RUSH: Barb in Montana, a cell call, great to have you on the program. Hello.
CALLER: Hey! Thanks, Rush. Thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: Yes, ma’am.
CALLER: I gotta say hi to my folks back in St. Paul and also to our friend Cory who is mowing hay right now back in Livingston. We’re just driving through southern Montana and I had to call because I’m excited as heck that Brett Favre is playing quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, and I’d rather watch him play and struggle with his retirement issues than watch a quarterback that’s been convicted of a felony.
RUSH: Okay. You want to compare Favre to Michael Vick.
CALLER: (giggling) No, I’m comparing. It’s not even in the same category. I’m just excited that he’s there. I know a lot of people don’t like watching him struggle with that retirement thing, but I don’t care.I’m a Viking fan, and I’ve always loved Brett Favre. So…
RUSH: Let me talk to you about this, since you’re a Viking fan.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: Let me talk to you about this as a fan.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: Now, I was playing golf the other afternoon, and one of the guys came up to me and asked, ‘Do you think the media is going overboard talking about this Favre stuff?’ Yes. I think they’re going overboard talking about Vick!
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: But I’m going to tell you something. I’m going to tell you something. The way this went down, the other players on this team have just been told in no uncertain terms that they don’t matter. Brett Favre was told by the Vikings that if you’re going to play with us, you gotta come to the OTA’s. [Organized Team Activities] ‘You have to come to the mini-camps. You’ve got to come to training camp.’ ‘Oh, I don’t want to do that.’ He didn’t go to any of that and they’re still paying him $10 to $12 million this year.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Now, they had two quarterbacks, Tarvaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels, and those two guys have just been told, ‘You don’t matter. The only difference between you guys and a bag of manure is the bag. We got Brett Favre.’
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Coach Childress is going to need one of those two guys because Favre is not going to make it the whole season.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: He’s going to need one of these two guys and these two guys, you know, it’s going to have to require their professionalism to be motivated to get in there and do it. If I’m one of the big stars of the Vikings, Adrian Peterson, running back.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm?
RUSH: If I’m Adrian Peterson, I’ve just learned I don’t have to go to training camp, either. If I’m the whole team, I say, ‘I don’t need to go to training camp, and I can still start, and they’ll roll out the red carpet for me!’ I’ve met Brett Favre and I like him, and I think it’s sort of sad that people are going to remember him more for his ‘I’m retiring. I’m not retiring. I don’t know what I’m going to do’ than the one Super Bowl he won.
CALLER: Yeah, I know. But I still like watching him play.
RUSH: Well, that’s the bottom line.
CALLER: (giggles)
RUSH: It is the NFL. Brett Favre and Brad Childress can’t raise your taxes.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: The owner can raise his prices, but the players cannot raise your taxes. That’s the bottom line. If you like watching him play and you’re a fan, then that’s fine. That’s what they’re counting on in Minnesota.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: They did this for the fans.
CALLER: But your point is taken, Rush. I understand your point completely.
RUSH: It depends on what kind of locker room guy he is, too. He can go a long way to mitigating some of this anger if he doesn’t go in and be a separatist, if he becomes one of the guys and so forth. It remains to be seen. It’s clear he has wanted to play for the Vikings for a long time, so I wish him the best. (interruption) No, that team… He wanted to go to the Vikings last year. He had to settle for the Jets. He wanted to go to the Vikings because he wants to ram it to the Packers, which is understandable. Hey, you know, it’s sports. It’s entertainment. All this is fine. It’s not earth-shattering stuff. I just look at it from the standpoint of what message does the team send every other player with this kind of special treatment?
It’s a guy who was not on the roster. I talked to Jimmy Johnson once, and he said, ‘You don’t treat players the same. We didn’t treat Marino (when he coached the Dolphins) the way they treated every other player, but do it subtly,’ and when you’re on a team with a guy like Marino, you understand that. That’s after he’s put in 13, 15 years and all the passing records he’s had and he’s a hard worker, team guy. Now they’re importing a guy here who’s being treated better than anybody currently on the roster. To me, that’s a potential for problems. I look it as managing employees, managing a business, getting the most out of them. I don’t know that this is the best way to do it, but I appreciate the question. It’s a great Open Line Friday question. That’s the kind of question Snerdley would have found were he here.