McCARTHY OBVIOUSLY PISSED

Packers head coach Mike McCarthy held his pre-camp press conference Saturday in Green Bay. The first ten minutes went by without a single question unrelated to that Favre guy.

Obviously, this is the big story surrounding the Packers. However, he's not on the football team, and there's no guarantee he'll ever be again. It's not quite like asking a coach about a player who is holding out, or a guy who is injured and trying to get healthy before camp starts.

Reporters want to know what's going on with Favre. Perhaps they should try asking him. Then again, unless it's a neutered environment with a buddy in the media, Favre's not likely talking.

Not surprisingly, McCarthy seemed a bit perturbed by this. Hard to blame him.

"Well, it has gone on so long for me personally I can't really recall if I was surprised," McCarthy said. "But the way it has gone has been disappointing, I'll say that. You can say that is a surprise."

When asked to expound on that, McCarthy said: "I don't think this is necessary, why we're here today and just the course it has gone."

Also, McCarthy said the June 20th conversation he had with Favre, in which the quarterback said he was told the team was moving on and didn't want him back, wasn't quite as definitive as Favre described.

..."It's not like Brett Favre called me up and I said, 'No way you can't come back.' That wasn't the case."

Surely, no one in the Packers organization wanted this. At the same time, after watching Favre hold them over a barrel for three straight years with this retire-or-not-retire stuff, they can't be terribly surprised.

With Favre apparently threatening to report to camp, the Packers are in an interesting bind.

What do you do?

ESPN's Michael Smith made an idiot of himself on SportsCenter, saying that he didn't think the Packers could trade Favre. Of course, he didn't bother to lay out a way to make "Favre on the roster" work, and only a complete buffoon would think the Packers are going to release Favre knowing he wants to play for the Vikings.

It's really easy to say that the Packers can't trade Favre, but they've committed to Aaron Rodgers, and they're committed to keeping their word. I find it hard to believe anyone could fault the Packers for that with a straight face, but it seems many are setting themselves up to do just that.