All kinds of great Brett Favre anecdotes coming out this week!
He thinks he’s Elvis. He thinks he can still play (which, unlike everyone else, we don’t find surprising at all).
And this.
Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson texted Favre after both of Brett’s victories over the Packers as a member of the Minnesota Vikings in 2009.
https://twitter.com/jasonjwilde/status/616316210100240384
Big Ted’s texts to Favre were “Great job,” after the first Vikings’ win and “You played outstanding,” after the second.
This is surprising because of the way Favre left town and the fact that he engineered his way to the Vikings to stick it to the Packers. We’ve always believed that Thompson was the main focus of Favre’s ire, since Thompson ultimately made the decision that the Packers wouldn’t take Favre back as a starter or grant his release in 2008.
It’s not surprising if you look at it from another angle, though.
Thompson knew the Packers would want to repair their relationship with Favre and that Favre would eventually stop being a vindictive, selfish dick. And if Thompson still planned on running the Packers football operations for a while, he’d have to make nice with Favre.
So Thompson laid the groundwork early.
Do we like it?
We don’t like anything about those shitbags from Minnesota beating the Packers, so no.
We respect it, though.
What other option did he have? Favre made him look like an idiot at the time. Did Favre send any texts out in 2010 when Green Bay returned the favor?
No one was looking at Favre’s texts after what happened in New York. No one needed to see that.
Not text anything, like the rest of the world. Wow, that was tough to answer.
Favre only made Thompson look like an idiot to short-sited non-Packer fans
Shameful.
Therein lies the difference. It was a business decision for TT & the Packers made with no malice because there were other options available. It was totally personal to Favre who became consumed with vengeance for pay back and blindly burned many a bridge with many a fan to achieve it. His subsequent failure to HONESTLY recognize & address that topic remains the main barrier to total reconciliation with the fan base…especially the die hards. Hence the “forced” feeling & luke warm reception his homecoming has produced. Its a sad, cautionary tale of how NOT TO preserve your legacy with a team & its fan base. The man & his play deserved better. And so did we.
Good post.
I wonder if the Vikings knew about those texts. If they did It is suprising they did not file tampering charges against the Pack, just to screw with TT.
Favre should have replied with a dick pic.
Not everyone sees things the same. DJ has his viewpoint on this putting blame more on Favre. I would say Thompson DID not handle 2008 with sound business logic. Sound business would say whatever choice is made, you stand up and make it confidently AND in a manner that is not disrespectful to Favre. Why would you want to damage the image and brand of your team or your team’s most iconic player?
The Colts, probably benefiting from witnessing the disastrous way the Packers handled Favre in 2008, handled Manning far better with greater and proper respect when they chose to move on.
With Favre it was simple… when he came back interested in continuing to play… you either want him back or you do not. They did not. But, rather than handling that straight, they played games with the situation in first trying to entice Favre to change his mind… to pay him off basically. THEN, in the end they decided to trade him to the Jets rather than release him freely or work with him to place him somewhere he truly wanted to go. Thompson was like the girlfriend who decided she wanted to move on but also didn’t want her ex to date anyone else. It was ridiculous.
Then they put out the statement for a day of welcoming Favre back only to then bar him from full access to Lambeau facilities. They hired Ari Fletcher to put a political spin on the situation that was pro-management and anti-Favre. It just amazed me how many fans turned on Favre. To me, it was pretty clear in his final years in GB that Favre was committed to trying to win a championship while Thompson was focused on building for a more distant future. Thompson routinely gave Favre lip service that Thompson’s actions did not back up… most team legends in a situation like that would not be pleased with that type of treatment. Favre gets so much of the blame from many, but I always understood Favre’s side and felt if I were him I would have felt exactly the same.
And as for going to the Vikings… really… at that time, it was the best team option for him… they had key talent at most positions but QB. If his goal was to win a championship his two best options at the time were GB and MN.