I cried when Brett announced his retirement. A good portion of my Packer Shrine is devoted to Brett. I watched him play with the Jets this season—as much as I could. I still buy Brett memorbilia and football cards.

But I was very turned off by the whole drama of his “unretirement.” I don’t know if you live in Wisconsin, but it was a bit much here. And as stated by others, Brett was less than honest with us about his role in the whole debacle.

I think about what would have happened if Brett stayed retired. Perhaps the pressure on Aaron Rodgers would be less. He would have left Green Bay a beloved figure for the rest of his life. Now, I would say half the fans still love him, but many are upset with him. Maybe the whole thing upset the inner workings of the team in ways we don’t understand and that’s what led to a 6-10 season. But it was really sad to see Brett throw only two touchdowns and 9 interceptions losing the last five games of the season for the Jets. To go 22 TDs and 22 INTs for the season and get the nasty comments from teammates and the NY press—well, I wonder if it was worth it to him.

I will always appreciate what Favre did for the Packers. I still think the fact that he had 1 losing season makes him automatically, one of the greatest QBs of all-time. And, I would strongly support your label of the present Packers as “charismatically challenged” – a label I may need to borrow in future writings. I think we missed Favre’s leadership this year – even if he’s not a ra-ra vocal leader, he leads with his presence. I do think in the near future though, that Rodgers will settle in and prove he can lead.

All this said, Favre does own at least some of the responsibility for the way he departed. Neither side handled it well and it to me, is one of the saddest things that has happened in Wisconsin sports history.

But I think he was the bad guy in the divorce. That’s not to say the Packers — and Ted Thompson — weren’t at fault. I think if you search the archives you’ll see plenty of criticism of their often poor performance in the Favre drama.

But Brett lied. And he lied repeatedly. And he lied in ways that made it obvious he wasn’t telling the truth. (Again, if you look through the archives you can see this in detail.) All of that was disappointing, to say the least.

But for me the real end point of my Favre-love came when he was offered the opportunity to return to the Packers and, after complaining and complaining that he wasn’t being offered such an opportunity, turned it down.

Anyway, you might disagree with some of this (or all of it), but know that we were longtime Favre fans and still appreciate what he did for the Packers. I just wish he hadn’t done what he did at the end. Feel free to register further disagreements…

I wonder if I could ask a question re Favre. I read this site often and all of you have a dismissive attitude towards him. It’s as if he never played as long as he did in GB, never was successful and good riddance when he left. I’m really curious as to the reason for this. All of you take the side of the Packers it seems and I don’t consider them innocent parties in the mess in any way, shape or form. The GB media puzzles me as well. They made their livings from the guy for years and yet all I read are snide remarks and gloating over his late season failure. Consdering they now cover the dullest, most charismatically challenged team, their approach makes me laugh. It’s a strange world indeed, when Favre is made out to be the villain, for simply wanting to play football again, and that was the bottom line..he wanted to play football. I’m not giving him a pass by ANY means but cannot see why he is made to bear the brunt of the debacle. I have several Packer friends and all of them feel that this org. is going to feel the brunt of TT’s decision for a long time to come.
You will probably ignore this, but I appreciate you giving me the forum to express my views and others with similar thoughts.

“Haslett has a good reputation among scouts as a defensive coordinator even though his defenses in St. Louis never ranked better than No. 23 in fewest yards allowed and No. 28 in points allowed in three seasons. One scout said he wouldn’t judge the performance of any Rams’ coaches in recent years because of the inherent structural flaws that made St. Louis one of several dysfunctional organizations in the league.”