Transcript of Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum's news conference before Thursday's practice:
On Brett Favre playing late last year…
I am glad Brett was on the team. I wish things ended a little differently last year. We made a decision together that he gave us the best chance to win. That is how we made that decision going down the stretch.
On if Brett was hurt enough to sit out…
We talked about it — Brian Daboll, Brian Schottenheimer, Eric Mangini and myself. After we all talked about it, we felt Brett gave us the best chance win and that was the decision we made.
On Brett not being listed on the injury report…
I will take responsibility for that. As the general manager of this team, I should have handled that differently and listed him on the report. We did not just because he was not getting treatment everyday and we knew he was going to play. Looking back on it, I should have listed him as probable and we did not. I will take responsibility for that.
On if he has heard from the NFL office…
We reached out to the NFL and we will cooperate with them.
On reaching out to the NFL…
I called them.
On expecting a fine…
I will just say we will cooperate with them and go from there.
On how a quarterback with a torn biceps tendon gives you a better chance than a healthy backup…
This was a decision we made collectively and Brett was a part of it. We just felt like he gave us the best chance to win. That was based on how he was playing and how the team was doing. Again, he was a part of that decision. Collectively, we felt that was in the best interest of the team.
On if Brett said he does not think he gives the Jets the best chance to win…
I don't want to get into the specifics of the conversation (and the) back and forth. That was the decision that was made and we were all apart of it.
On if Brett asked out of the starting lineup …
Again, I do not want to get into the specifics of the conversations, but we all felt good about the decision (for him) to keep playing going down the stretch.
On if he second guesses the decision…
When he is throwing touchdown passes against Arizona it is because the offensive line is blocking well and the receivers are catching the ball. It is the ultimate team sport. I will not say because he played is the reason we did not make the playoffs. There are a lot of things we could have all done better. Football being the sport that it is, I would never hinge any outcome based on any one decision because I know how many decision go into every week.
On if Favre is breaking a trust with the Jets organization...
Not at all. I love Brett. He's an open book and he is great. He did a lot of things for this organization and I have said this before on the record. Ten years from now when Erik Ainge has the practice habits that he has, it could have been from the 2008 season that Brett was here.
Sometimes when you are building a team, it goes back to what Bill Parcells taught me in 1998 when he brought in Curtis Martin and we had Adrian Murrell, he said, " Our best player is our best worker and he's going to transcend a lot of people." I think when you bring a guy like Brett in, his intangible contribution is something that's hard to quantify and sometimes those results don't manifest themselves immediately.
I just wish I could show you guys the tape of when we were preparing for Seattle and the infectious attitude he had at practice. Things like that that he brought to the table I think will pay off for a long time just like Curtis' work ethic is still with this organization and obviously he hasn't run the ball in a number of years. So I think when you are building the team, the intangibles people bring are very important.
On if the league is so competitive that listing a player with a shoulder injury as probable puts the team at a disadvantage…
Again, I think the reason we didn't do it was because we knew he was going to play. He wasn't in the training room every day. He was a guy that never got treatment. I know he got a couple of cortisone shots, but he was going to play and wasn't getting treatment. That's why we did not do it, but looking back at it, we should have listed him as probable.
On if Favre practiced less towards the end of the season…
Yes. That was my first time around so I wasn't sure if that was something that he did typically as he went down the stretch because he used to always take mental reps. And sometimes with older players, their reps will diminish over the course of the last month.
On if he would play a player with a torn biceps tendon in the future…
That is a great question — hard to say. I think every situation's different. How is he playing with it? My understanding, and I don't know this, but my understanding was that John Elway won the Super Bowl with a similar injury. I'm not John Elway's doctor, I can't say. Every situation's different, players play with injuries. They get casted. We see that every week, so I think every situation is fairly unique.
On if he remembers when they actually discovered the injury…
No, whenever Brett's timetable was sounded about right. I don't remember the exact date. And again, it was one of those injuries where he was playing with it. It wasn't like it happened and he couldn't run or he couldn't throw, so it just kind of went on.
On if he thinks Favre threw too much on his first day of practice…
I don't remember what he threw the first day, but I know this. When we got him, we made a collaborative game plan with [head athletic trainer] John Mellody and [head strength and conditioning coach] Sal Alosi and Eric [Mangini] and Brian Schottenheimer and [Brian] Daboll and myself in terms of what's going to give him the best chance to be successful when we hit the ground running. "Look Brett, you've been successful a lot longer and you've been on campus for about 10 minutes here. What do you think is going to give you the best chance to be successful?"
So we sat down with him collaboratively and really Sal and John do a great job. We use different exercises for players for certain body parts, so they have a chance to be successful. We don't just say you are an offensive lineman, you've got to squat. We try to tailor-make things.
On Leon Washington…
I don't really have any updates there. I'm glad that Leon's on the team and expect him to be here for a long time, but I don't really have any updates there.
