Let the record show that I despise this story. I’m only publishing it to showcase the absurdity of the sports media cycle and illustrate how a nothing quote gets twisted into something bloated and nonsensical.

To set the stage, we need to go back to last week, when Brett Favre went on ESPN’s First Take and gave his opinion that the Eagles should have kept Nick Foles instead of Carson Wentz as their quarterback of the future. That opinion OBVIOUSLY meant a little bit more than others because Favre is a Hall of Famer, he was one of Carson’s football idols, and he’s very close with head coach Doug Pederson.

Therefore, Pederson was asked about the comments at his Wednesday press conference, and tried to take the high road by saying this:

“I respect Brett’s opinion. We are friends but I haven’t talked to him and he’s entitled to that. That’s about it.” 

The end. That should have been the end of the story right there. But Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Inquirer had to go ahead and ask a follow up question, seeking clarification to make sure Pederson was not agreeing with Favre.

Doug’s response to that:

“I respect Brett’s opinion. He’s entitled to his opinion. That’s fine. I’ll leave it at that.” 

That should have been it for a second time. Why? Because saying that you respect somebody’s opinion doesn’t necessarily mean you agree with that person’s opinion.

Rob Maaddi, sensing that Doug was going to get dragged through the mud based on those first two answers, then tried to give Pederson a way out. Rob threw him a Phillies bullpen-styled meatball, right over the center of the plate, basically just asking Doug if he wanted to back his starting QB and make clear his stance.

Doug’s third reply:

This story made headlines everywhere. It was discussed ad nauseam on sports talk radio. I even engaged Mike Missanelli in scholarly debate and soundly defeated him, though he performed well.

That should have been the end of the story, after the 48 hour cycle, but fuck me, because Favre was on SiriusXM radio this week and he was asked to RESPOND TO THE RESPONSE, which brings us into some perverted sports remake of the movie Inception, only the plot sucks and you want to walk out of the theatre.

Andrew Porter at WIP transcribed Brett’s response:

“Doug and I don’t have a problem with each other,” Favre said of his former Packers teammate on the SiriusXM NFL Radio showThe SiriusXM Blitz. “It is my opinion. It’s not his. What he said is – I don’t disagree with him. If I were him, I would have said the same things. They chose Carson Wentz. I’m not saying that’s wrong. I’m not saying it’s right. I’m just saying that based on that year, how Nick [Foles] played, not just because he won the Super Bowl as a starting quarterback, but how he led that team. And there’s no question to me that the guys like Carson Wentz. There’s no question to me that he has the potential to be that type of player, meaning capable of leading a team to Super Bowl. Will it be Philly? I don’t know. Right now Doug in the organization is committed to him and it was just my opinion that based on just strictly based on how Nick played and the results, I would have stuck with him. Not knocking Carson at all.”

“It was just my opinion.”

We established that last week, but the local sports media did not, and couldn’t leave the story alone. Why? Because Doug has to answer a certain way, and if he doesn’t they lead him to the perceived “correct” answer, which is of course an arbitrary press creation. Pederson can answer however he wants to answer and isn’t beholden to some set of flimsy rules created by people who can’t take anything at face value and feel this incessant need to read between the lines, even when nothing is there.

It was a media creation then, and it’s a media creation now. It manifested itself in Brett Favre responding to Doug Pederson’s response to Brett’s opinion about Nick Foles and Carson Wentz. Think about how ridiculous that sentence sounds. We took a nothing burger and then made it into a double nothing burger, like we started with a quarter pounder, removed the meat, and then came back one week later to add another piece of bread, but there’s still no meat.

I hate this story and am now done writing about it forever. Hopefully this post helped articulate how ridiculous the sports media cycle can be.