Brett Favre is set to meet with Mike McCarthy in a few hours. Favre reported officially to the Green Bay Packers this afternoon and after a routine physical and condition testing, Favre is expected to be on the practice field with the team tomorrow (Tuesday), presumably with an opportunity to compete for the starters job with Aaron Rodgers.
McCarthy said Sunday night that he wanted to sit down with Favre face to face and find out just where he is in his desire to come back and lead this team.
Oh, what a mess for the Packers. They've made it known for weeks that they want Brett Favre to just go away. They've said repeatedly that the direction of this football team is with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. The Packers have prepared Rodgers to be the starter all offseason, while Favre was doing whatever retired NFL players do. Mike McCarthy repeatedly told the media things like, "I don't know how many other ways I can put it, Aaron Rodgers is our quarterback." Yet we're hearing that Rodgers now might not be their quarterback, that he may have to beat out Brett Favre for the job.
I've been in the Rodgers camp on this one, but let's be honest. I've been excited to finally see Rodgers play and to see what kind of quarterback he can develop into. I think it's ridiculous that Brett Favre can just dangle the organization like a string and do whatever he wants to do. He put the team in a bad spot and quite frankly, the team didn't handle it well. But certainly whatever way the Packers decided to handle it, they look even worse by caving in. They told Rodgers he was their man, now they could be telling him that he still could be, but he has to go survive a quarterback battle with a future Hall of Famer. Favre can still play and if he's kept himself in shape in the offseason, my guess is that he'll hold off Rodgers. That is if the competition is truely a competition.
Both sides have waffled so much in this deal that neither knows if they're coming or going. There's been reports that the Packers have told the Vikings as late as last Friday that Favre was available via trade. Does that sound like a team that's about to fairly open up a quarterback battle? No, that sounds like a team who says one thing and does another. It sounds like a team that will say Favre will get a chance to start, but the job will go to Rodgers anyway, which as I stated I'm alright with, but not going about it this way. The Packers in effect have told every player in that lockerroom that the organization can't be trusted. They've handed the starters job to Rodgers and before he could do anything on the field, they're potentially yanking it away.
McCarthy could still shed a different light when he talks to the team and then the media tonight, so we'll see. But this is looking uglier by the day, and it doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon.