Marketplace of Ideas Blog

I have tried to avoid commenting about the sturm und drang surrounding former Packer quarterback Brett Favre’s move to Minnesota, which culminates in tonight’s Monday Night Football game and the Vikings–Packers game at Lambeau Field Nov. 1.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bob McGinn is paid to comment about such things, and he brings up some worrisome points about tonight’s game that go beyond tonight.

On quarterback Aaron Rodgers:

For two years, Rodgers came across as being too smart for his own good. If he learned anything from Favre, it was to tone it down and start mixing with teammates at their level.

On Friday, guard Jason Spitz used an innocuous question asking him to compare Favre and Rodgers throwing screen passes as the chance to give Rodgers a remarkable endorsement.

“Aaron can do anything as well as anyone in this program has ever done,” said Spitz. “Absolutely. The kid’s special. If everyone else can play up to his level, we’ll be pretty good.” …

Now all Rodgers has to do is win. His record is 8–11 just as Favre’s was 11–8 at this point of his career in 1993.

Rodgers has led the Packers to victory just once in six games as an underdog. They’re an underdog now. He needs to win.

On coach Mike McCarthy:

It ended terribly between McCarthy and Favre. That long meeting between them in August 2008, when the die was cast, has been described as a complete screaming match with obscenities being hurled in each direction. …

Since that fateful night in January 2008 when the favored Packers were physically pounded by the New York Giants with a Super Bowl at hand, McCarthy hasn’t exactly made amends. He has only the one victory as an underdog, his zone run game has never caught on and his team leads the league in penalty yardage (2,062) since 2007.

Firing seven assistants bought him time after the seven-game collapse in 2008. Now he has the personnel to be a contender, but the team hasn’t played to it thus far.

On general manager Ted Thompson:

Only sentimental fools would blame the Packers’ GM for trading Favre and going with Rodgers. He correctly saw slippage in Favre, he correctly saw readiness in Rodgers and he courageously made the move.

Thompson should be under a degree of pressure for the 33–35 record during his watch brought about partially by his preoccupation with youth. The Packers are the youngest team for the fourth year in a row, using a draft-driven philosophy that has left them without capable depth in the offensive line.

Forty-six of the 53 players on the current roster were procured by Thompson. Team president Mark Murphy, at least publicly, couldn’t be any more supportive.

It’s time for Thompson’s hand-picked roster to be a force.

While McGinn says “This is a game unlike any other in the history of the Packers,” it is one game out of 16; after tonight, the season will be one-fourth over. Recall that in the Packers’ Super Bowl XXXI-winning season in 1996, the Packers were at 3–1 and one game behind 4–0 Minnesota after the Vikings beat the Packers. One week later, a Packer win and a Viking loss to a poor New York Giants team (something the Vikings have a history of doing), and they were tied for first again.

Tonight does, however, count more merely because it’s an NFC North game, which is why the Bears’ season-opening win was more important than the Bengals’ loss one week later. McGinn’s comments about offensive line depth are particularly troubling because the Vikings have an excellent defensive line, which is going to cause Rodgers fits tonight. For that and other reasons, I predict a Vikings win that will have very little to do with Favre’s supposed desire to stick it to Thompson and more to do with the fact that the Vikings are a better team this season.

But wait, there’s more: I don’t know if ESPN commentators Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski and Jon Gruden will bring this up, but the Vikings are pushing for a new stadium, with their lease set to expire after the 2011 season.

The current proposal is for a new stadium to be built on the property of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, upon whose Mall of America Field the game is being played tonight. (The irony is that Mall of America is the site of Metropolitan Stadium, where the Vikings and Minnesota Twins used to play.) The Vikings will be the sole tenant of the Metrodome since the University of Minnesota has its own football stadium and the Minnesota Twins will be getting their own (non-domed) stadium next spring. (Why didn’t the Vikings and the university share a football stadium — say, a stadium with removable seats for smaller Gopher crowds? Good question.)

It seems rather unrealistic to ask Minnesota taxpayers to pay for a third stadium with them already paying for two. (The irony is that the Twins wanted a domed stadium to avoid rainouts, snowouts and freezing early-season games, and now they are moving to a ballpark where all of those things will again be part of the fan experience.) Vikings owner Zygi Wulf has offered to pay $250 million, one-third of the cost of a $750 million open-air stadium. But the proposed stadium would have a roof, to allow “significantly more events during winter months,” and, according to the stadium proposal Web site, “the Vikings consider the costs of the roof to be a public expense.” Some argue that construction of a new stadium would also be an economic stimulus.

I’ve gone on the record in this space as predicting an eventual Vikings move to Los Angeles. It would be too bad for Packers fans, because a trip to the Twin Cities is convenient now that Wisconsin 29 is your four-lane connection to Interstate 94 and the Twin Cities. And obviously this is an issue for Minnesota taxpayers to decide. It just seems unlikely that Minnesota taxpayers will pony up another $700 million (including $200 million for a roof) for another stadium, which could make this one of the last Packers–Vikings games in Minneapolis.