The Packers are smart

by: Chris Sullivan

It looks like the Packers learned a thing or two from Ruskell's biggest mistake: they used a poison pill to thwart off the Vikings! According to the NFL Network "...the Packers took great pains to ensure that Favre would not be traded to the Vikings by inserting a "poison pill" in the deal. If Favre were to be traded to Minnesota, the Jets would have to surrender three first-round picks to Green Bay." (HT: Seth in the comments)

Now, I don't actually support these 'poison pill' clauses, it seems to me that they hurt competition in general. It's one thing to have something unreasonable, such as the above PP, which is a somewhat anti-competition clause but really serves just to bear out what must have been mentioned already ("You guys aren't going to just trade him to the Vikes are you? Don't."). I haven't heard of so insidious a poison pill as the one the Vikings used against the Hawks, where as soon as he signed the offer sheet there was no way we could match it. That goes against the spirit of the tagging system, and is pretty messed up.

If you don't remember, check the Wiki article -- not surprisingly, the Sports section covers two deals: Hutchinson to the Vikings and Burleson to the Hawks... The Burleson one is still pretty dang funny to me...

ALSO on a personal note, I'll be away today from about 11 - 6 with no computer to speak of. I've got my phone, so if anything big breaks i'll throw up a ridiculously brief post, but thats not very likely as I'll be gone on bidness. Gonzo will be running the show, but he's busy as hell too, hah, so y'know. ~END~