Mike McCarthy's Boiling Point

Did Brett Favre take the high road?

Michael Silver provides some insight.

[T]he organization didn’t want to validate Favre’s behavior of the past few months by letting him get his way. Since Favre retired in March – and told McCarthy he’d had a change of heart weeks later, only to change his mind again – McCarthy and Thompson have repeatedly been stung by the critical comments he has made to various reporters about them, including the assertion that they were dishonest. To allow him to go to Minnesota would be catering to the wishes of an employee they felt was borderline insubordinate.

“No way,” one source familiar with the GM’s and coach’s thinking said on Tuesday. “Not with the way he keeps opening his mouth and trashing everybody. We keep biting our tongues and trying to take the high road, and every time he goes into a meeting and they agree to keep it confidential, he goes running to the media and rips them in the press. And now, to give him exactly what he wants and let him go for nothing? Forget about it.”

...How blatantly did Favre disregard the wishes of his superiors? In his hours-long meeting with McCarthy on Monday night, one of the coach’s direct complaints to the quarterback was that he was tired of having their supposedly confidential conversations leaked in the press. McCarthy told Favre, point-blank, that he didn’t want to turn on his TV or computer after the meeting ended and see quotes from Favre, anonymous or otherwise, discussing the interaction.

Yet on Tuesday morning, an article turned up on espn.com with numerous quotes from Favre. The quarterback said, among other things, the Packers had “planted” inaccurate stories about him and that “they tried to buy me off to stay retired” – a reference to the reported 10-year, $20-million marketing deal the team offered. Favre also provided specifics of his conversation with McCarthy, in direct violation of the coach’s previously stated wishes.

The Packers believe Favre’s wife, Deanna, and agent, Bus Cook, helped inflame the situation by advising him to speak out and by amplifying the negative rhetoric about the way he was treated by the team. At one point during the meeting with McCarthy on Monday night, Favre fielded a phone call from his wife and had a conversation with her as the coach waited, a source said.