Despite Brett Favre having retired last March, Green Bay has kept the QB’s locker intact during early practices, a situation On Milwaukee‘s Jason Wilde considers unfair to Aaron Rogers, “who has as tough a follow-up gig as anyone has ever had at quarterback in the NFL.”
Rodgers is trying to play with the specter of Favre hovering over him, and there’s a tangible reminder of the guy 10 feet away. To bring Favre back for the jersey retirement at the regular-season opener is one thing; to have his locker still there is another. The subject first came up at the NFL meetings in Palm Beach in April, when McCarthy asked rhetorically, “Would you want that locker? You’ve got to be kidding me. We’re talking about a couple things.”
When I saw Favre’s locker was still intact at the post-draft rookie orientation camp in early May, I asked about it again.
WILDE: How come Favre’s locker is still intact?
McCARTHY: Who do you want me to put in there?
WILDE: I don’t know. But isn’t it just a locker?
McCARTHY: I think it’s more than a locker, and there’s some plans for the locker that will be addressed in the future. But there’s nothing else to it. I wouldn’t want his locker, especially after his hygiene, my goodness. It’s a locker of a very special player in the history of our organization, and there are some plans for the future, and we’ll address that when it comes. I’ll just leave it at that.
While the hygiene line was funny, McCarthy didn’t say exactly what the plan for it is. Will they save it for posterity, as the Washington Redskins did with the late Sean Taylor’s locker, or the Minnesota Vikings did with the late Korey Stringer’s? I don’t know.
I still think it’s just a locker, and Favre didn’t die, he retired. Put ex-University of Wisconsin punter Kenny DeBauche, who grew up in Green Bay, in it, and it’s a story for one day. DeBauche talks about how cool it is to have Favre’s locker, and then, after that, it’s not Favre’s locker anymore. It’s DeBauche’s. And then someone else’s down the road.