Mail Call: Favre Sends His Letter » Brats & Beer

July 29, 2008
posted under: Brett Favre, Packers, retirement

It’s a letter from Brett Favre!

In the movie version of Brett Favre’s life, this scene opens with a tracking shot, the camera zooming in towards a lonely fax machine somewhere in the offices of the National Football League. The machine comes to life, blips and bloops, and spits out a sheet of paper. The camera closes in on the white piece of vellum to reveal the words in large script, “I’m back!”

So now Brett Favre has officially asked for his reinstatement to the NFL, and another seal of Armageddon has been opened. The commissioner, Roger Goodell, now has 24 hours to act on the request and then the Green Bay Packers have another 24 hours to either release Favre (won’t happen) or put him back on the active roster. And then, of course, we’ll have to see if Favre actually reports to camp.

It sounds silly, but maybe he won’t show up in Green Bay at all. Favre doesn’t really want to go through physicals and hang around Clarke Hinkle field any more than Ted Thompson wants him to be there, so if they’ve agreed to disagree then they may have worked out a deal where Favre stays put in Hattiesburg while TT continues to work on a trade. Hey, a guy can hope, right?

I guess we’ll see what happens over the next couple days. Perhaps the Jets come through with a stellar offer for the Packers and for Favre, or maybe the Bucs make a move, or maybe Tom Brady gets hit by a bus. We’re all flying blind here, making this up as we go, so who the heck knows?

There is, though, one voice of reason cutting through the fog that I did want to share here today. Fan blog Chuckie Hacks reports today that former football star and Wisconsin AD Pat Richter, someone who knows a thing or two about running a successful athletic program, was on the radio recently and was asked what he thought the Packers should do about this whole mess. His answer: “Move on. You have to move on. You can’t ever look back or wait for someone to make decisions for you. Move on.”

Truth.