SCOTT on:

   The Emperor Has No Clothes

Brett Favre demanded a trade. No he didn't. He wants out of Green Bay. No he doesn't. He's pissed off at the team. No he's not. He's not in training camp. It's no big deal. He's going to retire. No he's not. He'll play another year and that's it. Maybe not. The bipolar nature of Brett Favre has been on display for all the world to see and it's getting lame.

Favre recently got all hot and bothered because the Packers failed to sign Randy Moss this off season, the missing piece to a potential title puzzle in Favre's opinion, and he's put out that the organization appears to be building slowly for the future, instead of taking last desperate chances to win now while his career gasps to a close.

Before going any further, let me state that I am a Packer fan. My family has roots to the organization that go back to the Lombardi era, I didn't miss watching a single game for a 15 year period from the mid-80s to the late-90s and I've frozen my butt off watching more bad Packer games in Milwaukee County Stadium than anyone should ever have had to. At one of my best friend's first wedding – yes, most of my friends at this point need their weddings qualified by numbers – the groomsman present was a replica Favre jersey.

That being said, I'm not a Packer or Favre mark who wears my #4 uni out to dinner. I'm not so in love with the man or the franchise that I am unable to look at either objectively.

And when I look at the Packers and Favre objectively, you know what I see: a team with below average NFL talent that should build for the future, because the reckless, selfish, far past his prime, 37-year-old legend had his moment in the sun, but now it's gone.

The idea of the Packers trying to make "one last run" behind Favre is absurd! Favre is an adequate NFL QB today, no better. He's one of the five best all-time, but his prime was 10 years ago and on a roster that is developing and built largely around first and second year players, Favre is taking you nowhere.

Packer fans get caught up in this fantasy that the old man has one more great fight in him. Maybe they've seen too many "Rocky" movies, maybe they've eaten too many cheese curds, maybe they see in Favre their pathetic attempts at one more great athletic memory which they try to live out on softball fields around the state in great numbers every night, I don't know what it is, but Packer fans are living in an alternate reality from the rest of us where Favre is still the MVP caliber QB who can take a team to the promised land.

It's embarrassing really, and the rest of the NFL is laughing at you.

If the Favre of today were the Favre of 10, or even five years ago, you could argue the team should risk mortgaging its future to put some risky, but talented free agents around him for one last shot at the gold, but Favre has nine more picks than TDs the past two seasons and is a shot fighter. He can show glimpses here and there, but the idea that this Brett Favre can take any team deep in the playoffs, let alone a team with all the holes of Green Bay, is asinine.

Favre had bad playoff performances in his prime, disasters against St. Louis and Philadelphia. The Packers, with more talent than they have now and a better Favre than this one, lost early round home playoff games 2002 and 2004. Am I the only one who remembers those disappointments? Those were the last best shot. The early part of this decade was the time for Favre to make one more good run, but he couldn't get it done, why would anyone think he can now in the late part of the decade?

And the only thing more ridiculous than thinking Favre has another Super Bowl run in him is the notion that Randy Moss can help get him there. Please! How does adding a moody, lazy, poisonous, petulant WR to a reckless, selfish, 37-year-old QB equal a championship?

New England is able to bring in Moss and reasonably expect it to work because the team has great veteran leadership – Tedy Bruschi, Tom Brady, Rodney Harrison, Mike Vrabel – and an established and successful coach and GM – Bill Belichik and Scott Pioli. The Packers have none of those things and adding Moss to a roster of young players with a second year head coach and a GM trying to find his footing is a recipe for disaster.

I've heard a lot of stupid ideas in my life, Randy Moss to the Packers goes in the Top-10.

Never mind that Moss is an absolute creep, a player who regularly loafs and a player who pretended to "moon" fans at Lambeau Field. I guess all that talk about wanting "hard working," "good" guys who "play the game the right way," was just talk for Packer fans. Apparently I'm the only Packer fan with any sense of dignity or pride who can say, without reservation, "I'd rather lose without Randy Moss than win with him."

And if you don't go in for the ethical argument, how about the argument that Randy Moss isn't good anymore? The guy has just 11 touchdowns in two seasons, has quit now on two different teams, and even if you blame his problems on the pathetic Raiders' offense, he's never shown the capacity to take his profession seriously or carry his team anywhere in the playoffs.

The idea of Brett Favre and Randy Moss together may make fantasy football dorks pee themselves, but in real world football, they're a joke.

Oh, and here's another thing: there's a lot of speculation that Favre's maverick streak and Moss' penchant for dissing coaches would create chaos in combination. How would second year Packers' coach Mike McCarthy deal with a potential power struggle over play calling when he's matched against the iconic Brett Favre and the "F –you" Randy Moss? You don't think the Pack's brass was more than a little worried that the "I'll do it my way," gunslinger without a conscience Favre and the consummate follower Moss might go "off the page" so to speak when times got tough and give a big middle finger to the coaching staff? If they weren't, they should have been. How do you thing Favre and Moss doing their own thing would look to the promising group of young players the Packers have? There's no threat of that in New England because Brady and Belichick work perfectly in concert and accept no freelancing, in Green Bay, you have none of that because there's a sense that Favre is out for Favre and the team can go screw.

From his retirement yo-yo, to calling out Javon Walker during his contract negotiations to stiff arming backup QB Aaron Rogers to now pouting about Randy Moss, it's clear that Favre cares only about Favre and what's best for the team, and its future, is irrelevant.

Brett Favre is the spoiled baby who wants candy for dinner because it tastes good right now and tells his dad he hates him when pop forces him to eat chicken and vegetables because it's in his best interest long term.

And that's where this relationship between the Packers and Favre doesn't work – the Packers' focus is on the team, the organization, the future, the big picture – as it should be; Favre's focus is only on himself and his vain and delusional ideas about another great "run."

It's hard to call a spade a spade when it comes to Favre. His legend has gone way beyond that of ordinary sports celebrity into the Paul Bunyan-esq stratosphere of American cultural icon like Nolan Ryan, Pete Rose or Michael Jordan. He brought the Super Bowl back to Titletown. He never misses games. He has guts and moxie and takes risks. We've seen him battle alcoholism and pain killer addiction, we were there when is dad died, we watched his wife go through cancer, Brett Favre is one of our own, but his time has come and gone. There were the Green Bay Packers before Brett Favre arrived and there will be the Green Bay Packers after he's gone and the sooner it ends for both sides, the better, because all we're doing now is tainting memories.