Bruce Allen Interview About Brett Favre
By the way…I love Bruce Allen.
Q: How extensive were the talks with the Green Bay Packers?
A: I wouldn’t classify it as extensive at all. He may have talked to, from what it sound like, every team in the league. By reading all your stuff from the people covering it closely, it’s clear they didn’t want to send him to any team in the NFC.
Q: You had no negotiations whatsoever about getting Brett Favre?
A: No. It never got that far.
Q: How far did it get?
A: They were looking for a place to send Brett and they found it.
Q: How much interest did Brett Favre have in coming to Tampa Bay?
A: There are quite a few players in the league that have an interest to come to Tampa Bay. Not getting into the tampering rules of the league, I think that’s a credit to this organization. This system would fit a lot of players.
Q: How did you try to sell him on the Buccaneers?
A: Really, it never got that far. He wasn’t a free agent. We never really believed they were going to release him. They were clear from the beginning that it wasn’t their intention. It wasn’t that type of process.
Q: Bruce, are you saying you made no trade offer to the Packers for Brett Favre?
A: Green Bay never told us what they were interested in trading him for.
Q: Did you tell them what you were interested in?
No.
Q: Why did you not say Jeff Garcia is our quarterback and end it?
A: I think if you look at the quotes over the last year or two, Coach Gruden named him the starter at a Chamber of Commerce meeting a year ago and you said why even name him the starter. Coach Gruden and Jeff’s relationship goes back a ways. We’re going to compete on the football field. There are 80 guys competing to make the football team. The American way is competition. I don’t think any outside forces are going to affect our football team.
Q: If Garcia was your quarterback, why did you continue talking to Green Bay?
A: I’m not going to get into specifics.
Q: If you knew from the beginning Green Bay wasn’t going to trade Brett to an NFC team, why did you ask permission to talk to him and ask Jon Gruden to talk with him?
A: First of all, I think 18 teams were interested in Brett Favre. When this all started. We had never talked to him. We can’t control speculation. We can’t control rumors in the newspaper.
Q: But Brett Favre and Bus Cook said the Buccaneers were specifically part of the deal. Were they lying?
A: The fact that a player wants to play for us, once again, I think is a compliment to this organization. I’ve not ever turned my back on people wanting to come to the Buccaneers.
Q: Do you expect Jeff Garcia to believe what you’re saying, that you had no interested in Brett Favre and that he was never going to be part of the team?
A: We said we never believed they were going to trade Brett Favre.
Q: So you did have interest in acquiring him?
A: No. We have interest in anything that can help this football team.
Q: If you never believed they were going to trade him, why even talk to Green Bay? 18 teams did not talk to Brett Favre.
A: Are you sure?
Q: Yes. Why talk to Brett Favre if you had no inkling whatsoever that the Packers were going to him to nothing other than an AFC team?
A; We’re going to listen and see if there is a way it can benefit the Buccaneers.
Q: How do you get Jeff’ mind right to lead this team?
A: Jeff is a great competitor. He’s No.1 attribute is his competitive spirit. Right now, we want to get Jeff healthy, Get him back on the practice field. Nothing will change the competitive nature of Jeff Garcia.