A job about nothing

Imagine if an executive at a Fortune 500 company, the most a guy who brought that company back to preeminence after being irrelevant for 25 years, waffled between retirement and staying on. Under what circumstances would the company offer him $20 million to retire, except for an occasional function where he has to gladhand a few stockholders? That's almost exactly what's going on in Green Bay. Now the Packers aren't quite in the Fortune 500, but they really aren't that far off, and most importantly they are a public owned company, the only such team in American sports. I can't imagine that the stockholders want to sink $20 million into keeping Favre off the Vikings when they offered Ryan Grant a $1.75 million signing bonus on a six year deal.

It sounds like this is how Brett Favre's career is going to end: publicly bank rolled by a team with one of the lowest payrolls in the league to remain active in the Green Bay community? So is this a case of sports becoming more or less like a business? The argument for it becoming less like a business is based around how personal this dispute has become. The argument for sports becoming more like a business is how eerily similar this sounds to Dick Cheney's retirement from Halliburton, for which he received a $20 million severance package.

The case for Favre in Washington

I'm going down the list of possible destinations for Brett Favre, and the Redskins are starting to look more and more like the most likely destination. Right away, you can eliminate Chicago and Minnesota, because Green Bay still controls his rights and there is zero chance they deal him within the devision. Miami has frequently been mentioned, but I can't see Favre renegotiating his contract to play on a team coming off of 1-15. Likewise Atlanta. Baltimore is a possibility, but the Ravens are focused on rebuilding and are downplaying their interest. The Jets are a logical destination, although they haven't been mentioned as prominently as the other teams and should be concerned about retarding the development of Kellen Clemens by potentially moving him to third on the depth chart. Tampa Bay is a strong contender, since Jon Gruden is a former Packers assistant coach and he loves to accumulate quarterbacks.

Mike Francesca today indicated he had heard Washington and Carolina were in the mix. Out of all of these teams, the Panthers are the only one with an above average quarterback, as Jake Delhomme was on his way to a career season last year before he hurt his elbow, and is expected to be back at 100% (or more) next year. Also, the Panthers have already traded their first round pick for next year, so they may be wary or trading another high pick. That leaves the Redskins. They don't seem to have the cap room, although that's never stopped them before. It may hurt the development of Jason Campbell but, again, that's never stopped them before.

Looking at the obvious problems with acquiring a starting quarterback for a single season (building cohesion with the receivers and offensive line, learning the playbook, fracturing the locker room), the two most likely outcomes for the Favre saga are Favre starting for the Packers in week one or staying retired. But since I didn't see the retirement story getting this far, I'll acknowledge Tampa Bay, Washington, and the Jets as the likely contenders.

Biggest offseason winner: Frank Caliendo

When Chris Mortensen dropped the bombshell last week that Brett Favre was considering a comeback, I was completely dismissive. I mean, consider the source. Mortensen has been loud wrong pretty frequently over the last few years, and this story sounded a little far fetched to me. Why would Favre risk his legacy by so clearly putting his own interests ahead of that of the team's? Coming out of retirement would make many of the Packers' offseason moves inconsequential, including drafting Brian Brohm in the second round and Matt Flynn in the 7th, and failing to address the middle of the pack rush defense.

And then Peter King, who's so in the tank for Favre that he's practically a caricature of Frank Caliendo's John Madden impersonation, dropped this nugget:

I fully expect Favre's agent to send a letter to the Packers within the next 10 days, stating that Favre, 38, wants to be taken off the National Football League's reserve/retired list.
Wow. And King is far from alone in speculating that if Green Bay doesn't welcome him back, Favre next two most likely destinations are division rivals Chicago and Minnesota. It's like the Packers had an amicable break up with it's girlfriend, they've moved on to someone new, and then the ex says "You're welcoming me back with a smile on your face or I'm moving in with your best friend."

The happiest guy in the world about this, even more than the kid who wore Favre's jersey for four straight years: Frank Caliendo. He's got to feel like like he just won the lottery. If Favre is playing next year, he'll be doing Madden impersonations on every media outlet from August to May. "My Brett Favre's back and your defense is in trouble..."