Fans at shareholder meeting split on Favre

by | Jul 24, 2008 | NFL News

A thanks to The Gun, a Packers fan and Zoneblitz reader, for pointing out this (and other) tip:

About three minutes into today’s Green Bay Packers shareholder meeting Mark Murphy, president of the board, addressed the Brett Favre situation, according to Don Walker’s blog at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Murphy called it a “sensitive situation” with long-term ramifications for the franchise and made clear he was involved in the decisions regarding Favre’s future, which he called football matters.

But when he made reference to the franchise’s decision makers, including GM Ted Thompson, all being in unison about wanting to move on without Favre this season, one fan stood up and yelled “We’re not.”

After the fan outburst there was a mix of boos and cheers, according to the story. Thompson was generally greeted with cheers, it seems clear that fans are still divided on the decisions made by the brass. If the Packers come out and do well under Rodgers they’ll probably be fine. But what happens if Rodgers is a bust and the Pack lose 10 games this year after their NFC Championship run in 2007?

Most of the time it wouldn’t matter much and maybe it doesn’t here. But the Packers and their small-town feel along with the public ownership structure … potential problems going forward? Only time will tell.

Favre case gets yet weirder

by | Jul 24, 2008 | NFL News

So … the Green Bay Packers either have records of Brett Favre making and/or receiving calls from Minnesota Vikings coaches Brad Childress and/or Darrell Bevell … or they don’t.

Today’s Green Bay Press Gazette cites a source close to Favre saying the retired-or-not quarterback doesn’t have a team-issued cell phone. That contradicts reports from earlier in the week indicating that the team had records of Favre having discussions with the aforementioned coaches … from a team-issued cell phone.

Just when you thought this situation couldn’t get any weirder …

So, if the Vikings could face fines and the loss of draft picks if they were tampering is there any penalty against the Packers if they were fishing? Not saying they were, not saying they weren’t – just curious.

ESPN (Re)joins the Blogosphere…again

by | Jul 23, 2008 | NFL Media

Apparently realizing that if any average joe can start a football blog, they better have their act together, ESPN is re-vamping their football blog strategy–doing away with their Hashmarks blog, and introducing eight divisional blogs for the NFL, and six BCS conference blogs for college, each headed by a real honest to god reporter with some print journalism experience.

As noted on ProFootballTalk, it remains to be seen how the blog network will actually work, especially given that people reading blogs are often looking for a different approach/perspective than traditional newspapers (or overgrown supposed sports networks) tend to offer.

Then again, from ESPN’s perspective, maybe they consider utilizing real journalists for such an endeavor to be a different approach.

The Hypocritical NFL

by | Jul 23, 2008 | Business of Football, No Fun League

The NFL is all about money–money from ticket sales, money from jersey sales, money from the networks.  Money from the networks that they make by selling sponsorships and ads.  Often sponsorships and ads from beer companies.

However, when it comes to the players, beer and alcohol is a no no–at least for endorsements.  That’s why Charles Woodson can’t promote his wine, called TwentyFour.  The NFL apparently sent Woodson a letter, saying:

…any interviews supporting alcohol would be seen as an endorsement and “may have a detrimental effect on the great number of young fans who follow our game.”

Like the article we linked to, we find it amazing that the NFL can promote as much beer as they want, but a player can’t promote his own line of wine.  And yet we find it somewhat surprising that the simple act of having a wine isn’t enough ‘endorsement’ to get the league to put it’s foot down.

And we’re going to go out on a limb, and say that Woodson developed his taste for wine in his playing days in Oakland–not Green Bay.

Bevell and Childress and Favre … oh my

by | Jul 22, 2008 | NFL ... something, NFL Rumors

In October 2000, the NBA discovered that the Minnesota Timberwolves had entered into secret contracts that allowed them to circumvent salary cap rules. While teams in all sports stretch the rules, the Wolves and Smith exacerbated this particular situation by putting their agreements down on paper.

NBA Commissioner David Stern at the time handed out one of the most severe spankings a professional sports franchise has ever received. He voided Smith’s contract with the Wolves, fined the team $3.5 million and took away their first-round picks for the next five seasons – a move the organization from which the organization is still recovering.

One must wonder after reading ESPN’s snippet of a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Packers Insider story if the Minnesota Vikings might soon be in for the NFL’s version of the Wolves’ punishment. The paper reports that the tampering charges the Green Bay Packers filed against the Vikings are based on phone records showing that Brett Favre had numerous conversations with both his friend, Darrell Bevell, the team’s offensive coordinator, but also head coach Brad Childress.

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