Aaron Rodgers has made his peace with Brett Favre. That became evident when the past and present Green Bay Packers quarterbacks appeared together at the NFL Honors earlier this year. Now Rodgers is lobbying for Favre.
Rodgers appeared on Jim Rome on Wednesday and the subject of Favre came up like it always does. Rodgers told Rome he hopes the organization retires Favre’s number before he enters the Hall of Fame.
“I’m excited about it. I really am,” Rodgers said of the reconciliation. “It’s been too long. I think our country and the state of Wisconsin, these people are people of second, third and fourth chances, and I think it’s time to let the healing process begin for those who are still upset about what went down.
“I was totally OK with being out front of that and I’m very secure of the things I’ve been able to accomplish with the team and individually here in Green Bay, and excited about the chance to see him again and get his number retired here before he goes into Canton.”
Favre is eligible for Canton in 2016, when he’ll surely be a first-ballot inductee. The Packers have been dancing around the issue of retiring Favre’s number for years now and with good reason.
They surely weren’t going to bring him back immediately after he retired… from the Minnesota Vikings.
The latest word is the Packers are going to retire Favre’s number soon. For Favre, that’s an improvement over the “someday” answer the organization gave in previous years.
Frankly, we’ve hated on that selfish son of a bitch more than anyone and we’ll never forgive him for engineering his way to the Purple Sheep Fuckers. That being said, we’ve started to put that treachery into the back of our mind.
Favre got booed the last time he was in Lambeau. He’d probably receive lukewarm applause right now, but in a year we all might be ready for a standing ovation.
Not quite there yet, though.
I’ll always remember the first game Favre played in Lambeau as a Viking. Before that game, a friend of mine — the biggest, most apologetic Favre fan you’d ever meet — who was flying back to Green Bay to attend that contest said this to me. “I’m going back home to boo my childhood idol.”
So Rodgers and the organization can try to rally the troops all they want, but this still needs more time. Before he goes into the Hall of Fame? Sure.
This year definitely isn’t the right year, though.
On a side note, I think this is important to point out. I once asked Bart Starr what he thought of Rodgers and suggested he was carrying on Starr’s off-field legacy. Starr agreed and really couldn’t say enough about what a great guy Rodgers was. Rodgers really owes nothing to Favre. When he was drafted, Favre basically refused to tutor him. When he was given the starting job, well, you know what happened there.
So despite all the “sensitivity” issues and the ever-prevalent chip on the shoulder, I don’t think anyone can say Aaron Rodgers isn’t a high character individual.