Monday, October 05, 2009

Mike Tirico is a Historical Revisionist

I will make no attempt to hide the fact that I was rooting for Packers, or that I really, really dislike the Vikings. I will not spend too much time arguing the ridiculous penalty disparity (in particular, the bullshit pass interference on Chuck Woodson at the end of the first half, or the fact that the Vikings apparently didn't hold a single pass rusher once all game long.)

What I want to spend just a few sentences on here is Mike Tirico's repeated, loaded description of the circumstances of Favre leaving the Green Bay Packers.

Look, we all know the history of Favre retiring and un-retiring. Favre can go on national TV and make it sound like it was all about the Packers driving him out before he was ready--the natural reaction to that is to remember all the times he retired, dicked around all off season, and then announced at the last minute that he would come back. What management team wouldn't love that? Why, how dare the Packers draft a QB when their starting Quarterback was only 35 years old at the time, and expressing even then a certain fatigue in the game?

It is laughable, until guys like Mike Tirico and John Gruden advance the story as if it is true. Suddenly, it becomes the truth--Brett Favre was driven out of Green Bay by rapacious, vicious ownership and management! Are you fucking kidding me?

Favre retired. The Packers brought him back. He retired again, and then came back. The Packers decided that they had spent a high draft pick in Aaron Rodgers, and they needed to see what they had. They offered Favre a back-up role. He was insulted. He demanded a trade or a release. The Packers looked across the border and saw Tavaris Jackson starting in Minnesota and knew that a release was a horrible idea.

Favre treated that like it was an insult. It was a compliment. The Packers management was saying, "We know that you are a pain in the ass prima donna, but we also know you are very talented. We are going to trade you away to the team furthest away from us." Hence, the Jets.

Let's be clear-=-the Packers didn't fuck over Brett Favre. They were not mean to Brett Favre. They did not force his retirement. They got tired of the offseason question mark, and the easiest way to get rid of that question mark was to simply hold Favre to his own retirement plan.
All of this is easily looked-up, understood, or even simply remembered. It wasn't all that long ago. Mike Tirico, get your facts straight. Just because Brett Favre says the Packers were mean to him, doesn't make it fucking so, alright?

2 comments:

Muumuuman said...

You assume Brett Favre is an adult. He is not. He's like a kid out there. Would you like your child told he couldn't play football wherever and whenever he wanted! No! He'd throw a temper-tantrum. Given his delicate child-like state he did get screwed over by Green Bay's mean old ownership. Poor little fellow...

Andrew Wice said...

that made me laugh