Done with Packers, Favre going to Bucs?
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http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080805/PKR01/80805144/1058
August 5, 2008
Done with Packers, Favre going to Bucs?
By Pete Dougherty
pdougher@greenbaypressgazette.com
After two days of meetings made it clear Brett Favre will not play again for the Green Bay Packers, his agent embarked on trade talks with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Jets.
Talks with the Bucs heated up Tuesday night, a source with knowledge of the negotiations said.
The Tampa Tribune reported early today on its Web site that Favre would agree to a trade to Tampa Bay and that a deal would be completed within 24 hours. The newspaper cited no source for its report.
For most of this week, Favre showed little interest in a trade to the Bucs. However, he became open to playing for them after he met with coach Mike McCarthy and General Manager Ted Thompson for much of Monday and Tuesday.
In those unexpectedly protracted talks, which included about six hours with McCarthy over the two days, Favre and McCarthy determined a quarterback competition with Aaron Rodgers would be divisive. Favre ultimately felt unwelcome and too much animosity for Thompson to return to the team he led for the last 16 years.
So after Favre’s second round of talks with McCarthy finished Tuesday, Favre left the Packers’ facilities in the early afternoon to meet at his Ashwaubenon home with his agent, Bus Cook, along with Thompson and Packers President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Murphy. That hour-long meeting was to discuss possible trade partners.
Thompson again rejected the possibility of trading Favre to NFC North Division rival Minnesota, and Favre apparently is unwilling to try to leverage that deal by staying at training camp and causing a major disruption to the team.
So while the Packers were practicing on Clarke Hinkle Field, Favre turned his sights to the two teams that have shown a keen interest in acquiring him for the past week or more, the Bucs and Jets.
The source said the Bucs and Cook were making progress in their talks and that Favre is considering playing for Tampa Bay, though the Jets couldn’t be ruled out. The salary cap shouldn’t be an issue for Tampa Bay because the Bucs are $26 million under this year’s cap; Favre is scheduled to make a $12 million salary.
ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported that both the Bucs and Jets spoke directly to Favre on Tuesday evening, though the source familiar with the negotiations couldn’t confirm that.
If Cook comes to an agreement with the Bucs or Jets, the Packers then would have to settle on trade compensation before a deal goes through.
One factor in the deal could be how much less the Packers would take for trading Favre to the Jets in the AFC rather than to Tampa Bay, which not only plays in the NFC but also is on the Packers’ schedule this year. Any trade most likely would consist of a draft pick that possibly could escalate depending on Favre’s and the team’s performance.
Favre apparently finds the Bucs more attractive than the Jets for several reasons: Their coach, Jon Gruden, is a former Packers assistant and runs a version of the West Coast offense, which is the base offense Favre has played in the past 16 years; the Bucs were a playoff team last year; and Tampa is a short plane or car trip from Favre’s home in Hattiesburg, Miss.
The trade talks Tuesday culminated a two-day whirlwind in which Favre spent about 5? hours meeting mostly with McCarthy but also an hour with Thompson on Monday, and then another session with McCarthy on Tuesday morning.
The meeting Monday was supposed to be relatively short but became a marathon that McCarthy described as “brutally honest.”
In the end, even though the sides briefly raised the possibility of Favre competing for the starting job with Aaron Rodgers, Favre apparently has come to feel so unwelcome after arriving in Green Bay on Monday and so personally injured by everything that had happened between him and the club over the past couple of months that he no longer wanted to play for the Packers.
“That’s where we concluded in our conversation,” McCarthy said in a 26-minute press conference after the Packers’ practice on Tuesday afternoon, “that basically he was not in the right mindset to play here because of all of the things that went on.”
Favre came to Green Bay on Sunday night after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reinstated him from the reserve/retired list. A source close to Favre said he was excited about a chance to compete with Rodgers for the starting quarterback job. If the Packers weren’t willing, then he wanted a trade to an NFC North team, presumably Minnesota.
However, sources said Favre’s feelings of animosity for the club that have built in recent weeks were stoked when he arrived in Green Bay before the Packers’ Family Night scrimmage on Sunday and was unable to get Thompson or McCarthy to return his phone calls.
The sources said that when Favre showed up at Lambeau Field, he wasn’t allowed into the locker room or onto the field, and he watched part of the scrimmage from a luxury box.
During his long and candid conversations with McCarthy, Favre either determined himself or was convinced by the Packers that competing for the starting job was too costly because of the potential divisions it could cause on the team.
That, combined with his anger over the Packers’ efforts to keep him retired, plus what he considered false stories leaked by the team about his offseason waffling, made it impossible for him to play for the Packers again after his talks with McCarthy and Thompson failed to bridge those differences.
“Mike told me, ‘Hey, we're a better team with you on it’ but wanted to know if I have a problem with an open competition,” Favre told ESPN. “I don't have a problem with competing – you know that, but Aaron should be the starter right now because he's been out here all this time. This is more than about an open competition, and I can do that, absolutely, but this is going to be mass confusion (if there’s a competition) and that's not good for this team.
“I'll practice my butt off, if it comes to that, and I think we all know what the end result will be, but this probably isn't going to work. And I truly understand that if I was in Mike's shoes, I'd see it basically the same way he sees it, I'm sure. And I think if he was in my shoes, he'd see it my way. I think we both agree on that. They want to know if I'm committed, but I want to know if they're 100 percent committed. The problem is that there's been a lot of damage done and I can't forget it. Stuff has been said, stories planted, that just aren't true. Can I get over all that? I doubt it.”
McCarthy’s meeting with Favre made clear the intensity of Favre’s resentment toward the Packers and Thompson for what’s happened this offseason.
Some of that came out in Favre’s interviews on Fox News in mid-July, when he said he didn’t trust Thompson because he thought Thompson had lied about several personnel matters they discussed. He also said the Packers mischaracterized his misgivings about retirement in late March, and that when he began to press his return to the team in June and July, the Packers leaked a distorted version of that story that made it look like he reneged after telling the team he was coming out of retirement. Favre said in the Fox News interview he never said he was coming back at that time, but only thinking about it.
McCarthy, on the other hand, said he told Favre that all offseason he never thought the quarterback would follow through with coming back and that he didn’t think Favre’s heart was in playing anymore.
McCarthy said the two discussed all their grievances and points of agreement and disagreement on what transpired this offseason in their “extremely healthy” conversation.
But McCarthy said the two never got past that point to seriously discuss having Favre compete with Rodgers for the starting job.
“It's not as simple as No. 4 running out there playing football,” McCarthy said. “He's a great football player. I loved coaching him, loved seeing him play. We talked about all of those things, but it's a situation that is extremely personal for him. The path to get to where we are has done some damage. That's where he is.”
Labels: Done with Packers, Favre going to Bucs?
