We want to love our champions.

This past Sunday at Lambeau Field, the Packers held their annual alumni weekend in where this season, the 1961 NFL champions (and Vince Lombardi's first title team) were honored. It is always stirring to see how respected and revered the legends of the game are by older fans that remember and by younger fans that appreciate the history of the franchise.

To be sure, the Green Bay Packers have some of the most storied names in NFL history: Starr, Kramer, Taylor, Hornung, Nitschke, Hutson, and yes, Favre.

Today, Brett Favre should be one of the most revered of the Packers alumni. His efforts helped raise a 20-plus year dormant franchise into one of the NFL's elite. He holds most league passing records, including touchdowns, attempts, yards, completions, wins, and consecutive games played.

To put it simply: Brett Favre is NFL royalty. But he's mud in Green Bay. And it is only because of him.

I have never blamed Favre for orchestrating his departure during the spring of 2008. It had become abundantly clear to anyone that was paying attention that the Packers wanted to go in another direction – to the youngster and former first-round draft pick, Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers had bided his time as the good soldier to Favre's legacy, waiting a full three years for his chance to be the leader of the pack, so to speak.

But Favre still wanted to play. His disillusionment with the Packers had been building as his relationship with general manager Ted Thompson had been deteriorating. Favre knew that his window as an elite player was closing and had wanted Thompson to be more aggressive in helping him make one last championship run. Thompson, meanwhile, preferred to be more methodical and build almost solely through the draft.

The two needed a separation. They had differing views of how to run a football team, but Thompson was the boss. He had been entrusted by the Packers Board of Directors to build the team the way he saw fit. And that meant Rodgers.

So, Favre, knowing he was unwanted, retired. Except for the fact that he had no interest in not playing anymore. Thus, the charade of his return to 2008's Family Night and subsequent trade to the Jets.

Sports fans have the mindset of "either you're with us, or you're against us." And while the New York Jets are about as innocuous a team to Packers fans as you can imagine, the most incendiary of teams are the Minnesota Vikings.

Even after a full season away from the Packers, once Favre became a Viking, he was dead to Wisconsin.

Strike 1.

Two years ago, Favre played the Packers as an opponent for the first time on Monday Night Football. In that game, he outplayed his replacement, Rodgers, in Minnesota's 30-23 victory. Favre haters became enamored with his talents again, and longed for No. 4 to still be in Green and Gold.

It had seemed that Favre sentiment began swaying back to the Old Gunslinger. Many fans, while unhappy he was thriving in Minnesota, had understood his point of wanting a more veteran-laden team to take to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately for Favre, he came up just one interception short of the Promised Land.

Fast forward to about a year ago and Favre again stepped in it again when it was revealed he sent unwanted private pictures to a woman he had never even met but had seen in passing, former Jets sideline host Jenn Sterger. The fact that Sterger bears a striking resemblance to Favre's cancer-survivor wife, Deanna, wasn't lost on anyone. Suddenly, more tales of Favre's philandering came out, making him look like just another dirty old man.

Compounding the matter of a faltering public image, weeks later Favre told Chicago Bears defensive end Julius Peppers to "go beat the Packers" and knock them out of the playoffs after Minnesota had fallen to Chicago on Monday Night Football.

It was one thing to play against us. It was another thing entirely to actively wish for our demise.

Strike 2.

Up until this point, Packers fans have had to endure a lot from their former hero since his departure.

• His 2008 tell-all interview with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren in where he aired all of his grievances about Thompson and the Packers front office.
• Allegedly telling then-Lions VP Matt Millen some of the nuances of the Packers playbook the week Detroit were to play Green Bay.
• Deanna Favre posing for a picture with someone wearing a mocking "Thanks Ted" jersey during a Vikings-Packers game.
• The absurd denials after the cell phone pictures were leaked.

Today, Packers fans are up in arms after Favre told an Atlanta radio station that he's surprised that with all of the weapons around him, Aaron Rodgers didn't win a Super Bowl sooner than he did.

