An open letter to Green Bay Packers president Mark Murphy
Dear Mark:
First of all, I bet you may be wondering now what you got yourself into when you took that job in Green Bay. As you and I discussed when we first met at a Milwaukee Press Club Newsmaker Luncheon a few months ago, you knew then that you would someday need to guide the Packers through the post-Brett Favre era.
Neither you nor I could have foreseen how ugly that would play out.
But playing out it is. And as you know, it’s nasty. Favre is burning his Packer bridges behind him, with allegations that general manager Ted Thompson lied to him.
On one hand, Favre’s detractors may be right … He may be a prima donna. He may be a narcissist. He may be a drama queen. He may be a baby. He may be a whiner.
He may be all of those things. So what. He’s also a great football player.
So far, Thompson has appeared to be a deer in Ashwaubenon headlights. For Thompson to tell Favre that he is welcome to return and be the backup quarterback is a joke. Over time, Thompson is engaging in public relations war that he will not win. Twenty years from now, Packers fans will be pining about the Favre era. Thompson will be a trivia question.
That being said, I dare say it’s time for you to make an executive intervention on behalf of the organization. You can take the personalities out of this nasty conundrum. If Thompson and the rest of the Packer braintrust indeed believe that it’s time to move on without Favre, then so be it. They should have the testicular fortitude to make that decision, if that’s their best guess, and move on.
If Thompson truly believes the Packers will be better off without Favre, then why would he fear Favre competing against the Packers as an opposing quarterback?
Some people make this more complicated than it really need be. The Packers have three options here. They can welcome Favre back. They can trade him. They can cut him. Letting this drag on into a he said/he said soap opera is not good for the organization, for the Packers’ players, for the team’s fans, for Favre OR for heir apparent Aaron Rodgers.
Mark, as a lifetime Packer fan, I ask you to intervene and insist that the organization make a decision, so everyone involved can move on.
Steve Jagler is executive editor of Small Business Times.
