Earlier today, Vikings quarterback Brett Favre defended the problems he created for the Jets by talking about an injury that the team never reported by potentially creating a problem for the Packers.
“I can’t tell you how many times I probably should have been on the injury report and was not,” Favre said.
(The comment prompted one reader to predict that, eventually, Favre will do or say something to get the CEO of Wrangler jeans in trouble.)
But while a plain reading of Favre’s words suggests that the league office should investigate whether and to what extent the Packers violated the rules of the injury-reporting system during Favre’s tenure with the team, the league apparently has no plans to pursue the matter.
Asked whether the NFL will be investigating whether the Packers cheated on the injury reports during the Favre era, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said, “We are not responding to non-specific information.”
In other words, unless and until Favre says something like, “I looked like I just wanted to go home and climb in bed with a hot water bottle and a romance novel during the 2007 NFC title game because I was suffering from swine flu, polio, and/or lupus,” the league won’t be exploring whether the Packers did anything wrong.
In all fairness, however, the NFL should care enough about the integrity of the injury reports to investigate the matter, just as aggressively as the NFL investigated the Spygate scandal -- and just as swiftly as the league office jumped on the Jets once Favre spilled the beans one too many times regarding the hidden biceps tendon injury.
And that’s why Favre is right when he says the fine imposed on the Jets was “very unfair.” If other teams have gotten away with similar conduct, then it’s not fair to single out the Jets simply because Favre provided enough evidence with his out mouth to make an investigation unnecessary.