Earlier today, MDS pointed out that, per Ed Werder of ESPN, Brett Favre met with his teammates in an effort to get one or more of them to quit talking to the media about a possible rift (or, dare we say, schism) between Favre and coach Brad Childress.
Curiously, Favre never denied to Werder the content of Jason Cole’s report, which relied in part on an unnamed Vikings player who said, “Brett thinks Childress has no clue about offense.”
Though Cole’s report specifically said that “multiple teams sources” indicated that “Favre’s disdain for Childress is deep,” some think that Cole’s source (or at least one of them) was quarterback Sage Rosenfels.
It’s hardly a stretch. Applying Occam’s Razor (man, I feel smart whenever I use that phrase, and then I completely blow it by leaving the keys in the ignition all night and killing the battery), Rosenfels is the obvious choice. He arrived via trade in 2009, with the belief he’d be competing only with Tarvaris Jackson for a shot at finally becoming an NFL starter. And it was V.P. of player personnel Rick Spielman, not Childress, who championed the move to get Rosenfels.
Then, Favre became available and he eventually unretired, again. Rosenfels ended up being the odd man out in 2009, making not a single game appearance for the first time since his rookie year in 2001.
This year, Rosenfels was put on ice for large chunks of the offseason program, with Tarvaris Jackson and Joe Webb, a sixth-round rookie drafted to be a receiver, getting all of the work. Last week, with everyone expecting Favre to return, Jackson took limited snaps and Rosenfels was showcased against the Rams, throwing more than 30 passes and getting into separate sideline tiffs with Childress and offensive coordinator Darell Bevell.
Apart from the fact that Rosenfels would have the greatest natural incentive to tell tales about the teammate who screwed up Rosenfels’ shot at being an every-down quarterback is the fact that a pipeline already exists between Rosenfels and Cole. It dates back to Cole’s tenure with the Miami Herald, covering Rosenfels when he was a backup quarterback with the Dolphins. Last year, Cole interviewed Rosenfels after Favre reiterated his Second Annual Retirement, only a couple of weeks before his Second Annual Unretirement.
So if people outside the organization are connecting the fairly large dots, people inside the organization likely are doing it, too. And maybe that’s what Rosenfels wants. If the team decides that he can’t be trusted, maybe he won’t have to spend the entire 2010 season all dressed out, with no place to play.