http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcnorth/post/_ ... -situation
It's been long enough since we’ve heard from Brett Favre, right?
I say yes, and my vote counts more than yours.
Favre's appearance on an Atlanta radio station, courtesy sportsradiointerviews.com, contains another meandering Favrian observation that merits further inspection. Here's his response when asked what he thought while watching Aaron Rodgers take the Green Bay Packers to the Super Bowl last season:
"I’m going to be honest, I was not surprised. The biggest surprise to me would be that he didn't do it sooner.
"It's funny how people can get over time, my last year in Green Bay prior to the first game, I made the remark that this was probably the most talented team that I’ve ever played on. And of course everyone looked up and was like 'this guy's off his rocker.' We were very, very young; take me out of the mix and we were by far the youngest team in the league. But I could see the talent pool across the board was outstanding. Now our season kind of ended up being a reflection of that. We came close, and I think we took a lot of people by surprise, but guys emerged rather quickly. Aaron had a chance…even though the last couple years it’s seemed like he’s almost a rookie, he’s been around awhile.
"And I’d like to think that he watched, he learned, and then when he got a chance to play, he brought in his ability which is obviously very good or they wouldn’t have drafted him in the first round. He's got tremendous talent, he's very bright and he got a chance to watch and see successful teams do it right. And so he just kind of fell into a good situation. On top of that, he’s a good player.
"I don’t think there’s any pressure on him now, the talent around him is even better than when I was there. So I’m really kind of surprised it took him so long. In the early part of last year season, it hadn’t quite clicked yet and I didn’t know it would. I just kind of figured when they hit their stride, they’re going to be hard to beat. And that’s what happened."
You know Favre. His answers are so meandering that nothing he says comes off like a sledgehammer over the head. On the whole, this response was pretty neutral on Rodgers. But there were some very Favre-like passive shots in there as well. Is Rodgers a great quarterback, or did he "just kind of [fall] into a good situation?" And does the Packers' overall talent diminish our view of how effective he is? Finally, Favre made clear that Rodgers "got a chance to watch and see successful teams do it right." So Favre taught him how to win?
The Favre-Rodgers transition will always be an uncomfortable topic in Green Bay. In the end, I bet Favre doesn’t like Rodgers questions anymore than Rodgers likes to talk about Favre.
