(Who the fuck wrote this sign for Manny? Because as a reader pointed out there is no way in hell Manny knows how to spell "Favre")

Green Bay - The Green Bay Packers are so desperate to not have Brett Favre report to training camp that they reportedly offered him a substantial amount of money to stay home. WTMJ-TV Channel 4 in Milwaukee, citing two sources, reported Wednesday that Packers president Mark Murphy at least floated the idea to Favre of paying him a package in the neighborhood of $20 million over 10 years to remain retired. Murphy met most of Wednesday with Favre and his agent, Bus Cook, in Hattiesburg, Miss.

So the Packers are considering paying Favre $20 million not to play football. And here I was worrying that at some point this saga was going to turn ridiculous.

Every time you think Packer's management and Brett Favre (sorry for calling him "Favre" earlier. I'd forgotten the mandate that he's only to be referred to as "Brett Favre." Calling him "Favre" is like calling Superman "Man.") have reached the limit of buffoonery in all this, they go even further. BrettFavre (one word) has been pulling this postseason Bayou Hamlet horsecrap for at least three years now. In 2006 it took him three months to decide to come back. In '07 it was one month. This year it took him one month to retire (after which ESPN covered it like it was 9/11), one month to hint he might unretire, one day to tell Green Bay he was definitely all done, and another month to decide he wanted back in, wanted his old starting job back, and by the way Aaron Rogers can grow old waiting for the job to open up like he's Prince friggin' Charles. The Packers meanwhile haven't covered themselves in glory, either. Rogers was the first draft pick ever by GM Ted Thompson, but on the mere suggestion BrettFavre wanted to play again, Thompson was halfway to Mississippi on his hands and knees, ready to beg him to come back. Now depending which report you believe, they may bring into camp as a backup, trade him, or pay him to stay away, all the while talking about how they don't want this to turn into a circus. Yeah, you'd hate to have that happen.

I'll be honest here and say up until now, I've been on Green Bay's side and thought BrettFavre was the buffoon. But now I just think the guy's a genius. For a QB of his diminished capacity, who hasn't worked out all offseason and who's guaranteed to throw about twice as many picks as TD's this yaar to scare his team so much that they're willing to cut him a check for $20 million to go away is the greatest business deal in the history of sports. BrettFavre is running a protection racket. Gee, Thompson, nice franchise you got here. It would be a shame if anybody was to come along and be a disruption... Like I said, sheer genius. I'm afraid I'd underestimated BrettFavre.

Jerry's Final Thought: The only flaw in the Packer's plan is that John Madden will probably pay BrettFavre twice that much to come back, because life without him will be unbearable. Just like it will be for these poor saps: