posted under: Brett Favre, Mark Murphy, retirement
The Steve McNair Drill?
Buried in an article today from Tom Silverstein and Greg Bedard is this potentially potent observation:
Of concern to the Packers would be an injury to Favre during training camp that would sideline him for the season, thereby leaving the Packers liable for his $12 million base salary.
With Mark Murphy down in Mississippi to make peace with Brett Favre, I’m wondering if this might come up in conversation. If the Hall of Fame quarterback doesn’t want to (pardon the expression) play ball, the Packers might bar him from camp for fear that he could get injured.
Are we be headed down the same path as the Tennessee Titans? A couple years ago they barred Steve McNair from using the team training facilities for fear that they would be on the hook for his salary if he got injured. Several weeks later a trade was worked out that sent McNair to the Ravens. (McNair’s agent was Bus Cook, by the way.)
RSS
July 30th, 2008 at 8:57 am
The Titans were found to be in violation of the CBA, but had the time it took the league to come to that decision to make a trade - now with a precedent, the Packers won’t be as fortunate.
July 30th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Good point, although it doesn’t sound like the issue was settled black and white. According to the press at the time: “In a statement from Titans general counsel Steve Underwood, the team said it appeared Feerick leaned more heavily on circumstances ‘unique and special’ to Tennessee state law than on the collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and the NFLPA.” (06/01/06 Tennessean; no link to that but there is this) If that’s true, maybe those conditions would not apply under Wisconsin law?