Buckle up, Green Bay fans. Your team is about to suffer its first loss.
No matter what happens with the Brett Favre situation, the Packers are goners. They have as much chance of winning this public-relations nightmare with Favre as the San Diego Padres do of reaching the World Series.
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| Would Pack fans forgive the team for trading Favre? Some would, others wouldn't. (US Presswire) |
Trust me. I've seen it before, and so have you. San Francisco wanted to "move forward with (its) football team," as the Packers put it Friday, in 1993 when it made a commitment to backup quarterback Steve Young.
The message was clear: The 49ers thought they had a better chance with the younger quarterback than they did with Joe Montana, and when they communicated that to Joe, he demanded a change of scenery.
So the 49ers did the unthinkable and traded him to Kansas City, and while he was successful there, he never again played in a Super Bowl. Young, of course, did, breaking Montana's record for touchdown passes in Super Bowl XXIX as the 49ers destroyed San Diego.
Nevertheless, there were -- and are -- 49ers fans who never forgave the club for letting Joe go and believed then as they do now that the Niners made a mistake.
What they forget is that San Francisco had no choice. The 49ers knew what they had to do, and they did it. And if Montana wasn't on board with the program, then he would have to play somewhere else.
So he was traded, the club was criticized and Young led the 49ers to another Super Bowl.
I'm reminded of that when I hear about Favre demanding his outright release from Green Bay, a move that will put the Packers in another can't-win situation. Favre sees what Montana did 15 years ago -- that he must sit behind a younger quarterback -- and he's not happy.
I understand that. But at some time you have to "move forward," and the Packers have. So did Dallas when it said goodbye to Troy Aikman in 2001, and so did the 49ers when they put Young on notice in 2000 that he was finished in Santa Clara.
Aaron Rodgers must have his opportunity, and the Packers rightly will give it to him. When they spent a first-round pick on Rodgers in the 2005 draft the expectation was that he was the quarterback of the future. The only question was: When would that future begin?
Well, it's now, people, and Favre knows it. He also knows if he returns to the club he complicates a situation where Rodgers is the expected starter and where Favre might, just might, wind up on the bench.
