"Brett Favre spoke to members of the Wisconsin media Thursday for the first time since his tearful retirement farewell 19 months ago, and the legendary quarterback was at times defensive, evasive and combative."
You don't say?
See, the thing about the Favre that all of us who watched him and cheered for him for the better part of 16 years - that the mainstream media and the NFL fandom at large don't know - is that this shift of Favre as the genuine "aw shucks" country boy who played for love of the game into the media hound, loving his records, over-the-hill Favre happened quickly and succinctly when Ray Rhodes was hired as the replacement for Mike Holmgren. Even then there was a rift between Favre and Holmgren about who was more responsible for the success of those Super Bowl run teams. Considering Favre never made it back to the Super Bowl but came closest with a coach who would no longer let him run the team pretty well sums up that picture. Favre was great, but not great enough to win on his own. He just never realized it.
That one year with Rhodes and the subsequent Sherman years changed Favre.
Better stated, Favre changed because he could in those years, because those coaches cared less about coaching Favre and more about being Favre's friend, and more about letting Favre run the show to sometimes disastrous results on the field and definitively disastrous results off of it. Consider the private locker room for instance or the stingy press availability or the sheer hiding from the media when things didn't go precisely as Favre wanted them to, and the years where he was allowed to skip OTAs...
Enter stage left: Favre was allowed to skip minicamps and training camps this season with the Minnesota Vikings, and Brad Childress chauffeured him personally from his plane to the training facility when he arrived in Minnesota. Favre refers to his new coach as "Chilly."
Favre has changed. He's changed for the worst. And for all the Green Bay fans who still love Favre, well, I'm sorry to say it, but he doesn't care about you anymore. He has thrown us all under the bus.
Green Bay Press-Gazette
Interesting article. Holmgren was an excellant coach. Look at all his assistants who went on to win Super Bowls. But I know the SB win was all Favre and when things went bad it was the Packers as a team. Juts look at the Jets last season. When they were winning it was "Look how Favre turned that team around. The attitude and confidence he brought there". When they started to lose it became a team game. Blame everywhere but Favre.
ReplyDeleteYou know the Favre-a-maniacs will spin this into a "But the three stooges lied about something. Just forget about what Favre lied, and continues to lie, about".
I agree. Vandermause has been pretty spot-on about Favre since his departure, and Jason Wilde is my new favorite WI sportswriter. The guy just held Favre's feet to the fire yesterday, which was really novel. No one takes Favre to task face-to-face. But each backpedal Favre response yesterday was met with support to the contrary at which point Favre started to get cranky.
ReplyDeleteHis mouth writes checks everyone else has to ante up for. It's amazing. I just can't believe there hasn't been a comment about setting himself up for the failure on Monday, per his norm.
I still have my doubts Green Bay can go into Minnesota and get a win, but it'll be a close game. Rivalry games almost always are, especially when the weather isn't a factor.