Countdown Chronicles Brett Favre Saga

Keith Olbermann: “In the good business boardroom, somebody finally stands up and says, this is crazy or the emperor has no clothes. In the bad business boardroom, nobody says either and you get the Ford Edsel, New Coke and the war in Iraq. The Green Bay Packers, on the verge of paying an additional 20 million dollars for the privilege of not being talked out of the football equivalent of a war in which the troops were driving Edsels and armed with only New Coke, have just spun out of the skid.”

“Our number one story on the COUNTDOWN, Brett Favre as a Green Bay Packer quarterback again. The most popular player in the NFL coming off his second or third best season in the NFL, having been maybe one bad pass away from reaching the Super Bowl last February, tearfully called it quits in March, retired, and then slowly, painfully changed his mind.”

“The Packers responded to this by sticking their fingers in their ears and stamping their feet and talking about Iraq, hiring no less than a public relations expert and consultant Ari Fleischer. They said his backup, Aaron Rogers, was their starting quarterback now and they‘ve moved on. That was it. They threatened to allow Favre to return to the team, but not use him in training camp, then release him as the season began, destroying his value to any other team. They threatened to trade him to another team for which he did not want to play. Finally, they offered him 20 million dollars to go away, to join the club in a non-playing capacity and stay retired.”

“That‘s when, apparently, somebody in management stood up and said, this is nuts. This afternoon, Favre was officially restored to the Packers roster.”