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The Brett Favre era in Green Bay is over. The Brett Favre era with the New York Jets is about to begin.
The Packers have agreed to trade the legendary quarterback to the Jets, an NFL source confirmed late Wednesday night. Compensation was not available, but the Packers acquired draft choices, not players, the source said.
Favre left Green Bay on a chartered flight at about 12:25 p.m. Wednesday for his home in Hattiesburg, Miss., preferring a trade to Tampa Bay.
However, the Jets increased their trade offer on Wednesday afternoon, and Favre hasn’t ruled out the possibility of playing for them.
He was waiting for the Packers to agree to a trade offer before making a decision on whether he’d report. With the Bucs and Jets wanting to land Favre as soon as possible to get him onto the field, it appeared a deal is likely to be finished today.
“It’s in everyone’s best interest to do it quicker than later,” Favre told reporters when he arrived in Mississippi. “I won’t say we’re running out of time, but I need to get into a camp somewhere.”
The Packers appeared to be waiting for the best deal from the two teams that have shown interest in acquiring Favre since General Manager Ted Thompson began serious trade inquiries last month. Or perhaps Thompson was waiting to get the best deal he could from the Bucs if he was intent on fulfilling Favre’s desire to play for Tampa Bay.
The sources said the Jets were offering a third-round pick that can escalate — SI.com’s Peter King said the escalator goes as high as a first-rounder depending on Favre’s and the team’s performance.
Tampa Bay was believed to be offering a later pick, also with performance and play-time escalators, though it was unclear how much the pick would improve. Reports also said the Packers wanted a player as well — most likely a backup quarterback, either Chris Simms or Brian Griese — though the Press-Gazette could not confirm that.
Bucs coach Jon Gruden, a former Packers assistant, is believed to have a strong interest in acquiring Favre. After the Bucs practiced on Wednesday, he didn’t deny having talked to Favre and wouldn’t confirm or deny the club was seeking to acquire him.
“We are a good football team,” Gruden said. “We’re trying to become a great one. We’ll do anything we can to get better. And if that involves looking at other players, by George, that’s our job. That’s our responsibility.”
The Favre trade talks got serious after extended meetings on Monday and Tuesday with Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy failed to assuage the deep wounds Favre felt from his bitter standoff with the Packers over the past two months.
Favre also was unwilling to do what it would have taken to leverage a trade to his first choice, the Minnesota Vikings, so on Tuesday afternoon, he asked his agent, Bus Cook, to “get the deal done to Tampa,” a source close to Favre said.
“The bottom line in all of this is playing football,” Favre said in Mississippi. “I've always been committed to my job. I know people say I should put the personal issues aside, and I agree, but I couldn’t do that. On their part, they obviously had taken the stance at some point during this offseason that they were going to move on, and that’s OK. They sort of changed that stance when I (first) got back up there. We sort of figured that would happen. Otherwise they would have released me, but they didn’t want to do that, which I understand.
“As much history as I have in Green Bay and success, I really didn’t see the positives that could come out (of competing for the starting job). It was always going to be a distraction. It was best that they had a clear-cut path they were going to go on. If I’m going to play, I’ll try to play elsewhere and see what happens.”
Favre hoped to facilitate the deal to Tampa Bay by giving up any hope of being traded to the Vikings, which Thompson placed off limits as bitter rivals of the Packers in the NFC North Division. Favre's only shot at a deal to Minnesota was to report for training camp practices, where his presence would have caused such a disturbance that Thompson might have dealt him to the Vikings if that was the only team Favre would agree to join.
Any team trading for Favre almost surely will make sure he wants to play there before making the deal and would include a clause that voids the trade if he doesn’t report, thus returning him to the Packers’ roster.
“He could have stayed (in Green Bay), he could have forced the issue, he could have been a bad teammate,” Cook told The Sporting News. “But that’s not Brett. They asked if he was committed to playing for them, but they are in no way committed to him. At no time during this whole situation have they ever told Brett that they want him back. At this point, it’s time to go separate ways.”
Favre’s former Packers teammates appeared relieved that the quarterback’s standoff with the team had ended, at least as far as whether Favre might return to the team. The pressure of such a public dispute between the team’s management and one of the NFL's best players had filtered into the locker room.
“I think you could just tell (Wednesday), there was more energy at practice,” right tackle Mark Tauscher said. “(Tuesday’s) practice wasn’t great, and we’re not blaming anything, but I just think there was a lot of tension and the environment wasn’t great for it.”
Cornerback Al Harris said: “You know what got kind of tiresome is that we don’t know, here in the locker room, what was going on, what’s going on. We kind of wanted to put the pressure on them to answer these questions, because we don’t know. Whatever has happened has happened. I still don’t know what’s going on.”
