Favre: From the Horse's mouth

Stop the press: Brett Favre has finally given an interview that clarifies his retirement situation. Fox News's Greta Van Susteren has scooped the interview they all wanted, and it will go out tonight.

In the interview, Favre admits that he is 'guilty of retiring early'. He also says that he always wanted to play in Green Bay, and that the current situation is a result of pressure from the organisation. Though he does not name Ted Thompson by name, you can be assured that the media will be jumping straight to the conclusion that he is to blame for Favre's retirement.

"Them moving on does not bother me, it doesn't. I totally understand that. By me retiring March 3rd, I knew that could possibly happen. All I was saying is, you know, I'm thinking about playing again."

- Brett Favre speaking to Fox News

One thing that Favre is making clear is that he will be playing somewhere next season. By finally breaking his silence, he has upped the stakes. The Packers probably can't afford to sit Favre next season for a couple of reasons: He would be a huge distraction to Aaron Rodgers, and it would be terrible PR, especially as Favre is one of the NFL's most popular players ever.

On the other hand, the team seems unreceptive to trade offers, and made it clear on Saturday that there have been no offers as yet for their former star Quarterback. Now that other teams have heard the desire from favre's own mouth, we could see some movement towards a trade in the next few weeks.

What Brett Favre's return means for Aaron Rodgers

As we made quite clear this weekend, the one person we have sympathy for in the whole Brett Favre Tragi-Comedy, is former first round pick Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers has spent three long years waiting for Favre to retire, and now, when he finally seems destined to become starter, his former mentor has expressed his desire to play for yet another season.

Rodgers has publicly been anointed the team's starter by GM Ted Thompson and Coach Mike McCarthy. Unfortunately, that was done before Favre said that he was '100% committed' to playing in 2008. Now that the Packers are becoming ambiguous on the subject, saying that should he return he would be 'considered an active part of the Packers', Rodgers must have the uneasy feeling that his job is far from secure. There is a chance that this is posturing on both sides, and that the team would prefer to move on without #4, but taken at face value, there would be little doubt that Favre would win any QB battle between himself and Rodgers.

So assuming that Favre comes back to the Packers, what does the future hold for Rodgers? Many have suggested that it's no big deal. After all, the guy has sat for three seasons, what will one more matter? Well, apart from the obvious - money earned from playing time and bonuses - Rodgers is getting towards the end of the five year deal he signed in 2005, so assuming that he didn't play this year, that leaves him the 2009 season to prove himself in the NFL. Again though, what price on the Favre question this time next year?

The team has drafted Brian Brohm, arguably a first round talent, and Rodgers may even find himself playing the last year of his contract with pressure from the former Louisville Quarterback. If Brohm gains the trust of the coaching staff, Rodgers would have a very small window to become acclimatised to the NFL. Four years on the bench is no substitute for four games in the league, and it could be argued that neither man has started a regular season game yet.

So what should Rodgers do? His best course of action would likely be to ask for a trade. He would be coveted by a number of teams who aren't convinced by their current incumbent, though if the Pack' demand anywhere near Rodgers' original first round value, that could be a stumbling block. It's still likely that at least one team would be happy to pay up for him though, and with Brohm on the roster, Green Bay may opt to cash in on at least one of their highly rated signal callers.

Unfortunately for Rodgers, he is a cheap insurance policy as far as Green Bay are concerned. He is scheduled to make just $680,000 this year, and even if he starts this season and next, he will have missed out on more than half of the $24.5m deal he signed as a Rookie. In fact, to put things into perspective, he will have made just $2m in incentives, out of a potential $17m.

Money isn't everything, and let's not get into a situation where we feel sorry for millionaires, but the fact remains that Rodgers could find himself out of the league in 3 years time, and have earned a fraction of his likely earnings, if he does not get a chance to prove his worth as a starter in the NFL soon.

For some, that 'Big second contract' can't come round soon enough. For Aaron Rodgers, it is looming up all too quickly on the horizon of his career.

Favre saga trundes on

Chris Jenkins of the AP has handily compiled a timeline of the entire Brett Favre issue. Most of it has been well documented, but some interesting snippets of information have been gleaned.

Certianly, in McCarthy's version of events, Favre would not have been under the impression that GM Ted Thompson and McCarthy did not want him back. If anything, they seem to have gone out of their way to placate their Quarterback, and give him as much time as was needed. McCarthy also mentions that he offered Favre the option of practising less, but as Favre said during his retirement press conference: If he was not 100% commited to football, he wasn't coming back.

Another interesting point is that Thompson - who has been vilified by the media for his part in recent events - actually had dinner with Favre as recently as May. This certainly seems to dispel some of the myth that this is a personal battle between the two, a conclusion readily assumed by the media.

But perhaps the most critical part of the timeline is Favre's assertion towards the end of June. Remember that this was just 3-4 weeks ago:

June 16-20: Acting on Campen's advice, McCarthy calls Favre. They play phone tag for a few days but eventually connect. "You and Ted need to have a plan if I do come back," Favre says, according to McCarthy. "Either give me my helmet or give me my release."

At that point, McCarthy asks Favre if he was 100 percent committed to a return. "He said, 'No, no, I'm not saying I'm there yet.'"

-Associated Press

Those who question the Packers' handling of this situation would do well to read that last sentence again. How could the organisation be sure of Favre's intentions when he was not himself? It seems that all the way up to the draft, the team was open to Favre's return, and actively pursued him to come back. It seems however, that when the team selected QB's Brian Brohm and Matt Flynn, Favre suddenly realised that the team was ready to move on.

This revelation seems to have prompted a stubborn streak in Favre, something that served him well during his NFL career. His desire to prove the Packers wrong seems to be an overriding factor here. He certainly does not seeme to have given the team a fair indication of his mental state before the draft, instead spurning multiple opportunities to respond to their overtures. The fact that Favre first said he was 100% committed to football on July 8th seems to back that up, as the more entrenched Aaron Rodgers became at QB, the less likely the team were to accept him back.

We'll have more on Rodgers soon.