I know this is old news now that Favre is with the Jets and has started to practice, but still wanted to get it out there.
Everyone who is a football fan, and even non-football fans know about the saga of Brett Favre coming to a close today with the trade to the Jets. Listening to the local sports talk radio the other, they were wondering when the Bills were going to make a splash in the league, seeing as other teams in the AFC East were – The Patriots, The Jets, The Dolphins, compared to the rest of their division, the Bills have been pretty quite. So why didn’t they go after Brett Favre?
Maybe they are taking a page out of the Buffalo Sabres playbook, not wanting to rely too much on Free Agency and groom their own draft picks. Seems the smart way to go. Instead of star power, we get community power. Our fans get to grow up with the draft picks to watch them get big money elsewhere. Here are the reasons why I think Buffalo didn’t even look to Green Bay during the bidding process:
1 – Money. The Bills have their own self-imposed salary cap beyond what the league has. Signing Favre would have definitely raised that number.
2 – Teams are starting to like the draft, would Buffalo want to rely on future draft picks, instead of gambling with Favre and having to give up a conditional pick.
3 – If you look at the previous history of Bills quarterbacks, free agents did not fair well here. Doug Flutie. Drew Bledsoe, need I say more. The community gets all pumped up over the name, only to reap disappointment
4 – We had our quarterback controversy last year. Trent Edwards has been labeled as the man of the future. Why would you take two steps back by throwing another starter in the mix. As bad as J P Losman has been for Buffalo, he still could command starting money somewhere, and probably will. Edwards has gotten his feet wet. Instead of repainting while the lines are still wet, give the paint some time to dry.
5 – Plain as day not interested. What would Favre guarantee? We don’t need help with ticket sales or morale – that is taken care of…the players are excited and we have over 50,000 season ticket holders.
The last time I was this excited about Bills season I was still worried about girl germs and G.I. Joes. The Bills did themselves a favor where I am concerned by looking the other way when it came to Favre. I cannot wait for the first whistle of the season.