Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Brett Favre should tell the lunkheads at Lambeau to take a leap. Or, as an alternative, give them a lesson in sports business.

Enough, already, with the vitriol aimed at a certain Viking.

Yes, Favre spent 16 wonderful and productive seasons in Green Bay, which, for those of you who’ve never been there, is the closest thing to Mayberry R.F.D. that professional sports can offer. It’s the kind of place where the streets are named for revered members of the organization and where fans actually own the team.

Favre won lots of games and even more hearts. He won the Super Bowl, too, cementing his stature as one of the best quarterbacks in National Football League history. Only that isn’t enough for the Cheeseheads, the folksy Midwest moniker assigned to fans of the Packers, who, in case you’ve somehow missed the hype, tonight host Favre and the reviled Vikings of Minnesota at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

“Brett Favre wearing a Vikings uniform playing the Packers --- that’s about as bad as it gets,” said Packers great Jerry Kramer, who won back-to-back Super Bowls playing for Vince Lombardi.

Kramer isn’t the only former Packer who’s peeved.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Fuzzy Thurston, who played on five Packers title teams, removed the framed photos of his good friend that hung in his home, including the one that’s autographed to his wife.

Team Loyalty

The folks in Green Bay behave as if Michael Jordan never donned a Washington Wizards jersey. They pretend that Wayne Gretzky didn’t play for the Kings, Blues and Rangers. Or that Joe Montana finished in Kansas City. They forget that Karl Malone left Utah for the Lakers and that Johnny Damon, beloved in Boston, went back on his word never to play for you know who.

Funny what a few more zeroes on a contract offer will do.

You have to wonder what will happen if, some day soon, the Yankees decide 35-year-old Derek Jeter is finished. Would the captain ever play for Boston? I asked. He didn’t say no.

“It’s just another game,” said Favre, whose last pass at Lambeau Field was intercepted by Corey Webster of the Giants, who went on to win the Super Bowl.

It was cold that day. Really cold. Favre is supposed to win those games. He didn’t. You can’t blame the Packers for thinking he was done. Favre waffled. The team moved on. It happens.

Purple Judas

Every Packers fan who considers Favre a purple-clad Judas should have a chat with former Baltimore Ravens coach Brian Billick, author of “More Than a Game: The Glorious Present -- and the Uncertain Future -- of the NFL.”

Billick, like the fans in Green Bay, where the team has been a publicly owned, non-profit corporation since 1923, clings to the notion of football being about the game, about those three hours, about being a champion. Only today’s players don’t buy that babble.

“They go bull (expletive),” Billick said. “Because it’s about the money for the club. Where’s mine?”

Billick until last year had never been to the NFL draft, which he suggests is a simple task that can be completed online in about two hours. Only it has become a television extravaganza that turns his stomach.

“It just reeked of money,” Billick said. “It had nothing to do with football. And the league is knee-deep in it. It was almost comical.”

That, folks, from a football guy’s football guy.

Expiration Date

That’s an apt description for Favre, who you just know would love to demonstrate that Green Bay’s management grossly miscalculated his expiration date.

And here’s a little-known fact the people of Green Bay ought to consider: There have been four stock offerings in the team’s 90-year history.

The first issuance took place in 1923, followed by 1935, 1950 and 1997-1998, when 105,989 new shareholders were added and more than $24 million was raised. That money was used to improve Lambeau Field, which is named for the team’s founder and first coach.

The most recently issued shares were purchased by people from all 50 states, as well as Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Not surprisingly, more than half of them were bought by Wisconsin residents, followed by Illinois and, you guessed it, Minnesota.

Interesting.

Maybe Favre is right where he belongs.

(Scott Soshnick is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Scott Soshnick in New York at ssoshnick@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 4, 2009 21:01 EDT