Packers Unfair to Rodgers

If I'm Aaron Rodgers right now, I'm freaking pissed. After sitting the bench for three years he was finally handed the starting job, only to have Brett "Nobody Told Me Mississippi Sucked This Bad" Favre decide he didn't want to share. Rodgers is a perfect example of the way the NFL in particular can unfairly commoditize players.

Don't get me wrong, I don't feel that bad for the guy. He's still playing a game for a living and making a very good living at that. But let's remember, he was a late first round pick. Most late first round picks don't get that much money, and for quarterbacks, there is usually a lot of money tied up in performance escalators (see Quinn, Brady). It seems to me that there's an implied agreement involved when a team drafts a player that the team will at least give them an opportunity to better themselves, professionally and financially. 

You could argue that had Brett Favre not gotten hurt against Dallas last year, Green Bay's unwillingness to deviate from the Favre Directive would have prohibited Aaron Rodgers from even maintaining the value he brought into this league as a first round QB. I've got no problem drafting a QB of the future and letting him sit the bench. It worked for Carson Palmer and certainly for Tony Romo, but there's a time in every relationship when you have to be in or out, and for the Packers and Rodgers that time was before the draft. Either the Pack should have sent him out in a Matt Schaub-type deal, or 100% handed the team over, none of this open competition crap.

Here's an idea, why not get Favre to commit to this year and next (since he wants to play so badly), trade Rodgers, and let Brian Brohm have his two year apprenticeship holding a clipboard as the heir apparent? This way Rodgers can start playing for that second contract that all NFL players are seeking and Favre gets to take a guy who entered the year as the top rated QB in the draft under his wing.