Michael Ventre

I often wonder what goes on inside the war room of an NFL team during the annual draft. I’m sure I can guess: Lots of hushed but frantic chatter, shuffling of index cards, rustling of paper, shoving aside of pizza boxes, and the TV drone of the ESPN crew.

I get all that. What I don’t understand is why it takes teams so long between picks. Surely a team has done so much homework up to that point that, considering which players had been selected and which ones are left, the choice at a particular pick should be a fairly simple matter.

But I guess what I wonder most about is what the Green Bay Packers do on draft day. They must be quite a sight. I’d love to be a fly on the wall in their war room, although the exchanges would probably be fairly monotonous: “What do you think?” followed by “I don’t know. What do you think?”

I bet the only reason the Packers make any decisions at all — and I’m talking not just about the draft but free agency, parking, the brand of bratwurst for the annual picnic, the team’s colors (they’re the same every year, but I’m sure club executives are still unsure) and whether to go with boxers or briefs — is because they’re part of a 32-team collective and the other organizations lean on them to go ahead and choose already. 

I bring this up because Brett Favre reportedly has asked the Packers to trade him — he denied it Monday but also said he lets his emotions get the best of him sometimes — and I believe the primary reason he wants to be traded is because the Packers have failed to trade him.

I know what you’re saying: “Huh?” But follow closely.

The Packers are wimps. They’re terrified of Brett Favre. Each year Favre’s future becomes a huge news story, much bigger than it warrants. The Packers sit around on pins and needles waiting for Favre to tell them which direction the franchise will go: with him, or without him. They have to wait for Favre to tell them that because they can’t decide for themselves. They’re frightened that if they got rid of Favre, fan backlash would be fierce enough to require Red Cross intervention.

In fact, Favre has become not just a future Hall of Fame quarterback, but a dictator in the most literal sense, because he is dictating to the people he rules over (the Green Bay Packers) what they will and will not do.

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But now a report on the Fox Sports Web site suggests he asked for a trade after the draft because he took a look at the team in its present form, he realizes that it stinks, he understands that the main reason it stinks is because it’s petrified to make a major move and lacks the guts to do something like trade Brett Favre, and so he wants out.

Again, Favre did say in a statement Monday that he doesn't want a deal, and he thinks the team will be pretty good. But that doesn't change the fact that he was peeved at the team for failing to acquire Randy Moss.

If they had simply traded him a couple seasons ago rather than sit and do nothing, he wouldn’t have to ask for a trade now.

See? It’s simple.

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The crux is this: Favre is frustrated because he is the front man for a franchise that is going nowhere, and he’s tired of that role. He asked for a trade now because the New England Patriots pulled the trigger and acquired Moss, a wide receiver to which Favre longed to throw.

Because he was so upset that Moss went elsewhere, he decided the Packers were going nowhere. That’s why he reportedly asked for a trade.

But the Moss thing was just the final, high-profile straw. Favre’s underlying dissatisfaction centers on the Packers’ inertia. And there is no better example of that than the team’s indecision on trading Favre.