Are Brad Childress and Brett Favre at odds to the point where they are feuding?

In an e-mail response Monday morning, Childress, who was mum on the subject after Sunday night's 26-7 loss at Carolina, wrote of pulling Favre: "Yes, I did consider it and talked with him about it as a method of self-preservation. We weren't playing very well around him."

But there might be more going on there. After Sunday night's game, I tried to find out what was going on between the two of them. However, the oddest sequence of events left me standing outside the locker-room door with more questions than answers.

First, some background:

Favre is fading. Not a lot, but noticeably. He's 40 and beat up and needs a rest. He just thinks he's 30.

On the way to a playoff run, there's no room for a dead hero. Second, Childress apparently is having little luck yanking him from a game. Favre simply refuses to come out. Favre still was in the Carolina game after it was hopelessly lost. That's terrible.

Apparently, Childress knows I am an advocate of getting Favre rested for the playoffs. At the close of his postgame news conference Sunday night, he turned to me and said: "We didn't get your guy out of the game, you know. It's kind of hard to do."

It didn't seem like a big deal at the time. Then Favre came in for his turn at the lectern and pretty much announced that Childress had tried to pull him from the game, but that Favre was having none of it.


Now, I'm a Favre guy, but if I were a Favre coach I'd be ticked that the sideline conversation was made public. It makes it look as if the player is calling the shots instead of the coach.

Later on, I caught up with Childress as he returned from the shower and was walking into the visiting coach's office. It was just me, Childress and his towel. Standing in the doorway, I basically asked for a comment with regard to Favre announcing that he refused to come out of the game. Before Childress could answer, Bob Hagan, the team's director of public relations, pushed past me and slammed the door.

A couple of minutes later, a previously docile Childress stormed out of the office like a wild man, still clutching the towel around his waist. He made a sharp turn into the assistant coaches' office and went ballistic. I don't know who was in there or what he said. But by the decibel level, it was clear he was furious.

It was about then that I got the bum's rush out of the locker room. Several minutes later, Hagan told me he could "pretty much guarantee" Childress wasn't going to speak with me. I'd prefer that the coach tell me that and therefore waited outside for perhaps 30 minutes. Nobody came out.

What happened? One guess is that Childress was unaware of Favre's comments and, when informed, went ballistic. But I don't know at whom he was screaming. And Hagan insisted that what he said to the coach that set him crazy had nothing to do with Favre. I tend to take a man at his word. It's one of my weaknesses.

In any event, it was a screwy end to a screwy night. Now we find out that this isn't the first time Childress has tried to pull Favre and failed. That's alarming and clearly needs to be rectified.

Hey, Brett, plop your old ass on the bench when the coach says so. It's for your own good. Hey, Chilly, man up and make sure he follows orders. Otherwise, it's going to be a short playoff run.

Tom Powers can be reached at