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Green
Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy answer a question about
quarterback Brett Favre at NFL football training camp .
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GREEN BAY - Brett Favre or no Brett
Favre, the Green Bay Packers are firmly committed to Aaron Rodgers
as their starter.
And that hasn't changed after Favre
formally filed for reinstatement by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell
on Tuesday. Packers coach Mike McCarthy affirmed the team's
commitment to Rodgers, saying he would start all four of the
Packers' preseason games and probably get more playing time than
Favre used to in the preseason.
"He'll be starting all of the
games as the starter," McCarthy said of Rodgers. "We've
talked about possibly playing our first group maybe a little longer,
and those are things that we'll discuss. The health of your football
team obviously factors into that, so that is our plan going into the
preseason with Aaron."
Rodgers insisted Favre's potential
presence in training camp didn't bother him. Is that a sign of
self-confidence, or a result of encouragement he has received from
his coaches?
"All that, I think,"
Rodgers said. "Confidence in myself, confidence in how the
coaches and personnel staff feel about me. And then, he's not here
yet. I think we're still dealing with a hypothetical at the
moment."
Teammates say Rodgers is handling the
situation well.
"Aaron has handled himself very,
very well," Packers tackle Mark Tauscher said. "He's
obviously matured a bunch and knows the situation."
As for Favre, McCarthy said he has a
plan in place. The first step would be a physical examination and
conditioning test.
"The same for every
player," McCarthy said. "He'll come in and he'll go
through a physical. Then he will be evaluated, he'll have a run test
to see where his conditioning is and we'll evaluate that, and then
we'll have a practice plan for him."
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FAVRE FATIGUE? It's only two days
into training camp, and players already are tired — not from the
practices, but from constantly being asked about Favre.
"Anytime you have a situation
where there's a distraction, or there's one guy getting all of the
attention and the buzz, rather than us being able to concentrate on
executing plays, it gets a little redundant," cornerback
Charles Woodson said. "You get tired of questions — and it's
only going to get worse if he shows up at camp tomorrow, or the next
day. We've just all got to be prepared, and like I said, just be
professionals."
Tauscher said it's a waste of time to
think about things you can't control.
"We're going to play
football," Tauscher said. "I think you're really wasting
energy thinking about all that. Aaron's our quarterback and we're
moving forward with him. We're just going to continue to deal with
it. We can't control it. Brett and the organization will control
it."
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LIFE OF BRIAN: Rookie quarterback
Brian Brohm says the transition to life in the NFL has gone pretty
well thanks to the progress he made during organized team activity
(OTA) practices in the offseason.
"The first two days have been
good," said Brohm, a second-round pick out of Louisville.
"I feel pretty comfortable out there, just retaining
information from the OTAs in the summer and turning it over to now.
We're reinstalling the exact same things we did in OTAs, I feel like
I've picked it up really well and it's coming along pretty
fast."
One main area of improvement for
Brohm: He's holding on to the ball too long under pressure.
"That's something I think I've
improved upon in these first few days," Brohm said. "I've
been getting the ball out of my hand quicker, moving when pressure's
coming. It's something that I've been really focused on since OTAs
because there were instances where I wasn't positively sure of where
to go, so I was a little late on some throws. But now the second
time through, I feel a lot more comfortable. The more reps you get,
the better you're going to get at it."
Brohm has never met Favre, but that
might change by the end of the week.
"Obviously if he comes back and
that's what the Packers decide to do, I'm going to try to learn as
much as possible from him," Brohm said. "Anytime you can
learn from a future Hall of Famer, I think it's always a plus."
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NOTES: CB Tramon Williams did not
fully participate in Tuesday's practice after straining a hip flexor
Monday night. DTs Justin Harrell (back) and Ryan Pickett (hamstring)
also were sidelined. ... Woodson jokingly chanted "We want
Brett!" as players left the practice field Tuesday, but later
decided he should be chanting harder for RB Ryan Grant. "My
concern really is Ryan Grant," Woodson said. "When do we
get that guy in camp? Because he's just as big a part of our offense
as Brett is. So I should've said, 'We want Ryan Grant.' Hopefully
that gets worked out." Grant, an exclusive-rights free agent,
is sitting out practice in hopes of getting the team to commit to a
long-term deal.
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