Favre: Gut tells me Rodgers done with Packers

• Covered Packers for Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1997-2013
• Two-time Wisconsin Sportswriter of the Year as selected by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Brett Favre hopes Aaron Rodgers can win another Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers, but he’s not optimistic that there will be another run given what he knows about the rift between Rodgers and the team.

In an appearance on ESPN Wisconsin radio’s Wilde & Tausch, Favre on Wednesday detailed his text conversion with Rodgers and made comparisons to his own departure from the Packers in 2008.

But what was most striking was his prediction for how it will play out.

“Boy it’s a good question; that’s the million dollar question,” Favre said during a 45-minute interview on the show. “I think I know Aaron fairly well, and honestly I just don’t see him coming back and just saying, ‘All right, let’s just bury the hatchet, whatever caused the rift, and I’m just going to come back and play because I love the guys, I love the Green Bay fans — I assume he does — but his rift isn’t with the fans or the players. It’s with the front office. Will he just swallow his pride and come in? Maybe. But I don’t see that happening.

“If there’s not a trade, my gut tells me that he’d rather sit out than play. That’s just my gut. There’s no reason for me to say that other than that’s what my gut’s telling me, and I think you guys know Aaron fairly well enough to sort of feel the same way.”

He likened it to how Barry Sanders walked away from the Detroit Lions shortly before the 1999 season.

Favre said he texted Rodgers last Thursday, shortly after ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Rodgers has told some in the Packers’ organization that he no longer wants to play for the team that drafted him in 2005 to ultimately replace Favre in 2008, and joked that he asked Rodgers if he was going to play for the New Orleans Saints this year, referring to the team Favre grew up watching in Mississippi.

He said Rodgers replied by saying he didn’t think that was going to happen but added, “‘Thanks for checking on me. I’ll touch base with you after all this is over.’ “And that was it,” Favre added. “We haven’t talked since.”

Favre said he would be willing to talk through things with Rodgers and offer his perspective on how things ended in Green Bay for him. There are differences, though. Favre noted the primary one being that the team wanted a decision from Favre about whether he planned to play in 2008 and at the time Favre wasn’t ready to commit so he hastily retired. Ultimately, Favre changed his mind and wanted to return to the Packers, but by then they had moved on to Rodgers.

Favre, who was traded to the New York Jets and played there for one year before two seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, hopes things end differently for Rodgers.

“I’d like to see him win a Super Bowl in Green Bay, another one,” Favre said. “But the thing is, life’s too short, I want him to be happy. He’s been there as long as I was there, and I know what that means and he’s put up unbelievable numbers. Win another Super Bowl and then do what you want to do, whether it’s keep playing, play somewhere else, whatever. But win one more in Green Bay and go out the way you want to go out.

“You don’t want to go out this way, whether it’s sit out or play somewhere else.”

The interview concluded with one final, pessimistic line from Favre.

“It’s going to be interesting what takes places here between now and the start of camp,” Favre said. “But right now I’m not very optimistic.”

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