Strike 3? Not exactly, even as I understand, when in the context of all of his other swipes at the team that he rose to fame with how some Packers fans are upset yet again.

The specific quote that most Packers fans have latched on to is "I'm going to be honest, I was not surprised. The biggest surprise to me would be that he didn't do it sooner."

Unfortunately, as we are wont to do in our society, we only hear what we want to hear – which most of the times involves the most salacious snippet carved into a headline.

"Favre Surprised it Took Rodgers So Long to Win!" screams the headline; while all along he was, in fact, praising his successor's talent. It was just done in Favre's own oddly meandering, maddening, stream-of-consciousness way.

"He's very bright and he got a chance to watch and see successful teams do it right," Favre also said of Rodgers. "And so he just kind of fell into a good situation. On top of that, he's a good player. I don't think there's any pressure on him now, the talent around him is even better than when I was there."

By reading of the headlines you would have thought that Favre said that he directly was responsible that Rodgers has had all of the success that he has had and didn't earn any of it himself. That's nonsense.

Let's dissect what he actually said, sentence by sentence:

"He's very bright and he got a chance to watch and see successful teams do it right."

In Rodgers three seasons as Favre's backup, the Packers went 4-12 (in 2005) during an injury-riddled debacle that led to Mike Sherman's firing, 8-8 (in 2006) as they stumbled out of the gate but rallied to win their final four games of the season, and 13-3 (in 2008) which included a trip to the NFC Championship Game.

To an extent, Favre's statement is true. The Packers were 10-6 and division champions the year before Rodgers was drafted. They were a successful team that got hammered with injuries in his rookie season.

"And so he just kind of fell into a good situation."

I'd say that Rodgers was in a far better position than quarterbacks such as Peyton Manning, Matthew Stafford, Sam Bradford, Eli Manning, Phillip Rivers, and Cam Newton were in when they were drafted. There is a reason he was the No. 24 overall selection, after all. It's because the Packers were a playoff team. That's what Rodgers was drafted into.

"On top of that, he's a good player."

Nothing controversial about that.

"I don't think there's any pressure on him now, the talent around him is even better than when I was there."

The talent is better. Undeniably so. Ironically, it's true because of the guy Favre feuded with, Ted Thompson, but yes, he is correct.

As for the pressure, while Rodgers has certainly accomplished a lot, in his mind he isn't anywhere close to being finished winning Super Bowl rings. But winning that first one is always the hardest. Now Rodgers will never have the question of "can he win the big one" because he already has.

Favre also went on to say, "In the early part of last season, it hadn't quite clicked yet, and I didn't know it would. I just kind of figured when they hit their stride, they're going to be hard to beat. And that's what happened."

Certainly, that statement echoes the sentiments of a lot of skeptical Packers fans of one year ago. You remember the criticisms: he was too fragile; he's never won a playoff game; he holds on to the ball too long. These were all things fans were saying about Rodgers, who like every star quarterback in the NFL, just needed some time to grow into the game.

The way that Brett Favre has handled his personal life has been reprehensible. Airing his grievances about Ted Thompson made him look small. Allegedly seeking out Matt Millen to specifically give him scoop about the Packers and their playbook, while perfectly legal, sends the message that you are more interested in screwing your old team than winning with your new one.

To a guy that just wants so desperately to be liked, he is doing everything possible to alienate himself to those whose approval he seeks. Let's face it; his No. 4 will never grace the walls of Met Life Stadium or the Metrodome. Make no mistake about it, Brett Favre is forever a Green Bay Packer, like it or not.

Because of all of his transgressions against Green Bay in the past, every word Favre utters today will come under the microscope. His most recent statements are proof positive of that. In reality, its pretty innocuous stuff – with plenty of praise to Rodgers mixed in. But yet still this isn't sitting well with Packers Nation.

Someday, Brett Favre will take his rightful place in Packers glory. His number will go up with the greats, as it should. He will be cheered again in the place in where he won more games than any other.

But every time he opens his mouth, he only delays that day further.