Upfront: My Brett Favre conspiracy theory
By Steve Noe
Knowing no bigger fan of the Green Bay Packers than Dan Ariens, president and CEO of the Ariens Company, Brillion, Wis., I expressed my condolences to him via e-mail when the team’s long-time star quarterback Brett Favre formally announced his retirement March 4.
Since Favre publicly contemplated retirement for the past few years only to continuously come back, I then asked Dan if he thought that Favre was retiring for good, to which he replied “yes.”
Being a life-long Chicago Bears fan, who suffered through many defeats at the hands of Favre and the Packers, I expressed my doubts to Dan.
Well, unless you’ve been locked in the service shop with no connection to the outer world for the past month, you know by now that I was right as Favre’s retirement lasted a whopping five months.
I didn’t send an “I-told-you-so” e-mail to Dan. But I couldn’t help but e-mail him after the following strange series of events.
• July 29: Favre formally filed for reinstatement with the National Football League (NFL).
• Aug. 1: The Briggs & Stratton Power Products Group, Milwaukee, Wis., announced that it re-signed Favre as the spokesperson for its Snapper brand of lawn mowers for a minimum of two years. Favre has been promoting Snapper lawn and garden products since 2004, and will continue to appear in television, radio and newspaper ads for the Snapper brand, as well as be featured prominently in sales literature and in-store displays and on the brand’s Web site (www.snapper.com).
• Aug. 4: Favre was formally reinstated to the NFL by Commissioner Roger Goodell.
• Aug. 6: After Favre met with Packers’ management and both sides agreed to part ways, Green Bay traded Favre to the New York Jets for a conditional pick in the 2009 draft.
• Aug. 12: Dan Ariens was elected to the Packers’ Executive Committee by the team’s board of directors at its quarterly meeting, replacing Bob Gallagher, who reached age 70, the mandatory retirement age under the Packers’ bylaws. (Little did I know that Dan had been a member of the Packers’ board since July 2005.) “We’re delighted to bring Dan Ariens onto the Executive Committee,” said Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy. “Dan has served the organization well on the board and as the chair of the marketing committee. He has a very successful background in business and also has served in a variety of roles in the community. We look forward to his continued contributions to the success of the Packers.” The Packers’ Executive Committee directs corporate management, approves major capital expenditures, establishes broad policy, and monitors management’s performance in conducting the business and affairs of the corporation.
Following Ariens’ appointment that same day, Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote the following in a blog, “The seven-member Executive Committee is the most important board in the organization. Most important in the wake of the tussle between former Packers quarterback Brett Favre and the franchise is the fact that the committee monitors the performance of management, including Murphy and General Manager Ted Thompson. Over the course of the Favre soap opera, the committee expressed strong support for both Murphy and Thompson.”
Although Dan Ariens was not officially named to the Packers’ Executive Committee until after the Favre trade, I began to formulate my conspiracy theory. I wondered if Ariens was so upset by Favre proving him wrong by unretiring and then extending his Snapper spokesperson deal with in-state business rival Briggs & Stratton that he was influential in shipping Favre to New York.
So when I e-mailed Dan Ariens for the first time since Favre retired to congratulate him on his appointment to the Packers’ Executive Committee, I also asked him if there was any truth to my theory. He said that it was just a “coincidence.”
Oh well! So much for my conspiracy theory. I guess that it may have been too “Favre” fetched.
OPE Editor Steve Noe
snoe@m2media360.com
