(For the latest information on Vinyl Record Day 2008, click here.)
For some fine reading today, head over to the Great Vinyl Meltdown for another evocative post linked to a memorable tune. I, too, have my memories of summers spent with cousins, and they always include a soundtrack. Visit WNEW.com as well, where Fusion45 relives a schoolboy crush on Stevie Nicks.
It occurs to me I have yet to link to the stuff I’ve written for WNEW recently, so here you go:
This Week in Rock History: “Marry Me, Sid”
Rock 101: Bigger Than Jesus?
Founding Father: Jerry Lee Lewis
This Week in Rock History: A Nose and a Toe
Rock 101: Springsteen Rising (new today)
And now, I’m going off-topic for a bit. In addition to being a music geek and a radio geek, I am also a football geek, so here are a few words on the end of the Brett Favre era in Green Bay. As a lifelong Packer fan, I imagine that this must be how it feels to get divorced: After an irreparable breach, a long-term relationship that has been filled with ups and downs comes to a difficult but necessary end. That ending is filled with recriminations on both sides, yet when the relationship is finally over, you’re left saddened, with the forlorn wish that it would have turned out differently. Make no mistake, however: I am on the Packer management side of this, and I have been from the start. Even during his tearful retirement press conference last March, I never believed Favre would stay retired, but I agreed with the Packers’ decision to put the team in the hands of heir apparent Aaron Rodgers. You’ve got to take a man at his word, and Favre said he was going to quit—twice, actually, once publicly early in March and again privately a month later, when he briefly waffled before deciding to stay retired. To wait around through the whole off-season just in case Hamlet changed his mind again would have been professional malfeasance by the team, far worse than the malfeasance lots of people think they’ve committed by turning over the team to an unproven backup.
Don’t think that all of Packer Nation is in inconsolable mourning today—the people you see on TV at Packers’ camp chanting “bring back Brett” represent those who have the time and inclination to show up for a training camp practice on a weekday afternoon. They are not exactly a representative sample of public opinion. Wiser fans take a less emotional perspective. Will the Packers have a less successful season in 2008 than in 2007? They were one game away from the Super Bowl last year, so the answer is almost certainly “yes”—but the answer was almost certainly going to be “yes” even with Brett Favre, since football is largely unpredictable (unless you’re in New England). Bottom line: Nobody, not even a Hall-of-Fame quarterback, is either indispensable or—and this is maybe the more important point—bigger than the team. The beginning of the post-Favre era was coming eventually, and it might as well begin now.
We now return to our regular programming.
Why Do Lovers Break Each Other’s Heart/Hall & Oates (buy it here)
Starting All Over Again/Mel and Tim (buy it here)
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Well, JB, my condolences. As a lifelong Steelers fan, I had to endure twenty years of Cliff Stoudt, Mark Malone, and – and I feel queasy simply typing the name – Bubby Brister following Terry Bradshaw’s retirement.
That said, I agree that the Packers had to do what they did. And, there’s a lot to like about the team you have around Rodgers, Plus, in a throwback scenario, he’s had three(?) seasons to sit and learn which I think is going to benefit him greatly. I think you also have to be encouraged by how the kid has handled this mess.
For those of us who have been around to remember the QBs who replaced Bart Starr, the GREATEST signal caller in Packers history, luminaries such as Scott Hunter, David Whitehurst, and Jerry Tagge immediately come to mind.
Let us not forget Carlos Brown, better known as Alan Autry from “In The Heat Of The Night,” Don MIlan, Jim Del Gaizo, or the ill-fated trade for John Hadl.
Packer Backers can only hope things turn out better with Aaron Rodgers.
Remember the unofficial rallying cry from the mid-70s to the mid-80s, “You can beat our Pack, but you can’t lick our Dickey.”
Another Packers fan here. I’m pretty much in agreement with everything you wrote. It’s sad to see Brett go but it pretty much had to be done.
I have to disagree with just about all you wrote about Brett. In February, I pretty much knew then that Favre would not be back. When Mike McCarthy explained at a press conference that it was time for the Packers to see what Rodgers could do, I thought if I were Favre and heard that, I would think I wasn’t wanted anymore. I felt when he gave his retirement speech, he didn’t want to, but felt he was being forced into it. I will say that mistakes were made on both sides but the Packers’ management blundered much worse. I feel Ted Thompson embarrassed himself and the Packers by sweeping one of the best and most popular players in the NFL out like yesterdays trash.
It is indeed sad that Brett is gone, but by no means did it have to be that way. I know if I were the GM, I would have to ask myself, do I let the runner up for MVP and future hall-of-famer change his mind and come back? Or go with an unproven qb with no starts? I’d go with Brett every time.