Now Retired, Maybe Favre Can Grow Up

Legendary quarterback Brett Favre announced his retirement (again) on Wednesday, (maybe) ending an illustrious 18-year career. There's no doubt that Favre, the all-time record-holder in pass completions, attempts, yards, touchdowns, interceptions, and wins (among other things), is going to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame come 2014. You'd have to be clinically insane to deny this truth.

By now, you've already read my colleague Jay Mariotti's awesome column on Favre. While Jay is spot-on in his assessment of Favre's career, Favre himself has shown that he is far from perfect.

Favre's contentious departure from Green Bay last summer left a bad taste in a lot of fans' mouths. It left Packer supporters with the choice of supporting Favre or supporting the Packers. In their view, there was no middle ground. After 17 years, Favre was an icon, and many Packer fans couldn't stand the thought of him being in the wrong about anything.

The reality is that both Favre and Packers general manager Ted Thompson were in the wrong. Thompson stubbornly insisted that Aaron Rodgers was his starting quarterback, even though a future Hall of Famer who had just led the Packers to the NFC Championship Game said he wanted to play again. This is illogical on many levels, even though Thompson was not proven wrong in the end. Aaron Rodgers actually outplayed Favre this season, despite a leaky offensive line, struggling running game, bad defense, worse special teams, and a bad throwing shoulder.

Favre, meanwhile, has proven that he just can't let things go.

Favre told (ESPN's Ed) Werder about his bitterness during a one-hour interview Werder conducted a week after the Jets' season ended.

Werder (wrote) in an e-mail Wednesday evening about the timing of the publication of Favre's comments.

"Those comments were made on the record a week after the season with him knowing they would be published," Werder said. "They were actually part of a different project initially, a magazine and Web site feature I had been working on about his final year."

Werder told ESPNews ... "I think this was a very personal sense of animosity he felt toward one person in the Green Bay organization, and that was Green Bay GM Ted Thompson."

"His first move when he took over the management of the franchise was not to get Brett Favre more help on offense, but to draft his successor, Aaron Rodgers, with the very first pick. I don't think Brett really ever forgave him for that."

If you'd like, feel free to hold out hope Ed Werder is lying again. I tend to think he's telling the truth on this one.

I understand that Favre was upset with Thompson over the way things were handled last year. It's hard to say I agree, but I understand it.

(Frankly, the Packers were probably sick and tired of getting jerked around by Favre every offseason, and they probably wanted to either prepare for another season with Favre or to move on without him. I don't think Thompson wanted to get rid of Favre, but I also think he knew he couldn't leave Rodgers on the bench forever, especially with how he played in that game at Dallas in November 2007.)

However, if Favre was truly still upset over the Packers' decision to draft Rodgers in the first round back in 2005, then his bitterness isn't even based on something reasonable. It's based on the childish notion that the only thing that mattered was the end of Favre's career.

Whether you like it or not, Aaron Rodgers (right) was one of the league's best quarterbacks in 2008. He did it despite a mountain of adversity, and he did it in his first year as a starter. Picking in the bottom third of the first round in 2005, the Packers had the chance to take a player who some thought would go first overall. Asking a general manager to pass up on this opportunity is just foolish. When you consider that Thompson took over a team with no depth, a gaggle of overpaid players, and a bad salary-cap situation (thanks to the previous general manager, Mike Sherman), it's downright stupid to suggest that Rodgers wasn't a fair selection.

Packer fans should be proud of themselves. The support they gave Rodgers from the first preseason game onward was impressive, and I think they understand that he has a chance to cement his own legacy in this league. Thompson should be happy about taking Rodgers, and he should be hopeful about this team's future with such a fine young quarterback leading the way.

Favre also has a lot to be proud of. He was an iconic figure for an iconic franchise for many, many years. He won a Super Bowl, never missed a start, and set a ton of records that may or may not be broken someday.

It's my genuine hope that Favre and Thompson can sit down like adults and work out their differences, and that it happens much sooner than later. Neither of them handled things very well last summer, and while their egos may have been bruised, they should be ashamed for leaving Packer fans in such a difficult position all year long.