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Roughly an hour after the Packers’ Tuesday practice, Packers head coach Mike McCarthy shed little light on the Brett Favre saga that continues to dominate the attention of the pro football world.
Probably the most telling moment in McCarthy’s 35-minute press conference was when McCarthy was asked why he thought Brett Favre is not the Green Bay Packers’ quarterback right now.
“That’s a great question,” McCarthy said. “You have to ask Brett Favre.”
McCarthy did indicate, however, that he asked Favre one very key question during his “brutally honest” five-hour-plus meeting with the longtime Packers quarterback Monday.
“The one thing I wanted to know is if he was really ready to play for the Packers, and he said his mindset was just not right for that,” McCarthy said. “We didn’t move ahead on all the different options from that point on.”
There were some important developments, meanwhile, in advance of McCarthy’s long-awaited press conference.
NFL Network’s Adam Schefter said about a half-hour before McCarthy’s press conference that he had been told by Favre’s agent, Bus Cook, that Favre definitely planned on playing, which would rule out the possibility that Favre might retire again and accept the Packers’ sweetheart lifetime personal-services deal.
In addition, both Schefter and ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported Tuesday that trade talks to some degree were going on with the Buccaneers, and that Favre got involved in actual trade talks for the first time.
About 30 minutes before McCarthy spoke to the media, NFL Network showed a piece of video in which Packers GM Ted Thompson and team president Mark Murphy were shown leaving Favre’s home, where presumably the two of them had been meeting with Cook about a possible deal.
Mortensen had indicated that the Jets were still in the picture, but from a distance, and that Favre’s family was suggesting to him that he might at least consider the New York option.
Schefter reported shortly before 7 p.m. ET that the Packers had placed Favre on the non-football injury list. There have been no reports as to when Favre might next choose to address the media.
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