How Tannenbaum Got Favre - NY Daily News

Here's an interesting article about Tannenbaum's game plan to get Favre. I take my hat off to him. He worked his tail off.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/f...8-08-07_how_the_jets_grabbed_brett_favre.html

How the Jets grabbed Brett Favre
By RICH CIMINI in Cleveland and OHM YOUNGMISUK in Hattiesburg, Miss.
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITERS


Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum (r.) crafted an excellent plan and got what he wanted, Brett Favre.

CLEVELAND - It was dark and foggy when Mike Tannenbaum arrived Thursday morning at Republic Airport in Farmingdale, L.I., about 20 minutes from the Jets' training facility. Wearing a pinstriped golf shirt and gray slacks, he looked ready for a sunrise tee time. But this was no pleasure outing. This was a business trip for the ages.

The Jets' general manager, accompanied by his wife, Michelle, and player development director Dave Szott, boarded owner Woody Johnson's private jet, a twin-jet Cessna Citation. At 5:54 a.m., the plane took off for Hattiesburg, Miss., no doubt passing Cloud 9 along the way.

"I guess he's going to get his new quarterback," a worker inside the deserted terminal told a visitor.

A little more than two hours later, Tannenbaum, working on virtually no sleep, was in Mississippi, greeting the newest and most famous Jet since Joe Namath - Brett Favre.

It took 24 days to reach that moment, from the first phone call to the meet-and-greet in Hattiesburg. In between, the Jets executed a carefully scripted game plan, with Tannenbaum employing a strategy he learned from his mentor, former Jets coach Bill Parcells.

In June 1998, Parcells instructed a young Tannenbaum, the Jets' salary-cap guru, to keep an eye on quarterback Vinny Testaverde, who had been released by the Ravens. Tannenbaum's marching orders: Call the agent, keep it hush-hush and monitor the situation. After 22 days, the Jets signed Testaverde.

The Favre courtship, according to Tannenbaum, was akin to the Testaverde signing.

"We just kind of put an oar in the water and things finally just heated up real quick at the end," Tannenbaum said at 1:15 a.m. Thursday - two hours after he consummated the trade with the Packers.

Of course, the Favre situation played out under an intense microscope. That they pulled off the trade was somewhat surprising, considering Favre had to exhaust three other options before deciding on the Jets - a return to the Packers, a move to the Vikings and a trade to the Buccaneers.

The Bucs were thought to be the favorites in the Favre sweepstakes. In fact, a group of their coaches went to a watering hole Wednesday night near the team's training facility at Disney World, thinking they were going to land Favre - until they saw the TV news flash around 1 a.m. that he was headed to the Jets.

Here's an inside look at how it happened:

Officially, the courtship started July 17, a week before the Jets were set to begin training camp with the Chad Pennington-Kellen Clemens quarterback competition. Packers GM Ted Thompson made his first call to the Jets, informing them Favre - no longer welcome in Green Bay - was on the trading block. They were one of 21 teams on Thompson's calling list.

Tannenbaum told Thompson the Jets were "probably not interested," but that he'd monitor the situation, according to a league source. Tannenbaum could almost hear Parcells' voice: "Reach out to the agent and don't tell anybody."

On July 24, Tannenbaum called back, telling Thompson he wanted to be kept abreast of any developments, a league source said. They discussed broad trade parameters, even Favre's contract situation.

At that point, Thompson gave the Jets permission to speak directly with Favre. Actually, he gave Favre's number to Tannenbaum, suggesting he give him a call. The following day, it was leaked to the media. Suddenly, the Jets found themselves in the middle of the Favre soap opera.

Tannenbaum felt obligated to apprise Pennington and Clemens of the situation, so he spoke to them individually after the team's second day of camp. But he never denied the media reports to the players - just the opposite, actually. Tannenbaum told them he was always looking for ways to improve the team.

"If I was a first- or second-year player, my feelings would be hurt," Pennington told reporters. "But my feelings aren't hurt because it just doesn't matter to me."

On July 26, Tannenbaum called Favre's Mississippi-based agent, Bus Cook, for the first time. According to a source, the Jets' GM told Cook he was a longtime admirer of Favre. The two sides agreed to stay in touch. The Jets didn't ask to speak directly with Favre, who was going through a nasty divorce from the Packers.

As the days dragged on, many media outlets reported the Jets' interest had faded. In a sense, that was true, but Tannenbaum told confidantes he still was in the game, still hoping they'd get a chance to bat in the bottom of the ninth.

Privately, the Jets were concerned about Favre's commitment to football, but that lessened somewhat when Favre was reinstated on Monday by commissioner Roger Goodell. That showed the Jets he was serious about returning to football, but they still wanted to hear it from him.

On Tuesday night, after Favre's relationship with the Packers had all but disintegrated, the Jets spoke to Favre for the first time. He was at his home in Green Bay.

Tannenbaum, coach Eric Mangini and Johnson turned into salesmen, extolling the franchise's newly imported talent, the new $75 million training facility in Florham Park, N.J., and the new stadium in 2010. Johnson, aware of Favre's love of hunting and fishing, extended an open invitation to his 1,000-acre homestead in central Jersey, not far from the new facility. You can hunt there anytime, Johnson told Favre.

The Jets also sent a shipment to Favre's home that included reams of information about the team, along with details about the Florham Park area - everything from schools and farms to hunting and communities.

"Nobody works harder than this man, here," said Favre, gesturing to Tannenbaum at a news conference last night at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

"They were very aggressive, very active," Thompson said of the Jets. "They did a great job of selling themselves and selling the opportunity to Brett."

Earlier in the day, Favre heard a pro-Jets spiel from Packers coach Mike McCarthy, who tried to sell them over the NFC rival Bucs. Favre reportedly told his former coach he thought the Jets had more talent than the Bucs.

On Wednesday, with the Jets and Bucs the only teams in contention, the Jets sweetened their offer to the Packers.

They offered a conditional fourth-round pick, which can go as high as a first-rounder if the Jets make the Super Bowl and Favre participates in at least 80% of the snaps. The Bucs' offer was nowhere close to that, a league source said.

When a deal started to look possible, the Jets got Favre back on the phone, just to make sure he was okay with certain issues - namely moving his family to the Northeast and the number of years he intends to play.

"There were obviously some concerns," Tannenbaum said. "We had multiple conversations, but we got to a spot where we felt comfortable."

At 11:15 p.m., the Jets and Packers agreed on the trade. Tannenbaum was so ecstatic he was hooting and hollering in the team offices. Shortly afterward, Tannenbaum was asked if he ever thought the trade was dead.

"I never thought it was alive," he insisted.

A few hours later, he was on his way to the airport, the start of a criss-crossing day across the country - from Long Island to Hattiesburg to Morristown, N.J., where Favre received a quick tour of the new facility. From there, it was on to Cleveland, where he joined his team for the preseason opener and a packed news conference.

Sitting next to Favre, Tannenbaum smiled through the fatigue. He got his quarterback.