One of the most unfortunate parts of sports is a team being forced to decide when it is the right time to part ways with the Face of the Franchise.  The Bulls had to make the decision with Michael Jordan.  The 49ers struggled with letting Joe Montana go to Kansas City. 

The Green Bay Packers have reached that point with Brett Favre.  This is a very hard topic for me to write objectively on, because Brett Favre has been my favorite athlete since he became the quarterback for the Packers back in 1992.  I am originally from Wisconsin, and have been a Packer fan my whole life.  I think like most things in life, there is blame to go around on both sides. 

The first thing people have to understand is that this is not about the Packers holding on to a memory.  While Brett Favre is not an MVP caliber player, he is still one of the top quarterbacks in the game.  He is still capable of leading a good team to the Super Bowl.  Anyone that wants to think otherwise is kidding themselves.   Brett Favre has become like Duke Basketball, Notre Dame Football, or the Yankees.  He has been so loved and so praised by the establishment, that there are people in the media and certain fans that want to bash Brett Favre, simply because they are sick of hearing all these positive things about him. 

Let's not kid ourselves.  Brett Favre is in on the short list for the Greatest Quarterback in the History of the NFL.  The records and accomplishments speak for themselves.  He has won a Super Bowl and played in another.   He is the only 3 time MVP, all won consecutively.  He is the all time completion leader.  He has eight 30 touchdown seasons, five of which were done consecutively.  No one else has more than 2 consecutively.  To put it in prospective, Peyton Manning has three 30 touchdown seasons, and has never done it consecutively.  Most impressive is his consecutive regular game streak of 237 games.   The next closest streak among quarterbacks is Peyton Manning at 144.   Factor in that if he plays the entire season this year, he will set the records for career touchdown passes, attempts, wins, and possibly passing yardage; and you have an all time great quarterback.

The point of this discussion though is not to talk about Brett Favre's career accomplishments.  The Packers aren't forced with a decision of keeping 1996 Brett Favre.  The dilemma they have is how 2007 Brett Favre fits into their future plans.   If you take a look at his season last year, there were some positives and some negatives.  The positives are that Brett Favre led the league in attempts last year.   He was 5th in completions.  He was 6th in passing yards.  He also started every game.  The negatives were that he failed to throw for 20 touchdowns for the first time since the 1994 season.   He only completed 56% of his passes, the lowest of his career.  He also had 18 interceptions.  When you factor in the 2005 season, when Favre had 20 touchdowns and 29 interceptions; it appears you have a quarterback on the decline. 

To be fair to Favre, there have been some circumstances the last two seasons.  In 2005, the team was destroyed by injuries.  The Packers played with a 5th string running back, lost Javon Walker for the season in week one, and were never able to get a rhythm.  Last year, the Packers fielded the youngest squad in the NFL.  Their youth showed with their up and down play.  However, the Packers were able to close out on a 4 game winning streak.  Brett Favre committed to coming back early this off season, in part because of the way they closed the season, in part because of the upside of the team, and in part because of the improvement the team could experience through the draft and free agency.

Enter the first person to blame in this saga, Ted Thompson.   The Packers off season has been an embarrassment.  Personally, I'm glad Brett Favre stepped up and lashed out at management.  It shows me that he isn't coming back to break Dan Marino's records and ride off into the sunset.  It shows me that he isn't using, "I'm coming back to win a Super Bowl," as a hollow clich