That being said, I would still rank Favre at number 3 all time. Montana was just too smooth and cool. Brady is very similar. Then, I would put Favre. But, if anybody ever says Favre is the best, I could never argue with them.

…spoken like somebody that got their Packer news by reading the USA Today from a remote location. Don’t try to know….you weren’t here.

The for Favre people feel Favre should have just gotten what he wanted because he was Favre. They felt Ted and Mike got their own egos in the way and that caused them to jilt Favre. However, Ted and Mike acting in their own best interests meshed with doing what they thought was in the best interest for the Pack (because we all know the only way to have job security in the NFL is to win big).

The against Favre people feel vindicated because Rodgers has outperformed what Favre would have done for the pack post 2007. However, if Rodgers hadn’t become Super Bowl and league MVP, the story would be different.

The question about Favre being the best ever is a tough one. Starr had legendary talent around him. Favre for a the most part elevated the team. But boy, it is incredibly hard to overlook all those interceptions at crucial times in playoff games. Favre threw 28 picks in 22 playoff games for the pack, Starr 3 in 10.

1. Don Hutson
2. Bart Starr
3. Reggie White

before even considering Favre.

BS.

Unless Aaron Rodgers all the sudden sucks for the rest of his career, there is no way Brett Favre will go down as the best QB in Packers history.

Rodgers already has 1 ring and many more seasons left to play. The guy doesn’t make stupid throws like Favre, costing you championship games.

That alone separates him from Favre.

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No one is saying that Favre didn’t provide entertainment to the NFL and has statistics worthy of the Hall of Fame. It’s his Packer Legacy that is in dispute, and where he ranks against others in the team’s 90+ year history. The question is how much did Favre pour in and how much did he let leak out over his whole Packer portion of his career – what I described above as the Goodwill and the checks he wrote against it over 16 years. For me, and apparently many others, the upside didn’t put enough in the account for the downside “checks” he wrote against it. And time simply doesn’t make a negative balance a positive one.

Favre was entertaining, but that definition may be different for fans and non-fans. When it’s your team washing out due to 6 INT’s or 4 INT’s or overtime picks it’s not quite “entertaining” as it is gut crushing. Your average NFL fan watching will simply remember the entertainment value.

And, referring to my prolix description above, when it’s not your team getting handed ultimatums or getting its management tossed under the bus, or having a longtime player go to a divisional rival to “stick it” to your team, it probably won’t resonate nearly the same. The rest of the NFL gets the Ol’ Gunslinger to remember one way or another, we get to remember some good times and whole lot of team disrupting bad times. As my first comment pointed out, there was upside, but also downside, and the net of the two does not offset The Divorce.

Entertaining? At times. Legacy Ruining? At the end, unfortunately. And it is unfortunate, as I also said, I don’t follow a sports team to eventually hate players for fun. I want to regard the players on my team favorably. I don’t LIKE hating Favre, but I do, and I have good reason to. I’d prefer to just forget it and move on, but, again, there are perfunctory obligations and rituals for the team to perform, which the opposite of just moving on. But it doesn’t change my attitude toward Favre. I watched the Packers lose at noon and the Cowboys win at three for many years. And I desperately wanted my TEAM to be like the Cowboys. NOT dreaming of the day when a player would run up a bunch of personal statistics and make the Hall of Fame, much less turn around and soil the team. He provided entertainment, but in a selfish way and the end proved that out. He’d entertain, HIS WAY. If not, well… “waddy gunna do about it?”….. he found out the hard way and he was moved to revenge. And all he did was burn his Packer legacy, and his bridges, on the wrong side of the Mississippi. And I am simply not in a bridge rebuilding mood from my end.

Favre was not forced out he Quit then threw a temper tantrum.
Like a spoiled child he gave other teams (not just the team he was playing for but others like the Lions info on how to beat the team) He told Urlacher to beat the Packers in the NFC championship game. He is a scumbag wife cheating SOB.
Greatest player their is a valid argument for that.
Greatest Packer nope

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But, you see, it’s not ONE single con. Starting in 2005, after a few years of waffling (which I attributed to the media anyway) Favre issued the ultimatum that if Sherman were fired, he probably wouldn’t come back (because he didn’t want to learn a new playbook). This wasn’t just waffling, it was a threat. And the bootlicking local WI media began the series of “what do the Packers have to do to keep Favre happy” articles. Then in 2006, Favre made the smug “what are they gunna do, cut me?” comment which might be a little light on the gravity scale, but it certainly was enlightening as to his mind set and sets the table for everything that came after.

Then in 2007, he made the “trade me” comment in public, and then had to back pedal. From the offseason through camp, every press conference Favre gave he had this dead eyed, diffident attitude – he was just in it for his records that 2007 would bring. And why? Because, as we learned later, his hand selected free agent wasn’t signed – Randy Moss. And when Moss not signed as ordered again in 2008 Favre quit. And that led to the public trashing of the team on Greta, where Favre talked about the linemen that weren’t re-signed as instructed, which candidates to interview/hire after Sherman was fired (again against Favre’s ultimatum), and Moss not getting signed. And this does not include his feeding innuendo after innuendo to Mortensen at ESPN.

And all the 2008 stuff so Favre could get his release so he could play with his buddies in MN. He waited until all the off season routine had come and gone, HIS SALARY CAP DISTRIBUTED, and everyone was on vacation to announce his return. This was purposeful to put financial pressure on the Packers and so gain his release. And THEN when asked, during an interview in early 2009, what was the center piece of his “mistrust” of Ted Thompson, Favre said when he drafted two QB’s and “closed the door on me” (it was within a week that Favre was on the phone to the Vikings).

So, over three years, Favre wanted to dictate who the coach was, which players to re-sign, broker free agent deals, and have sign-off on the 2008 draft IN RETIREMENT. Being denied these things is what drove him to quit and then seek revenge. You say in retrospect it was win/win when if effect it was lose/lose – either let Favre be the de facto GM, and continue to run the team into the ground as he and Sherman had been doing already, or face team tearing retribution. It is ONLY because of Thompson that we have what we have now. And as for MN, they got a 10-1 record when Favre PLAYED WITHIN THE SYSTEM (Childress’ system basically being Holmgren’s mid-90′s system, having been with Reid in Phillie, who himself was a Holmgren assistant), but once Favre got comfortable, there was the public/sideline dust-up with Childress, and the Vikings were 7-11 in Favre starts thereafter, regular and post-season, with yet another playoff washout due to poor decision making.

All that I have pointed out here are is on the record and easily researchable. it wasn’t ONE con, it was a series of issues wherein Favre thought he was above the team. When he was basically informed he wasn’t , we all got to see the consequences. Again, 30% of his 20 year career was lording it over the organization or trying to gain revenge against it. And for what? So that a Sherman/Rossely coached team, with aging or retired linemen and Randy Moss could struggle along until all of Favre’s “itches” were scratched using the team as the scratching post? Even as the team was coming off a 13-3, near Super Bowl appearing team doing it pretty much opposite to Favre’s directives? That pretty much proves that it wasn’t success, BUT DOING IT FAVRE’S WAY that mattered. And it was doing it Favre’s way that killed the Vikings and put them at the bottom of the division. It’s not a coincidence that 4 of the 6 head coaches Favre played for for an appreciable amount of time were fired, while the one who left on his own terms made another Super Bowl (with 14 Ted Thompson draft picks) in Seattle, and the other is coaching arguably the best team in the NFL the last three years. Favre was head coaching kryptonite.

And, again, Favre’s behavior was not singular or to be marginalized. He wrote too many checks for too many years against his Goodwill.

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And Michael Jordan has nothing on Bill Russell. Football is an entirely different game from today. Your playoff logic means you hold Dilfer in higher regard than Manning.

Plain and simple, Favre is a gunslinger. They will win and lose, but the fact is EVERYONE loves a gunslinger.

I still think that Packer fans (real ones, not the Johnny come lately’s) should still be disgusted with Ted Thompson about his handling of Favre. After Favre’s insane 2009 season, those naysayers who claimed he had nothing left were clearly wrong.

Actually we were clearly right. Favre was never going ot win another championship. He proved that in Green Bay, he proved it in NY and he proved it in MN. That’s why Thompson and McCarthy decided to move on to Rodgers. Favre could not win another ring. He could win some games, he could play a better controlled game but when the chips were on the line he would do what he does – blow it and he did.