The Sirius NFL Radio Lapdogs

Good doggie

How disappointing. Now we all know or should or if you did not now you do that the NFL Radio channel on Sirius satellite radio is an official NFL property, tied up with the seven year 220 million dollar deal to broadcast NFL games.

I have in the past noted a pro-ownership / pro-management bias to NFL Radio and let me tell you it is in full bloom right now with the Brett Favre situation in Green Bay.

This morning on The Opening Drive, Randy Cross and Carl Banks were giving it hard to Packer fans that either did not understand why the team would not release Brett or why they would not welcome him back with open arms and reinstall him as the starter.

He left on his own terms and went back on his word, the contract he signed is the letter of the law and both entities are bound by it, you can't just throw your name around and expect to get what you want, whatever you have done in the past matters not to decision making going forward, etc etc yada yada.

All very disappointing to hear from two football greats. Randy Cross was an offensive lineman with the San Francisco 49ers from 1976 to 1988, three time Pro Bowler, three time Super Bowl champ.

Carl Banks was a Pro Bowl linebacker, mainly with the New York Giants and also played a year with the Redskins in 1993 (this very morning he disparaged his time with the Redskins as a quote stop unquote between New York and Cleveland but that's not why I am unhappy with him), finishing in Cleveland and retiring after the 1995 season.

And while I do not expect former players to take up for current players as a matter of course, I also do not expect former players so transparently to advocate for ownership and to lack objectivity.

Perhaps there is some lingering bitterness, I have seen and heard from time to time as players from previous eras, many of whom with high profiles at the top of the earning bracket of the time, look poorly upon today's players with their astronomical salaries and pooh pooh whenever a player does not get what he wants, it's a variation of the back in my day we had two a days in August, played for our dinner AND WE LIKED IT!

Along with this classist view of the modern player comes an implicit or at times explicit accusation of lack of toughness, that we played quote real unquote football in my day.

More likely, and Randy and Carl are normally pretty standup guys when the discussion is not deliberately centered on management versus player issues, it is pressure to toe the company line, that the NFL ultimately determines whether they get to get paid for this and so they need to promulgate the league's and therefore the owners' collective position.

This is not a position borne of random consideration, it is a result of the facts being intentionally misrepresented to reinforce a specific messaging, that Brett holds no cards in this debate.

While those facts may be correct, Brett is still under contract, the team can reinstate him to the roster, the team can do whatever they want with him, whatever, the reality is that this will end differently. Line up the following scenarios with the practical reality of today's NFL and meet me at the bottom, I'll tell you exactly what's going to happen:

The Packers are scheduled to pay Brett Favre 12 million dollars this season.

The Packers are committed to Aaron Rodgers as the team's starter.

Were it to come down to it, Brett Favre would annihilate Aaron Rodgers in training camp, Brett is still the superior quarterback in every way that matters. This is not to disparage Aaron Rodgers, there is simply no way he can perform at his best and with the support of his teammates with a hot Brett Favre out there trying to prove a point.

The Packers cannot start Aaron Rodgers after Brett Favre beats him in camp.

Even if Aaron Rodgers were to beat out Brett Favre in camp, the Packers will not want to carry a 12 million dollar backup quarterback. Brett will refuse any entreaty to renegotiate and lower his salary, forcing the team to suck it up or cut him.

Even if the Packers could and did want to carry a 12 million dollar backup quarterback, it would be a PR nightmare for the team, fans would be chanting Brett's name at every game, sideline cameras focused on Brett after every Aaron Rodgers incomplete or interception, chum in the water with the entire sports media establishment circling like sharks, the end result being a terrible season for the Packers and maybe a firing or two.

Anyone reading or following this story knows how it will end: either the team will release Brett or there will be a pro forma trade to the team he wants for a third round pick or lower. As immortal as Brett Favre and the team both are, the team will not risk wrecking literally a generation's worth of goodwill from fans and the league by trying to make Brett look small and petty.

Carl and Randy both know the deal, Brett Favre has earned the privilege to call his own shots, we are well into the second decade where contract terms matter little to player movement and conduct. Just tell it like it is: Packers, get with the program, let Brett go to sign wherever he wants, even with a division rival, hug him on the way out, keep the scheduled jersey retirement ceremony, be the good sport, you got him for 16 years, you're both ready to move on, don't be a pissant.



Lapdog from here.