Posted by ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert
While conducting a series of interviews Saturday in Green Bay, Packers general manager Ted Thompson confirmed a previously-reported scenario that sheds more light on the wild offseason ride the team has had with quarterback Brett Favre.
Several weeks after announcing his retirement, Favre sent word in late March that he was having second thoughts, Thompson told Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy sent word back to Favre that he would be welcomed back and made plans to travel to Mississippi to discuss it further at Favre's home.
Favre cancelled that meeting, however, and said he had decided to remain retired. The Packers moved on to Aaron Rodgers at that point, and now are unwilling to bring Favre back as their starter.
Thompson has been taking an incredible amount of heat for his role in Favre's retirement and the events thereafter. It's clear he has had enough. He has called the issue "gut-wrenching" in several interviews and seems to be personally affected by how the Favre situation has turned a normally serene organization upside down.
"It doesn't bother me when people think we picked the wrong guy or we made a personnel decision that wasn't right," Thompson told the Journal Sentinel. "But when it goes to something as core-value as this, it concerns me that there would be people who would think less of us. That's important to me. It always has been."
