Props to Packers for playing hardball with Favre

Brett Favre will always be remembered for trying to pull off something unexpected and daring, hoping to fit a football into a tiny spot that only he believed he could hit with his gifted arm and unflinching confidence.

His latest attempt fell incomplete.

More accurately, it was intercepted by the Green Bay Packers themselves.

The team's management is doing the right thing, refusing to play along with Favre's request to come back from retirement, be released from his contract and sign with another NFL team. Instead, the Packers are saying he can compete with Aaron Rodgers for the starting quarterback position in training camp, presumably leading to a trade.

That's fair.

These things are tricky, no question. Nobody else can legislate when a pro athlete retires, regardless of what any of us might believe is the proper time to exit gracefully. In Favre's case, coming off an outstanding season at age 38, he certainly deserves to keep playing.

Except that he quit in March, staging a tearful news conference six weeks after the Packers' season ended.

And he quit again a few weeks later, when team officials apparently were about to welcome him back.

Now, he wants to play. But the Packers are making the rules of this game, as they should. Favre is under contract to the Packers. They will hold his rights, once the league reinstates him, and can dictate where he plays.

The Packers would be silly to let Favre play against them twice this season for an NFC North rival such as Minnesota or Chicago, so releasing him is not an option. They should demand a premium before trading him to any NFC team that can affect their playoff chances, but they need to move on with Rodgers -- and without Favre.

It seems crazy, I know. This is sounding a lot like Cameron Diaz's character walking away from the real Brett Favre by choosing Ben Stiller at the end of "There's Something About Mary." Could the Packers really pick Aaron Rodgers over Brett Favre?

At this point, absolutely.

The Packers have accommodated Favre for years, amid his annual waffling about whether to retire or not. If Favre had said in March or April that he was coming back, the team would have made Rodgers keep waiting -- much like three years ago, when the San Francisco 49ers took Utah's Alex Smith over him with the No. 1 overall pick and Rodgers agonized through most of the first round.

Rodgers is ready to play, and Favre is gracious enough to recognize that, which is why he wants to choose a new team. The understudy proved his value last November when Favre was injured at Dallas and Rodgers performed brilliantly in a back-and-forth game the Packers eventually lost. Rodgers went back to the bench as Favre led the Packers to a playoff victory, only to lose to the New York Giants in overtime at home in the NFC championship game.

That was a standard-issue Favre game, which means he made some spectacular throws and a few others that everybody wished he could have back -- including the supposed last pass of his NFL career. Corey Webster's interception led to the Giants' winning field goal and a Super Bowl trip.

The Giants cashed in that opportunity and Favre later checked out of the NFL, at least temporarily.

Favre is now making things messy in Green Bay, and he's responsible for the cleanup. His choices are clear: He can retire -- and really mean it this time, seriously -- or he come to the Packers' camp this month and prove to everybody that he's committed to playing in the NFL, whether that means in Green Bay or somewhere else of the Packers' choosing.

That part would be the team's decision, not his. Whatever accommodations Favre earned with his play on the field for 16 seasons, he forfeited in March with his performance off the field.

(Contact Kurt Kragthorpe at kkragthorpe@sltrib.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)