Aaron – Kyle Orton? Thanks for the laugh. He was a nice boy that frigid day and didn’t hurt the Bears, and he even threw one of his twelve career touchdown passes.

One final thought about Belle’s defense of TT’s approach to dealing with Favre. The trio of TT – MM – MM have presented unwavering support for one another over the last few weeks. As they should. And they’ll be better for it. They’ve gone into battle together. It took all three to take on the force that is Brett Favre. And it sucks to see Favre as the odd man out. As Mac G said, it’s a sad, sad day.

This was a most unique situation. But the league is filled with divas and headcases. I think what we all hope, is that TT has learned one hell of a lesson. Communication is key. If TT hadn’t tip-toed around Favre the past three years maybe this wouldn’t have happened. Or maybe Favre would’ve had a Manny moment and publicly asked for a trade two years ago (actually, behind closed doors, he might have), who knows. We’ll never know what all transpired over the last few years. Until Chris Mortenson or Peter King write a book about it in eight years after Favre is enshrined in the HOF.

When it comes to communication, Ron Wolf knew how to deal with players, he didn’t just leave it up to the coach to be a go-between. Brian Noble told of his own story (from the WBAY site):
In six of his nine years with the Packers, Noble led the team in tackles. Towards the end of his career, though, he was approached by then-general manager Ron Wolf.
He recalls Wolf telling him, “Point blank, ‘Brian, you’re a good football player — not a great one, a good one — but you’re only here until I can replace you.’”

For the record, I merely argued that Thompson’s ego affected his decisionmaking. The word “egomaniac” was yours. Do you disagree with the very basic proposition that Thompson’s ego affected his decisionmaking?

As Triple-D pointed out — and he doesn’t agree with me — Bob McGinn says it was a football decision influenced, at least in part, by ego.

You may not agree with McGinn and you may not agree with me, but as I said before, the fact of your disagreement does not make our points “baloney.”

I’m definitely no Favre apologist. In fact, I’d been so harsh on Favre — for many reasons, all of them deserved — that I wrote this post to highlight the ways Thompson is partially responsible for the mess we were in, to provide a modicum of balance. In the end, I’m pretty sympathetic to the way the Packers handled this from March 30 on — though they could have been a bit more straightforward than they’ve been.

Aaron — Craig Nall could not have made that pass.

You got that right.