By ROY CUMMINGS
The Tampa Tribune

LAKE BUENA VISTA _ As it turns out, Bucs general manager Bruce Allen knew all along that the Packers intention was to trade Brett Favre to an AFC team.

For some reason, though, Allen and the Bucs made a play for Favre anyway.

It wasn’t much of one, Allen said Thursday at Bucs training camp. Certainly it wasn’t as great a play as the media made it out to be.

In fact, their play was so inconsequential that Bucs players and staffers literally laughed at the Favre speculation over dinner.

That’s according to Allen, who addressed the media on the matter for the first time since Favre became a Jet late Wednesday.

Here, then, is that press conference.

Allen: No shock that the Green Bay Packers wanted a player to play in the AFC. That’s all I’ve got.

Q: How extensive were the talks with the Green Bay Packers?

Allen: I wouldn’t classify ‘em as extensive at all. They had talked to just about every team in the league. By reading your stuff and the people covering it closely it was clear they didn’t want to send him from the beginning to a team in the NFC.
There was no negotiation. There was never any substantive talk about what they would take to trade him. All of that was speculation. From the beginning it was clear that it was a bad situation in Green Bay and they had to deal with it in anyway they could.

Q: So you had no negotiations whatsoever about getting Brett Favre?

Allen: No. It never got that far.

Q: How far did it get?

Allen: They were looking for a place to send Brett, and they found it with the Jets.

Q: How interested in acquiring Brett Favre were you?

Allen: It really never got to that. We always look at any type of scenario we can find that can help the Buccaneers. That is our No.1 priority - helping this team. Whether it’s a double trade, a triple trade or in any form that can help the Bucs. We will always listen.

Q: So why let the speculation go on this long if you had no interest in Favre?

Allen: I can’t control speculation. There is rumor on top of rumor. Somebody said the wrong thing, I have no control over that. I think I had two conversations with Ted Thompson over the last two months and so, we had a very good understanding of what took place.

Q: How much interest did Brett Favre have in coming to Tampa Bay?

Allen: There are quite a few players in the league that have an interest to come to Tampa Bay. Without getting into the tampering rules of the league, I think that’s a credit to what we’re doing. This system would fit a lot of players.

Q: Again, How much interest did Brett have in playing for the Bucs?

Allen: I’ll let him talk about his situation. I think there were about 18 teams that had permission to talk to him. The fact that he did want to play here, we considered that.

Q: How did you try to sell him on the Buccaneers?

Allen: Really, it never got to any of that. He wasn’t a free agent. We never really believed they were going to release him. They were clear from the beginning that that wasn’t their intention. It wasn’t that type of process.

Q: Bruce, are you saying you made no trade offer to the Packers for Brett Favre?

Allen: Green Bay never told us what they were interested in trading him for.

Q: Did you tell them what you were interested in giving? Did you make an offer to them?

Allen: No.

Q: How did Jeff Garcia handle this?

Allen: In our league, you have to deal with whether you’re going to draft somebody in the first round, and if it’s a running back, how is that going to affect the players on the team. They are all professionals. They understand the business. If you look at every quote from the coaching staff through the organization it’s all been quite positive on Jeff ever since we acquired him.
It’s really a situation where, this is a very popular player in our country. It’s a very difficult situation that Green Bay might be over now. Hopefully everybody can move forward. What we’ve been concentrating on is our team and getting our team ready.

Q: Why did you never do anything to eliminate or minimize the speculation?

Allen: I think you’ve all talked to our players in the last few weeks and if you see their quotes you can see everybody was positive about Jeff. They said we have no control over it and I think if you went to our dining room you’d see a lot of people laughing about the speculation. It won’t affect him [Garcia].

Q: Why didn’t you just say Jeff is our QB and end it?

Allen: I think if you look at the quotes over the last year or two years, In fact, when Coach Gruden named him the starter at that Chamber of Commerce meeting a year ago, it was why are you going to name him the starter. Coach Gruden and Jeff’s relationship goes back a ways. We’re going to compete on the football field. There are 80 guys competing to make the football team. The American way is competition. I don’t think any outside forces are going to affect our football team.

Q: If Garcia was your quarterback, why did you continue talking to Green Bay?

Allen: I’m not going to get into specifics. I think it was a difficult situation to begin with.

Q: If you knew from the beginning Green Bay wasn’t going to trade Brett to an NFC team, why did you ask permission to talk to him and ask Jon Gruden to talk with him?

Allen: First of all, I said earlier, I think it was 18 teams were interested in Brett Favre. When this all started, we had never talked to him. I can’t control the speculation. We can’t control rumors and in this situation there were rumors coming out of six different markets.

Q: But Brett Favre and [his agent] Bus Cook said the Buccaneers were specifically part of the deal. Were they lying?

Allen: The fact that a player wants to play for us, once again, I think is a compliment to this organization. I’ve not ever turned my back on people who want to come to the Buccaneers.

Q: Do you expect Jeff Garcia to believe what you’re saying, that you had no interested in Brett Favre and that he was never going to be part of the team?

Allen: We said we never believed they were going to trade him to the Buccaneers.

Q: So you did have interest in acquiring him?

Allen: No. We have interest in anything that can help this football team.

Q: If you never believed they were going to trade him, why even talk to Green Bay? Eighteen teams did not talk to Brett Favre.

Allen: Are you sure?

Q: Yes. So Why talk to Brett Favre if you had no inkling whatsoever that the Packers were going to him to nothing other than an AFC team?

Allen: We’re going to listen and see if there is a way it can benefit the Buccaneers. We’re going to keep our ears open.

Q: Were you sitting on the sidelines waiting to see if something fell apart with Jets?

Allen: There are so many things you can try to interrupt.

Q: How do you get Jeff’ mind right to lead this team?

Allen: Jeff is a great competitor. His No.1 attribute is his competitive spirit. Right now, we want to get Jeff healthy, get him back on the practice field. Nothing will change the competitive nature of Jeff Garcia.

Q: Do you have any interest in Chad Pennington?

Allen: Now, that’s the question I was waiting for.