GREEN BAY, Wis. — Brett Favre’s chartered jet arrived in Green
Bay on Sunday evening, shortly before the Packers’ annual Family
Night Scrimmage. Rain lingered and lightning cracked as fans
greeted him hysterically, like young girls welcoming the Beatles in
the '60s. At Lambeau Field the faithful were giddy. Seeing
helicopters and planes above, one little girl kept asking her Dad,
“Is that Brett Favre up there?” This was the moment most Packer
fans were waiting for: the return of their retired football
king.
But no one got the opportunity to see Favre win his crown back.
He never even stepped onto Clark Hinkle Field, the Packers’
pristine practice facility across the street from Lambeau. Instead,
on Tuesday afternoon, the day Favre was to make his triumphant
return, anointed heir Aaron Rodgers guided the team through
suffocating humidity and heckling fans.
During practice, spontaneous choruses of “We want Brett!” played
like a soundtrack through the green, chain-linked fence. Hundreds
of people stood ready to shout “Hosanna!” and wave palm branches
should their king emerge. But Brett was gone. His red Cadillac
Escalade had left about an hour earlier — the last time he would
exit the stadium he helped turn into a football shrine. By
Wednesday afternoon he was on a plane to Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
By Wednesday night he was a New York Jet. In just over 72 hours
Favre, the future Hall of Famer and only three-time NFL most
valuable player, went from retired leader, to returning king, to
disgruntled exile. His 16-year reign in Green Bay marred, at the
end, by a public feud, half truths, and hurt feelings.
Because of the break-up, many Packers fans are torn between
supporting a player they idolize and a defending franchise they
own. As Ryan Young asked,
“Root for the team, or root for the player?” For some the answer is
the player. Throughout the week, t-shirts and signs criticized
General Manager Ted Thompson. Slogans ranged from “Trade Ted not
Favre,” to “4-Get Ted, Favre’s our man,” to one yellow t-shirt with
a picture of a screw followed by the name “Ted.”
With trade talks dominating the news on Wednesday, Carol Grant
was visibly angry. She’d driven up from Racine, Wisconsin, about an
hour south of Milwaukee, with some friends to watch practice. “It
makes me sick,” she said. “It’s like a betrayal on the part of
management. It’s the end of a dream.” Her friend Sandy Johnson,
sporting a pink Favre jersey, admitted she too is disillusioned:
“We always thought [the Packers] were different. Mr. Thompson
always told us what a great family we are. Well, we don’t operate
that way in my family.”
Mary Vanden Elsen agreed. Sitting on a concrete bench
overlooking practice, her young son Jon to her left, she had some
scathing words for management: “Thompson should be run out of
town.” Vanden Elsen has attended practice since she was five, and
regularly brings Jon to get player’s autographs. The usually happy
atmosphere of training camp, she said, where players ride
children’s bikes to practice, is gone. “It’s very sad and very
wrong.”
BUT NOT EVERYONE blames management. Mark, a retired radiologist
from Green Bay, said he was embarrassed by the way fans acted on
Tuesday, booing Aaron Rodgers and chanting for Favre’s return.
“Heckling at practice is not the way to express dissatisfaction,”
he said. He feels fans are reacting out of emotion, not reason, and
blames Favre’s selfishness for the rift: “People have seen a
[different] side of Favre…a selfish prima donna.”
Just down the fence line, Randy Bania of Green Bay agrees Favre
is at fault. “Favre made a decision in March and he has to accept
the consequences of that decision,” he said, adding that he’s using
the situation to teach his son, Zach, responsibility. As Bania
talked, Zach turned around, revealing the screen-printed name on
the back of his Packers jersey: “FAVRE.” Bania admitted that just
yesterday he supported Favre, but after thinking it through he
believes Favre has the wrong intentions: “He’s not committed to
playing football. He came to reclaim his throne…and restore his
pride.”
He may be right. When Favre landed in Hattiesburg he admitted he
didn’t return to Green Bay to win his job back: “I knew going up
there it was more formality than anything, something I had to do. I
didn’t think I’d be up there too long, and I wasn’t.” Instead of
coming to resolve differences and play football, Favre came to vent
and assign blame.
No doubt, there’s blame to share. Head Coach Mike McCarthy
admitted on Tuesday and Thursday that communication could have been
better on both sides, and said he never took Favre’s unretirement
talk seriously. But once Favre arrived in Green Bay, McCarthy was
ready to move on — with Favre. McCarthy said on Thursday he would
have opened the position up for competition, almost ensuring Favre
his job back.
But Favre wasn’t ready to do that. He felt so hurt by the
Packers’ reaction to his unretirement that he couldn’t play — he
wouldn’t play — for the Green Bay Packers: “I know people say I
should put the personal issues aside, and I agree, but I couldn’t
do that.” As McCarthy put it, “he wasn’t in the right mindset to
play here.”
In the end, Favre was handed the keys to his kingdom, but he was
too unstable to accept them. The “dream” didn’t end solely because
the Packers had to move on, it ended because that team’s legend
“couldn’t.”
Fans now must decide either to move on or to stay bitter like
Favre.
