This should never have been about Favre

The situation in Green Bay has become such an embarrasment, that the club felt it was necessary to bring in an outside PR representative, Ari Fleischer.

Now, I happen to like Ari, and have a great deal of respect for him; however, his job right now is untenable. The relationship that the Packers have with their fans, has been tarnished and in some cases, downright broken. Good luck Ari, you are going to need it!

This whole drama from the start was supposed to be about what is best for the team, what is best for the organization. If Thompson and McCarthy no longer had confidence in Favre getting the job done, or if they did not believe that he would be 100% commited to the team, part ways. That should have happened a long time ago; but it did not and the reason it did not was Thompson allowed his ego to get in his way.

Granted, Favre is not larger than the game and he certainly is not better than the entire organization but let us look at what transpired here.

Favre in June contacts the Packers and indicates a possible desire to play again. At that point, the Packers only had one decision to make - is it in our best interest to entertain this? If not, they had two options: 1. trade Favre, or 2. give him his outright release. Thompson flat ruled the latter out. Keep in mind that at this point, Favre is still listed as retired; which means that the Packers have no marketing deal with him, are receiving absolutely no financial or good will benefit from him and frankly I doubt that Thompson really cared about that. Favre was gone, and that was all that mattered to him.

At this point, if the Packers had released Favre, they would be in no worse position than they are now; and frankly, the public would have given them a lot of credit for doing what was "honorable". You no longer want the player, so you allow him to go somewhere else. The PR would have been quite beneficial to the organization, an organization that has always stood up for what was honorable. The problem with this approach was it meant giving Favre what he wanted, and its been obvious for a long time that Thompson was not about to allow some snot nosed, 38 year old punk tell him how to run the operations.

What happened since has been a media nightmare, a disaster for the club, a tarnishing of a brilliant career, and a general manager stomping his feet like a two year old.

Football is a business, its not about egos, its not about whose right or wrong, its about winning PERIOD! I am sure that after seeing the season that Favre had last year, not that prior success can guarantee a Super Bowl win, Favre provided the Packers with the best opportunity for a winning season. Thompson keeps talking about what he is doing is the best thing for the club, well I have to tell ya, right now I do not believe a word from Thompson.

Thompson allowed his ego to get in the way of better judgement and for that he should be terminated. He made this fight and fiasco about Favre, and it should have been about business, and if Mark Murphy is not smart enough to see that, he needs to be fired as well.