With Favre Out in New York, Clemens Struggles; Tampa Bay Still Interested

Good news: Chad Pennington and Kellen Clemens don't have to spend training camp looking over their shoulders for Brett Favre -- word on the street is that he won't be coming to New York except to visit. Bad news: Clemens has struggled with fumbles during the first few practice sessions. Hardly a big deal in the scheme of things, but try telling that to this dude.

While the Jets work through their quarterback issues, the other team in the Race for Favre, the Buccaneers, appeared to be very close to pulling off a deal last night before hitting the inevitable snag, at least according to the Tampa Tribune.

Though it was believed that the Bucs and Jets had both decided to wait until Favre reported to camp to renew any trade talks with the Packers, we are now hearing of a discussion between the Bucs and Packers that supposedly took place on Saturday. And the end result may be why the Favre saga is suddenly at a standstill.

It is believed that the Bucs and Packers were close to an agreement on compensation but that the agreement fell apart sometime on Saturday.

The Tribune's Roy Cummings speculates that the hold up has everything to do with the compensation. Makes sense; some reports had the Packers wanting a first-round pick for the 38-year-old, 17-year veteran, which, for many teams is sorta steep. Particularly since Jason Taylor andJeremy Shockey were traded for second-round picks.

That's not to say Favre, Taylor and Shockey are equally valuable, just to point out that there's a limit on how much a team is willing to pay, even for a big-named veteran free agent.

No idea how this thing ends up, except that Aaron Rodgers will be the Packers starting quarterback in 2008, and Brett Favre, wherever he ends up, will be the league's most selfish player.