Will Brett Favre Return to the Packers Organization? | Ticket King Green Bay

For football writers, June and July is a time of great speculation, as well as some crazy predictions. If there's nothing to write about, sometimes a football writer will come up with their own crazy topic, just to get the fans talking. Sometimes though, a unique situation arises where they get some hard news to report. In this case, Packers legendary quarterback Brett Farve is returning to Green Bay to receive a “Distinguished Service Award” at the De Pere Rotary Club, which of course will be recognizing Brett Favre for his career achievements. In addition, Favre has also said recently that he would “never say never” to an official return to the Packers organization in some capacity. Let's focus on the second of those two stories.

If you've been hiding under a rock for the last decade, the story between Favre and the Packers took many strange, surprising, and sometimes ugly turns. Of course, there was Favre and his retirement waffling, back and forth. Then there was Favre wanting to stick it to the Packers by playing for the Vikings. That has been discussed in great detail over the years, plus we all know how that turned out. For a while there was a standoff between the two sides, before Packers President Mark Murphy reached out to Favre and mended fences a couple of years back. Now apparently there is mutual interest between the two sides to possibly see Favre return to the organization in an “advisory” role. Perhaps the role would be more symbolic than anything else. 

This seems to be a trend these days, rewarding athletes, by organizations, for their past accomplishments. Heck, some organizations are retiring numbers left and right. What happens when they run out of numbers though? Just a thought. I understand why this would appeal to some fans as it's nice to see their past heroes reunite with the teams they cheer for in symbolic public appearances. However, there are also a large number of fans who find these symbolic gestures to be both smoke and mirrors, and a waste of time. Some don't see what great meaning it would be to have the Packers organization roll out the red carpet, once again. The Packers have retired his number, they have mended fences, what's done is done. One quick thing to point out here, is that Favre never actually issued, or gave, a public apology for his actions. For a lot fans, that is not sitting well with them, so that should come into play with the Packers decision here as well. The Packers need to be careful as to how much they get involved here going forward with Favre.

As far as what it would mean for Favre, the organization, and the fans? Not as much as some people think. This is one of the best run organizations in professional sports. This organization has made it very clear over the last 20 years or so that they are not going to cling to aging athletes, no matter how great they once were. We saw that with Darren Sharper. We saw that with Favre and we saw that with Ahman Green. We saw that with Greg Jennings and we saw that with Donald Driver (If he did not retire that offseason, they were going to release him). The Packers are not going to bring Favre in like some other teams would, and hand him some level of control over the organization, nor will they give him a front office position. He will have very little influence as well. Just because a guy was a great player, does not mean he would be a great coach, or front office executive. Only time will prove Favre’s worth. Otherwise, this idea will just be considered to be another superficial gesture.