Brett Favre didn't want to come out of Sunday's 26-7 loss to the Carolina Panthers. He let Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress know about it. And after the game he let the media know about it.
Television footage showed Favre and Childress in an animated discussion on the sideline during the third quarter, while the Vikings were still leading 7-6. With the offensive line struggling to contain Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers, Favre was getting hurried and knocked down.
Favre did not come out of the game. But in postgame comments, it was apparent he was not happy with what happened.
"Yeah, there was a heated discussion, I guess you would call it," Favre said of the exchange. "No secret, I was getting hit a little bit. I felt the pressure on a lot of plays. We had seven points. So I think everyone in the building was like, 'They're not moving the ball, they're not getting points.' Brad wanted to go in a different direction and I wanted to stay in the game. "
Childress said in a Monday news conference that he approached Favre with a "stream of consciousness" idea about taking him out of the game because he was getting hit hard by Carolina's defense. He stopped short of saying he wanted to bench Favre for performance reasons, and said he didn't consider the discussion "heated."
"It was more of a stream of consciousness," Childress said, "where he comes of the field, I'm watching what I'm watching, and I said, 'Hey, you know what? I'm thinking about taking you out of the game here.' I mean, [Favre was] getting [his] rear end kicked through not a lot of fault of his own.
"As I'm watching that and as I'm watching that occur, I'm giving him a stream of consciousness," Childress added. "Obviously, he didn't want anything to do with that, which I certainly appreciate from his standpoint. From any quarterback. He wasn't like, 'OK, let me get my hat on.' That wasn't in his makeup."
It was not the first time that Childress wanted to pull Favre from a game, but found the veteran quarterback not willing to step aside.
Sources tell ESPN that on Oct. 5, during a Monday night game against the Green Bay Packers that drew national attention for Favre's first game against his former team, Childress tried to pull Favre when he was unhappy about a decision the quarterback had made.
The Vikings had a 30-20 lead and were running their four-minute offense. The Packers were out of timeouts, and the Vikings called a run play on 3rd and 10 with 3:27 left. Favre changed the play at the line of scrimmage and took a shot downfield that fell incomplete, stopping the clock.
Childress was furious and told offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell that he was taking Favre out of the game, sources told ESPN. Bevell talked Childress out of it, but news got back to Favre that Childress was going to pull him.
That week, sources said, Favre went into Childress' office and confronted him and Childress backtracked, saying that it was the emotion of the game and the coach didn't want to get too far away from what they were doing offensively.
On Nov. 15, Favre was taken out of a game against Detroit, with a little more than five minutes remaining and the Vikings up 27-10. Childress tried to smooth the situation over by joking about pulling Favre, but he was not amused, sources told ESPN.
Favre has been pulled early from six games this season, usually when the Vikings (11-3) had a big lead late.
In comments Sunday after the game against the Panthers, Favre left vague whether Childress' motivation was to prevent him from getting hurt or to try and spark an offense that had been able to put only seven points on the board.
"We were up 7-6. Yeah, it's not 70-6, but we're up 7-6," Favre added. "So I said, 'I'm staying in the game, I'm playing.' I don't know if it was exactly to protect me, or we had seven points, I'm not sure. That's his call. But we talked it out. We didn't have time, I didn't have time to sit there and say why or what. My response was, we've got to win this ballgame and I want to stay in and do whatever I can. Now, unfortunately, I didn't do that, but that was my intention."
Childress, who downplayed the exchange after the game, on Monday characterized the discussion with Favre as "back and forth" fueled by the emotion of the game.
"You guys can characterize it as heated. There was pretty good communication going on back and forth. I didn't see it as a heated." Childress said. "I didn't see it as any different from the conversation that I had with him at Arizona after the game by his locker. There was a back and forth of information and feelings. This game is an emotional game, particularly when you're right in the middle of it. So I appreciate his wanting to stick to it. "
"We were just having a good conversation about the game was heading at that point and time," Childress said. "And what we needed to do to head the other way."
Television footage showed Favre and Childress in an animated discussion on the sideline during the third quarter, while the Vikings were still leading 7-6. With the offensive line struggling to contain Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers, Favre was getting hurried and knocked down.
Favre did not come out of the game. But in postgame comments, it was apparent he was not happy with what happened.
"Yeah, there was a heated discussion, I guess you would call it," Favre said of the exchange. "No secret, I was getting hit a little bit. I felt the pressure on a lot of plays. We had seven points. So I think everyone in the building was like, 'They're not moving the ball, they're not getting points.' Brad wanted to go in a different direction and I wanted to stay in the game. "
Childress said in a Monday news conference that he approached Favre with a "stream of consciousness" idea about taking him out of the game because he was getting hit hard by Carolina's defense. He stopped short of saying he wanted to bench Favre for performance reasons, and said he didn't consider the discussion "heated."
