Brett Favre

Favre getting ready for the season in Mississippi

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre is a megalomaniacal prima donna, this we know.

We all knew he wanted to stick it to the Green Bay Packers when they decided to move on, even though he said he didn’t.

Despite his previous denial that his move to Minnesota wasn’t about revenge, Favre now admits he wanted to play within the division to get back at Green Bay.

USA Today published several excerpts from an interview with Favre that will appear in Men’s Journal, Wednesday. None was more revealing than the following.

Favre also revealed to the magazine some details about his standoff with Green Bay Packers GM Ted Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy in 2007 after he ended his first retirement:

“There was just silence. I said, ‘Well, what are we gonna do?’ They made it pretty clear I wasn’t going to play there, and I said, ‘How about the Vikings or even the Lions?’ I wanted to stay in the same division. They said that wasn’t going to happen, but maybe Tampa. I said, ‘Fine, trade me to Tampa. I’ll whip your asses in week four.’ Maybe that was a mistake. I’m flying back to Hattiesburg thinking I’m going to the Bucs, and I get off the plane and [Favre's agent] Bus [Cook] tells me I’ve been traded to the Jets. I said, ‘Bull,’ but they were smart; they released the news so I’d look like an ass if I backed out.”

While the Packers were obviously protecting their interests by trading Favre out of the division, in hindsight, you have to wonder why Thompson didn’t look at the Lions as an option.

The Lions went 0-16 in 2008, the year Favre spent with the Jets. Even with Favre under center, Detroit wasn’t going to challenge anyone for anything.

Sure, maybe Favre would have pulled a couple victories out of a hat for the Lions, but even if he beat the Packers once, the Lions were nowhere near a playoff-caliber team. Something tells me, after a year of getting beat down behind the Lions’ atrocious offensive line, Favre would have retired for good and we never would have had to watch him leading the scumbag Vikings to the playoffs.

The world could have been rid of Brett Favre and all of his drama for good and the Vikings would still be trotting out Tarvaris Jackson and pretending he’s an NFL-caliber quarterback.

On top of that, the Packers likely would have won the division last season.

Revisionist history, I know, but it makes you wonder what or if Thompson was thinking.



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