Last Updated: Wednesday, August 6, 2008 4:00 PM CDT
Gone for good?
Favre leaves Lambeau, maybe Packers
By Cory Dellenbach - Leader sports editor
GREEN BAY — Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy admitted Tuesday he doesn’t think quarterback Brett Favre is in the ‘right mindset’ to play for the team.
Favre and McCarthy met for several hours Monday night and then again on Tuesday morning, leaving just before training camp practice started Tuesday afternoon.
“The one thing I was looking for out of that conversation, was (whether) he (was) ready, committed to play football for the Green Bay Packers,” McCarthy said. “His answer, frankly, throughout the conversation, was (about) his mindset, based on the things that have happened throughout this whole course, that’s not where he was. With that, we didn’t really move ahead.
“I don’t want to speak for him, but based on where he is and the path that it took for him to get to this part, he wasn’t in the right mindset to play here.”
McCarthy spoke to reporters about the standoff over Favre’s retirement after practice for about a half hour in the media auditorium.
McCarthy said he and Favre had planned to talk again Tuesday night, but didn’t seem to allow for the possibility that anything significant would change.
Favre told ESPN that he doesn’t know if there is a future with the team, telling ESPN’s Chris Mortensen that he believed the “best thing for this team is for us to part ways.”
“We’re at a stalemate,” Favre told Mortensen. “Mike and I both agreed last night that me being out there is a distraction and will continue to be a distraction. We all know the reason I’m here is because the commissioner (Roger Goodell) reinstated me so we have a lot of things to figure out. It’s simple and complicated, both at the same time.”
McCarthy declined to talk about trades, but ESPN and the NFL Network both reported that the Packers again turned down the quarterback’s request to be traded within the NFC North Division.
“I don’t want to get into specifics of other options and things like that,” McCarthy said. “He’s emotional. There are a lot of things that were said. Like I said, we can make it look very good or we can make it look very bad, and I think you can do that any time two people talk for the amount of time that we talked about a very sensitive issue.”
The Packers held trade discussions with the Buccaneers at least once on Monday, according to NFL Network’s Adam Schefter, and for the first time Favre is now willing to talk with Tampa Bay about a possible trade.
The New York Jets are the only other team known to have expressed interest in trading for Favre, according to the NFL Network.
McCarthy did say a quick resolution to the situation is important to the team.
“Absolutely,” McCarthy said. “The players, they want it resolved. Even talk to Brett about it — he feels bad about it. It’s time for them to talk about somebody else.”
Favre left the stadium around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, hugging Packers senior security advisor Jerry Parins before getting in his SUV and driving away to his home, where he met with Green Bay GM Ted Thompson for roughly an hour.
Favre wasn’t expected to be at practice again Wednesday as the team added him to the Declared Non-Football Injury List due to an existing lower abdominal injury he would have been forced to rehab at practice. Favre counts against the Packers’ 80-player roster, but he will not be paid by the team.
McCarthy said the quarterback would not be fined either for missing the practices.
“He has been excused,” McCarthy said.
The Packers hold Favre’s contract through the 2010 season.
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Gone for good?
GREEN BAY — Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy admitted Tuesday he doesn’t think quarterback Brett Favre is in the ‘right mindset’ to play for the team. READ MORE >
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