If you thought the Brett Favre goodwill tour through Wisconsin last weekend was only about healing old wounds, glad tidings and remembering a great player, you are sorely mistaken.
It was also about cash.
Brett Favre and his business partners were there to make some of it off of people just like you.
Favre did two autograph signings during the weekend. One was in Green Bay on Saturday, prior to his Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and one in Madison on Sunday.
As is standard procedure, the Packers Hall of Fame charges people for a ticket to the former, which is actually a VIP reception of sorts. You get to booze it up and/or stand in line to meet or get something signed by the inductee. There are other former Packers there too, so you can badger them if you like, as well.
Sunday’s event is a different story. It had a price list.
Don't forget @Favre4Official is signing at .@RedZoneMadison TODAY at 8am via .@lotfautographs Limited tix available pic.twitter.com/5J3f2X0Xxt
— John R. (@jrehor) July 19, 2015
So, go ahead and check off what you’d like right there.
Want Brett to scribble his name? Well, you can make that happen for between $219 and $399.
Maybe you want him to write a couple words, like “Best Wishes?” That’ll be another $159, but be careful. He’ll charge you per word if you go over three!
How about a photo with the old gunslinger? Oh… wait… a professionally-taken photo!
Only $379!
Oh, and it looks like you’ll have to pay some money just to get into this thing because tickets are limited! Maybe you can just pay for the ticket to enter and then stare longingly at Brett for an hour or so before they kick you out.
I mean, what kind of horseshit is this?
We’ll tell you what kind of horseshit it is.
Autograph signings usually work like this. An organization pays the player a fairly substantial upfront fee to make an appearance. For an hour of Favre’s time, we can pretty much guarantee you that rate was not less than $10,000.
So the organization has to recoup that money somehow and they do that by charging people for the autographs and such. Then they have the costs associated with all of those balls and helmets they bought for the player to sign. So that gets passed on too.
These guys mentioned that part of the proceeds of the signing went to Favre’s charity, so maybe Brett lowered his rate slightly for this particular appearance.
Clearly, the real loser in all of this is the fans. Because what dipshit would pay almost $400 for a photo with Brett Favre?
Oh, right…
https://twitter.com/jasonjwilde/status/623225569304539137