A response to a friend:
Every year they said he would retire, I said he wouldn’t. I know how he thinks. After he retired this year, I continuously told people I haven’t given up hope of him coming back. I knew how disappointed he was after the Giant game, as he knew they should have been in and probably won the Super Bowl. That, coupled with the fact that Ted Thompson has been trying to force him out the last few years, prompted him to say “enough.”
I knew that with the passage of time, he would focus on the fun he had during the season and during the Seattle playoff game. He knows he’s at worst the third-best QB in the league, and I believe he could be the best if he was in Manning’s or Brady’s system. He knows he can still do it. I don’t think he wants to go out the way he did. And, he has too much fun playing. No one, except readers of sportstruths, realizes that it wasn’t his fault they lost to the Giants. His first 2 passes were for 11 and 12 yards and first downs, and then the coaches kept having him throw 25-yard passes and longer on a day where his hands were frozen and it was windy.
My opinion is this. The Packers should welcome him back, and put the Rogers era on hold one or two more years. He’s still great, and you have a chance to go to the Super Bowl. You don’t know if Rogers can take you there, although I do think he will be very good. Furthermore, if he’s not there and Rogers gets hurt, they are in big trouble. If he’s there and he gets hurt, you still have Rogers. This reminds me of Jerry Krause of the Bulls wanting to force out Jordan so he could prove he could win a championship without him. What is Thompson thinking? I knew Thompson wanted Favre out 2 years ago when he let the 2 All-Pro offensive linemen go. You don’t do that if you think you have Favre for a limited time and want to win. The Packers won about 4 games that year, something like 9 running backs got hurt, the receivers were hurt, etc. It was a way to try to make him quit.
I sometimes wonder what the 49ers would have done with a guy like Favre at QB. Or how would Buffalo have looked those four years? No way they would have lost all four. You’re much more tuned in to the Packers, but I think he’s had one All-Pro receiver, one good TE, and a few good RBs over the years, and that’s about it. In my mind, the only team that wouldn’t have been better w/Favre was the 49ers team that went 15-1, and crushed the Broncos in the Super Bowl 55-10. Being a gambler isn’t looked upon as a bad thing by players, because they know that their guy will always be in there fighting to win. Montana has more titles (deservedly so), but he also had a HOF coach and the best receiver to ever play, along with some other REALLY good players at every position on both sides of the ball. Same thing for Troy Aikman. Elway didn’t do squat until he got a running game, then got too much credit for their titles. Bradshaw didn’t get his due until HE won two SB MVPs. Staubach would have 4 rings, but ran into Pittsburgh twice. Brady plays for a HOF caliber coach with REALLY good players on both sides of the ball also, and benefited from the worst call in football history to launch their “dynasty.” Favre has had average players, questionable front office personnel, dubious coaching w/no continuity, and the misfortune of having to go into the playoffs on the lull of playing the bears twice a year. That’s just too much to ask.