Brett Favre on 2008 retirement: Should not have retired early

Brett Favre, in an interview that will air this weekend on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, said he should have “stood his ground” and not retired in 2008.

Former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre said in an interview that will air on Super Bowl weekend that he regrets not standing his ground rather than being talked into making a retirement decision in 2008 that he was not ready to make.

Favre, in an interview that will appear on the syndicated program In Depth with Graham Bensinger, said he felt like his hand was forced by coach Mike McCarthy and general manager Ted Thompson.

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“I should have stood my ground and not retired early, Favre said in a preview clip at Yahoo Sports. “… Mike [McCarthy] wants to know and that’s—as a head coach of a team or Ted Thompson’s job as a GM, I think, rightfully so, they need to know which direction they’re going to go in.

“But there was nothing in the rulebook that said I had to give them an answer until the day of the training camp.”

Favre said that he wasn’t fully committed to the retirement decision, but made it because the organization wanted to know.

Later, when he decided to come back, there was a lot of friction because the Packers had already gone through their entire offseason program working on making the transition at quarterback from Favre—their starter for 16 seasons—to Aaron Rodgers, their first-round pick in 2005 who had backed up Favre for three years.

Favre said he found himself in the classic “Catch 22” situation—he knew he wouldn’t play if he remained in Green Bay, because they had already turned the keys to the franchise over to Rodgers, yet he also knew the Packers weren’t going to just cut him and run the risk of him catching on with a division rival and having to see him twice a year.

Favre was traded to the New York Jets, where he played the 2008 season, before he was released and signed with the Minnesota Vikings as a free agent, setting up the scenario the Pack had hoped to avoid—No. 4 returning to Lambeau Field in the uniform of a rival.

The Packers in 2007 had reached the NFC Championship after a 13-3 season, but lost on a frigid night in Green Bay when Favre was intercepted in overtime, leading to the New York Giants’ game-winning field goal.

Favre talked about his decision to come back after the Vikings lost in overtime of the NFC Championship to the New Orleans Saints following the 2009 season in relation to the decision Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning faces this offseason.

“I would ask him to ask himself, ‘OK, do you think you still could play at a high level?’ No one else can answer that. Only he can.

“And if the answer is yes, what also I would say would be, ‘Do you think there’s any chance in November of next year or the following offseason that you will say, regardless if I don’t play that I know I’m going to say ‘What if? What if? If I went back, we would have won it. You know, what if I’d just went back for one more?’ If you say that, then you need to go back.”

Favre will be inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in July and will appear on the ballot for the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the first time next year for what is almost certain induction into the shrine at Canton in 2016.

H/T SI.com

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