Steve Young objective

[eagle13]

His interview on JS website is very balanced - I agree entirely -


According to Steve Young, the Green Bay Packers and Brett Favre are working on different agendas: Favre wants to win tomorrow and the Packers are building to win beyond tomorrow.

Young made his comments Tuesday afternoon on ESPN Radio.

The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback said Favre was not being selfish or putting himself above the team for expressing frustration about not getting help to make Packers a championship contender before he retires.

"He's a made man," Young said of Favre. "In a way he's like Jerry Rice, who many times would complain and moan. But because he works so hard and has accomplished so much that instead of being selfish, was (perceived as) all I want to do is win. . . . In that way he is a little bit protected."

Young said the Packers started retooling two years ago and "were moving on" to build for the future.

"As an organization, I think they are fundamentally looking to build a championship football team, not necessarily building a team for tomorrow to help Brett Favre win a championship," Young said. "So those two things don't meet. It's not against anybody. It's just that they are not going to meet. When I found that out with the 49ers in 2000, I retired. If we weren't going to go for a championship, I was at an age where that's not what I wanted to do. Brett decided differently, like Jerry Rice."

Perhaps clear communication about these matters has not taken place between Favre and the Packers.

"(Favre) is one of the best players in professional football history," Young said. "It's his career. If he is going to stick around and he has done so much for his team, it's not selfish to say, 'Look, I want help, if we are going to go for a championship.' Or the Packers need to say, 'We are not playing for championships; we are building a team over a period of time.' They do this little dance step where neither of them says what they really mean. Unfortunately, it's put them in a little bit of a jam with each other and that's why I think Brett reacted.

"I think he thought, 'Look, I'll come back. We had a nice finish to the season. We get a couple of nice pieces, including Randy Moss, look, we can win it.' I know what Brett's thinking. 'I can sneak one in and leave like John Elway on the horse. Leave and be a champion. But I need a couple of weapons.' When they let it pass and they didn't get him . . . I think it left him empty."

The two sides are looking at winning in different ways.

"To me the Packers are doing what they think is best," Young said. "Totally fine. Brett is doing what he hoped would be best. That's fine. There has been some miscommunication or some expectations that weren't met. That's the reaction. I think you are in a tough spot with a Hall of Fame football player playing late into his 30s and the team is thinking, 'We are a long way from a championship and we will do something different.' Philosophically they are in different places. They are going to have some rough patches."