"It was more of a stream of consciousness," Childress said, "where he comes of the field, I'm watching what I'm watching, and I said, 'Hey, you know what? I'm thinking about taking you out of the game here.' I mean, [Favre was] getting [his] rear end kicked through not a lot of fault of his own.
"As I'm watching that and as I'm watching that occur, I'm giving him a stream of consciousness," Childress added. "Obviously, he didn't want anything to do with that, which I certainly appreciate from his standpoint. From any quarterback. He wasn't like, 'OK, let me get my hat on.' That wasn't in his makeup."
It was not the first time that Childress wanted to pull Favre from a game, but found the veteran quarterback not willing to step aside.
Sources tell ESPN that on Oct. 5, during a Monday night game against the Green Bay Packers that drew national attention for Favre's first game against his former team, Childress tried to pull Favre when he was unhappy about a decision the quarterback had made.
The Vikings had a 30-20 lead and were running their four-minute offense. The Packers were out of timeouts, and the Vikings called a run play on 3rd and 10 with 3:27 left. Favre changed the play at the line of scrimmage and took a shot downfield that fell incomplete, stopping the clock.
Childress was furious and told offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell that he was taking Favre out of the game, sources told ESPN. Bevell talked Childress out of it, but news got back to Favre that Childress was going to pull him.
That week, sources said, Favre went into Childress' office and confronted him and Childress backtracked, saying that it was the emotion of the game and the coach didn't want to get too far away from what they were doing offensively.
On Nov. 15, Favre was taken out of a game against Detroit, with a little more than five minutes remaining and the Vikings up 27-10. Childress tried to smooth the situation over by joking about pulling Favre, but he was not amused, sources told ESPN.
Favre has been pulled early from six games this season, usually when the Vikings (11-3) had a big lead late.
In comments Sunday after the game against the Panthers, Favre left vague whether Childress' motivation was to prevent him from getting hurt or to try and spark an offense that had been able to put only seven points on the board.
"We were up 7-6. Yeah, it's not 70-6, but we're up 7-6," Favre added. "So I said, 'I'm staying in the game, I'm playing.' I don't know if it was exactly to protect me, or we had seven points, I'm not sure. That's his call. But we talked it out. We didn't have time, I didn't have time to sit there and say why or what. My response was, we've got to win this ballgame and I want to stay in and do whatever I can. Now, unfortunately, I didn't do that, but that was my intention."
Childress, who downplayed the exchange after the game, on Monday characterized the discussion with Favre as "back and forth" fueled by the emotion of the game.
"You guys can characterize it as heated. There was pretty good communication going on back and forth. I didn't see it as a heated." Childress said. "I didn't see it as any different from the conversation that I had with him at Arizona after the game by his locker. There was a back and forth of information and feelings. This game is an emotional game, particularly when you're right in the middle of it. So I appreciate his wanting to stick to it. "
"We were just having a good conversation about the game was heading at that point and time," Childress said. "And what we needed to do to head the other way."
Fact is, when Favre talked about being pissed after the game and said Childress wanted to pull him, Childress was caught completely off guard in the locker room, flipped out, and started screaming at somebody behind closed doors (according to Tom Powers, local reporter who was in the locker room at the time).. now Childress tries to say 'oh I was just concerned for his safety' which is a LOAD OF SHIT. Childress legitimately wanted to pull Favre because he was pissed at how much Favre was changing the play at the line... guess what? THAT'S BRETT FAVRE! You knew that when you practically sucked his cock in the offseason to get him to come here... You KNEW he controls the offense and if he sees something he thinks he can exploit with the defense, he's going to change the play... and now you're pissed that he's been changing plays... regardless of whether or not Favre's audibles have worked, you KNEW what you were getting into!
So fine, you wanna be pissed that Favre's changing the plays and you wanna pull him from the game because of it... you're an idiot for pulling him for that reason, but fine... you make that choice... then you let Favre overrule you on it????? You're gonna let Favre tell you to fuck off on national television and just pretend like it was a "stream of consciousness"... who's the head coach of the fucking team??? if it's Favre he should be gettin paid for bein both quarterback and coach..
Remember Brad, YOU were the one who bent over backwards and twisted sideways to get Favre here, knowing FULL WELL WHAT KIND OF PLAYER FAVRE IS... MAKE UP YOUR FUCKING MIND. If you want somebody who's going to consistently play conservative football and never change the play at the line, put Jackson in and cut your losses with Favre, send him back to his fuckin farm in Mississippi. Otherwise, stop throwin fuckin hissy fits and acting like a baby when Favre audibles... OBVIOUSLY YOU'RE TOO FUCKIN SCARED TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT, and your lies afterward are flat-out comical.