The Packers have agreed to trade the legendary quarterback to the Jets, an NFL source confirmed late Wednesday night. Compensation was not available, but the Packers acquired draft choices, not players, the source said.
Favre left Green Bay on a chartered flight at about 12:25 p.m. Wednesday for his home in Hattiesburg, Miss., preferring a trade to Tampa Bay.
However, the Jets increased their trade offer on Wednesday afternoon, and Favre hasn’t ruled out the possibility of playing for them.
He was waiting for the Packers to agree to a trade offer before making a decision on whether he’d report. With the Bucs and Jets wanting to land Favre as soon as possible to get him onto the field, it appeared a deal is likely to be finished today.
“It’s in everyone’s best interest to do it quicker than later,” Favre told reporters when he arrived in Mississippi. “I won’t say we’re running out of time, but I need to get into a camp somewhere.”
The Packers appeared to be waiting for the best deal from the two teams that have shown interest in acquiring Favre since General Manager Ted Thompson began serious trade inquiries last month. Or perhaps Thompson was waiting to get the best deal he could from the Bucs if he was intent on fulfilling Favre’s desire to play for Tampa Bay.
The sources said the Jets were offering a third-round pick that can escalate — SI.com’s Peter King said the escalator goes as high as a first-rounder depending on Favre’s and the team’s performance.
Tampa Bay was believed to be offering a later pick, also with performance and play-time escalators, though it was unclear how much the pick would improve. Reports also said the Packers wanted a player as well — most likely a backup quarterback, either Chris Simms or Brian Griese — though the Press-Gazette could not confirm that.
Bucs coach Jon Gruden, a former Packers assistant, is believed to have a strong interest in acquiring Favre. After the Bucs practiced on Wednesday, he didn’t deny having talked to Favre and wouldn’t confirm or deny the club was seeking to acquire him.
“We are a good football team,” Gruden said. “We’re trying to become a great one. We’ll do anything we can to get better. And if that involves looking at other players, by George, that’s our job. That’s our responsibility.”
The Favre trade talks got serious after extended meetings on Monday and Tuesday with Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy failed to assuage the deep wounds Favre felt from his bitter standoff with the Packers over the past two months.
Favre also was unwilling to do what it would have taken to leverage a trade to his first choice, the Minnesota Vikings, so on Tuesday afternoon, he asked his agent, Bus Cook, to “get the deal done to Tampa,” a source close to Favre said.
“The bottom line in all of this is playing football,” Favre said in Mississippi. “I've always been committed to my job. I know people say I should put the personal issues aside, and I agree, but I couldn’t do that. On their part, they obviously had taken the stance at some point during this offseason that they were going to move on, and that’s OK. They sort of changed that stance when I (first) got back up there. We sort of figured that would happen. Otherwise they would have released me, but they didn’t want to do that, which I understand.
“As much history as I have in Green Bay and success, I really didn’t see the positives that could come out (of competing for the starting job). It was always going to be a distraction. It was best that they had a clear-cut path they were going to go on. If I’m going to play, I’ll try to play elsewhere and see what happens.”
Favre hoped to facilitate the deal to Tampa Bay by giving up any hope of being traded to the Vikings, which Thompson placed off limits as bitter rivals of the Packers in the NFC North Division. Favre's only shot at a deal to Minnesota was to report for training camp practices, where his presence would have caused such a disturbance that Thompson might have dealt him to the Vikings if that was the only team Favre would agree to join.
Any team trading for Favre almost surely will make sure he wants to play there before making the deal and would include a clause that voids the trade if he doesn’t report, thus returning him to the Packers’ roster.
“He could have stayed (in Green Bay), he could have forced the issue, he could have been a bad teammate,” Cook told The Sporting News. “But that’s not Brett. They asked if he was committed to playing for them, but they are in no way committed to him. At no time during this whole situation have they ever told Brett that they want him back. At this point, it’s time to go separate ways.”
Favre’s former Packers teammates appeared relieved that the quarterback’s standoff with the team had ended, at least as far as whether Favre might return to the team. The pressure of such a public dispute between the team’s management and one of the NFL's best players had filtered into the locker room.
“I think you could just tell (Wednesday), there was more energy at practice,” right tackle Mark Tauscher said. “(Tuesday’s) practice wasn’t great, and we’re not blaming anything, but I just think there was a lot of tension and the environment wasn’t great for it.”
Cornerback Al Harris said: “You know what got kind of tiresome is that we don’t know, here in the locker room, what was going on, what’s going on. We kind of wanted to put the pressure on them to answer these questions, because we don’t know. Whatever has happened has happened. I still don’t know what’s going on.”
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