Favre Cares about Packers: Stays Away from Training Camp

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Brett Favre will wait at least a day or two before applying for reinstatement to the Green Bay Packers, but the way things are going it's unlikely anything will have changed when he finally does.

Favre went on the offensive Sunday, using two of his closest media confidants, Chris Mortensen of ESPN.com and Peter King of Sports Illustrated, to explain why he had not filed his reinstatement papers and remained at odds with the organization for which he played quarterback for 16 years. In a pair of interviews, Favre said that general manager Ted Thompson pleaded with him not to report to camp on Sunday morning with the other players and wanted him to just "go away."

"It's pretty clear - and this is what I told the commissioner - that they want me to go away, stay retired," Favre told ESPN.com. "They would much rather see me in a Packers' uniform, paying me $12 million to be a backup - which you know they really don't want - rather than see (me) in another uniform, no matter what they say.

"They'll drag this out, asking a king's ransom [in a trade], hoping it all goes away."

It's evident from Favre's interviews that he's going to press the issue. He said he signed his reinstatement papers but agreed not to send them to the NFL office in deference to Thompson's request, even though he was urged by his wife and agent to report to the Packers.

"Everyone here [in Mississippi] says, 'You're so stupid, letting (the Packers) play you like this,' " Favre told ESPN.com. "They want me to get in there now. I may wait until Tuesday or so."

In what appears to be a move aimed at getting his release, Favre has refused to talk to any of the teams that the Packers have contacted about a trade. According to a league source familiar with the trade talks, the only way those teams will even consider trading for Favre is if they can talk to him.

...When he asked Thompson on Saturday whether he could come into camp and compete with Aaron Rodgers for the quarterback job, Favre said Thompson was taken aback.

"I asked Ted (Saturday), 'Am I welcome in the building if I report?' and Ted was just about shattered," Favre told Mortensen. "He said, 'Brett, you can't do that - you'll get me fired.' I told him I'm not trying to get anybody fired. So Ted asked me to let the guys report and let's try to resolve this over the next two or three days."

Thompson acknowledged that he spoke with Favre, but he said he wasn't shattered.

"We were speaking on the phone, so I'm not sure how you ever get to the part about shattered," Thompson said. "I don't have anything to say about it really. I'm just getting at what the tone was. It was a friendly conversation."

...Commissioner Roger Goodell has been monitoring the situation since last week and encouraged the Packers to find a place for Favre to play. The Packers then spoke to about 20 teams about a possible trade, but apparently the teams with which they spoke were not to Favre's liking.

The Associated Press reports:

Favre told SI.com that Packers general manager Ted Thompson had asked him for "a couple of days" to resolve the situation.

"I agreed to do that," Favre told the site. "I don't want to be a distraction to the Packers, and I hope in the next few days we can come to an agreement that would allow me to continue playing football."

That agreement, presumably, would be a trade. The New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers have emerged as two potential trade partners for the Packers, and Favre told si.com that he would consider a trade to any team.

What's the truth?

ENOUGH!

I'm so sick of this He said / He said stuff.

I'm sick of the maneuvers and posturing.

I'm sick of the way the media are being played in this whole thing.

It is way too late for this to end well.

All involved look bad.

It's sad. I've made the pilgrimage to Green Bay for more training camps than I can count.

The cloud hanging over this one makes me long for the days when training camp was a time of excitement and hope rather than turmoil.

For Favre to say that he isn't showing up because he doesn't want to be a distraction is a joke. His flip-flopping has been a huge distraction.

For the supposedly "shattered" Thompson to have said that he begged Favre to stay away is just more weirdness.

I'm sick of it.

This is a very unfortunate way for the Favre era with the Packers to end.

There comes a time when there's so much bitterness that it becomes impossible to let bygones be bygones.

As a loyal Packer fan and a loyal Favre fan, I feel like a kid caught in the middle of an ugly divorce.

MAKE IT STOP!