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| Favre's move awaited |
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by DON WALKER
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, JSonline.com
Feb. 28, 2008
Mark Murphy, the Green Bay Packers' new president and CEO, said Wednesday that he believes Packers quarterback Brett Favre will return next season.
"My guess is that he will come back," Murphy said at a newsmaker lunch sponsored by the Milwaukee Press Club.
Murphy said that he had spoken with Favre on a couple of occasions, but did not say how those conversations went.
"We all anticipate that he'll make a decision very soon," he said. "Probably this week some time. Before the end of the month."
Murphy said expectations for the team, which finished the regular season 13-3 but lost to the New York Giants in the NFC Championship Game, are still very high.
"A lot of the expectations will ride on whether Brett Favre will come back," Murphy said. "Certainly if he comes back it gives us our best chance to get to the Super Bowl and have another great year."
Murphy, a former Pro Bowl safety for the Washington Redskins, said that, while most fans see the joy and passion Favre has for the game, there is the issue of getting prepared in the off-season and the regular season for football. It can be a grind, he said.
"He wants to make sure he's ready to put himself through that again before he makes a decision to come back," Murphy said.
In a question-and-answer session, Murphy tackled questions about change in the National Football League, what the Packers might do in free agency this off-season, the relationship he wants with General Manager Ted Thompson, and possible changes for the franchise.
Murphy, who took over the franchise from Bob Harlan in January, said more will be known in the coming months about what NFL owners want to do with the existing collective bargaining agreement with the players. The Dallas Cowboys' Jerry Jones, an influential owner in the league, said this week that the owners might opt out of the existing deal with the players.
If so, the league would enter the 2010 season without a salary cap, a notion that worries many teams, including the Packers.
Murphy said there were concerns among the owners.
"There is a sense that the agreement is costing the clubs a lot more than they would like," he said. "And more than the previous agreements have cost them. It's all part of the negotiations."
Murphy said the players could also act to opt out of the existing contract. But in Murphy's view, the opt-out provision is really designed to force the two sides to negotiate a new contract.
Murphy said the existing revenue-sharing agreement has been good for the league, but said gaps are showing between high-revenue teams who are increasingly reluctant to share revenue with small-revenue teams.
The Packers, he said, rank 10th in the league in terms of total revenue, despite its standing as the smallest market in the league.
With so much at stake, Murphy said he needed to educate other owners about the Packers' need to continue a strong revenue-sharing agreement. "Green Bay is a small-market team, but we're one of the highest revenue teams in the league," he said.
Murphy echoed Harlan's long-held belief that Packers' management needs to let the general manager and coach run the football operations. Asked what he would do if he disagreed with something General Manager Ted Thompson does, Murphy said: "It we disagree on something, we'll talk it out. Hopefully reach a consensus on it. Ultimately you have to make a decision that is in the best interests of the organization," he said.
"Ultimately, if things don't work out, and the football program is not going in the right direction, it's incumbent on me to make a change. But we are far from that."
Murphy said he did not anticipate that Thompson would spend a lot in free agency during the off-season.
"I don't think we're planning on any huge splashes," he said. "If there is some area we can help ourselves, we will take a look at it."
Murphy said he planned to look at the possibility of adding additional luxury suites on the south end of Lambeau Field, or perhaps a combination of club suites and general seating. "That's something that we'll look at," he said. But he added that, "you have to careful about getting too big and hurting your sales overall," he said. |
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