Amid reports that Vikings quarterback Brett Favre thinks coach Brad Childress has no clue, Favre held a closed-door meeting with teammates to tell them where he stands.
Ed Werder of ESPN reports that Favre told his fellow players that he wishes they would keep such matters within the team, rather than talking to the media.
“If something is being said in here -- by whoever, it’s got to stop,” Favre said. “It’s hard enough to win as it is. Success does crazy things. So we had a good meeting.”
According to Werder, that was one of two messages Favre delivered in separate speeches to his teammates. Favre took a separate opportunity to assure his teammates that he’s committed to them, his lengthy absence from training camp notwithstanding.
“I did feel -- more so than last year, believe it or not -- I needed them to know I’m all in,” Favre said. “Not that they didn’t know. I think they did just from me being there. And that was kind of the mantra from all of those guys: ‘We knew if we got you here, we were going to get you and you’d be all in. It was getting your [butt] here that is the problem.’”
Nothing Favre says, either publicly or privately, is going to change either the perception that he doesn’t think highly of Childress, or the perception that he thinks the usual rules of training camp attendance don’t apply to him. But you can’t blame Favre for trying.