Some months ago, I wrote about how Packer fans are like children from a broken home.
We love Brett – loved him for years! – but he and Ted evidently had irreconcilable differences. Brett moved out. When he was with the Jets, a lot of us were content to shuttle back and forth between two homes, rooting for both the Packers and the Jets each weekend. Once Brett moved in with the Vikings, however, that joint custody became intolerable, and so we’re back to living with Ted full-time.
Well, in Peter King’s most recent MMQB column on SI.com, he quotes an excerpt from a piece by Andrew Brandt that offers us a lot of insight into the behind-the-scenes stuff that led to the divorce. Here is it, FYI:
I think the most interesting thing I read this week, by far, was the column about Randy Moss in National Football Post by former Packer salary-cap czar and negotiator Andrew Brandt. Terrific insight about how angry Favre was when Packers GM Ted Thompson didn't sign Moss in 2007. A snippet of it, starting with the time on draft weekend 2007, when it was the Patriots who got Moss over the Packers, because New England was willing to give Moss a one-year deal and a clear path to free-agency after the season, while Green Bay insisted on a second year:
"Brett was livid. The rest of the weekend I was fielding calls from [agent for Favre and Moss] Bus Cook about what went wrong in trying to sign Randy. Ted did not want to deal with Bus, so I listened patiently to their rancor and tried to explain our position. I truly empathized with Brett. He had befriended and admired Randy for years and the two of them had dreamed of playing together. Here was an opportunity for us to make it a reality. But ultimately, we stood on our principles requiring more than a one-year commitment.
"I told Brett to trust what we had at the position; that Greg Jennings would be a star in a couple years. He said he didn't have a couple of years. Brett offered to give up some of his salary for the following season -- although that was his last season with the Packers -- to bring in Randy. I told that was much appreciated but we would never take his money away from him to sign another player. Brett was forever wanting a more aggressive attitude by the front office toward player acquisition than the present regime. My constant message that our method of drafting and developing talent rather than acquiring proven commodities only served to infuriate him and his resentment of a general manager that showed him none of the compassion and welcomed input of previous regimes.''
Wow. That gives you a great window into how little regard Favre had for Thompson by the time his 2008 "retirement'' came about. This isn't the first insightful, important piece by Brandt either. He's really good in the role of writer with a window into how the game works.
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/peter_king/09/19/mmqb/4.html#ixzz10HlQ7Tjl
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment