Jackson addresses Favre benching - DJ's Blog

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Jackson addresses Favre benching

Posted on August 31, 2009 at 12:58 PM.

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News broke late on Aug. 30 that the Minnesota Vikings had benched Brett Favre in the second quarter of their lackluster 23-14 win over the St. Louis Rams.

Despite being a perfect 5-0 on the season, there's a lot of turmoil surrounding the Vikings franchise and their owner, Prince Jackson, has called a news conference to address the Favre situation.

Prince Jackson: I want to thank all of you for coming. As you know, our head coach, Brad Childress, made the decision to bench Brett Favre in the second quarter of our game yesterday against St. Louis after throwing his third interception of the half. It was a decision I fully supported and was very pleased with the job Sage Rosenfels did in replacing Favre. I also want to take a second to single out Chester Taylor, who filled in for Adrian Peterson when AP went down with an injury soon after Favre was pulled. Chester had 100 yards on the day, including that nice 51-yard run late in the fourth quarter that helped put the game away. As usual, our defense played solid football.

With that said, let's open it up to questions.

Reporter: Brett was benched yesterday and didn't return. What's his status going forward?

Jackson: Well, I had a meeting with Brad this morning and he informed me that he's moving forward with Sage as the starting quarterback. Let's be frank; Brett just hasn't delivered this season. I firmly believe that's due to his unwillingness to make a decision on his retirement status until two weeks before the regular season started. He's been playing catch-up the entire season and it just isn't working. He's not 25, he's almost 40 years old.

Reporter; You guys brought Brett in thinking he was the missing piece of the puzzle. Now, he's not even starting. Will you explore a trade or perhaps release him so he can sign with someone else?

Jackson: An unconditional release is out of the question. As far as trades go, yes, I will come out and admit that after the developments of yesterday's game, I've made a few phone calls around the league to gauge interest in potential trade. I'm not saying that Brett's going to be traded, but I can't say that if an attractive offer is broached that I would turn it down.

Reporter: Will Brett be the backup and how does he feel about that role?

Jackson: Actually, this a full demotion. Brett not only won't be starting, he won't be the No. 2 quarterback. We're dropping him to No. 3 on the depth chart and will only use him in emergency situations. He needs more practice time so he's going to be busy during the week working with the scout team. Plus, we want to give Tavaris a chance to show us what he can do. But, I think we all feel confident that Sage is going to be the guy to steer our ship where we want it to go.

Reporter: How concerned were you when AP went out with an injury?

Jackson: Well, considering I had just watched our supposed franchise QB throw three interceptions and then our franchise running back can't get up off the turf, I was very nauseous at that point. But, as I stated, Chester Taylor did a remarkable job filling in for AP and I'm very happy that AP's injury was a minor one and he should be good to go next week.

Reporter: So, just to be clear, Favre is benched and you are considering trade offers for him?

Jackson: Yes. I wish it hadn't come to this point. We took a big gamble bringing Brett in here. I hoped it would work out but it's not looking like that's going to be the case. Who knows, things could change and Brett could reclaim that old magic and win his job back. But as of now, he's not going to see the field.

OK guys, that's it for today. Thanks again for coming and I hope that clears things up.