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Packers fans coping with return of Brett Favre
by Todd McMahon, Sports Xchange
As for what will be raining down from the bleachers at Lambeau Field, sports' Mr. Indecisive is bracing for a mixed bag of showers — cheers intermixed with or perhaps drowned out by jeers.
"I've heard boos in that stadium before. Honestly. Numerous times. But, it was obviously different," Brett Favre said this week.
Indeed, Favre's 129th game at Lambeau will have an air unlike his first 128 regular-season or playoff appearances at the NFL cathedral. Instead of throwing on the green jersey with gold helmet and pants and emerging from the big tunnel in the southeast corner of the stadium, Favre will be decked out from head to toe in purple and white and making his entrance out of a narrow walkway behind the south end zone.
If it hadn't already, a previously inconceivable truth will sink in for the more than 70,000 in attendance and hundreds of thousands more watching the featured Week 7 game on FOX: Favre, the hero of 16 action-packed seasons with the Packers, is the enemy on the archrival Minnesota Vikings.
Favre was eased into his first meeting against his former longtime team just three weeks ago by having a newfound and boisterous fan base behind him at the Metrodome. The Vikings won 30-23 in that Monday night game Oct. 5, putting Favre ahead 1-0 in his unspoken personal vendetta to stick it to Green Bay general manager Ted Thompson for jettisoning the three-time league MVP after he came out of retirement in August 2008.
While Favre might be trying to convince himself that facing the Packers a second time won't be so bad and it's just another of 16 games on the Vikings' schedule, at least one ex-teammate foresees a rude awakening of a homecoming come Sunday afternoon.
BRETT FAVRE'S REVENGE
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"When Brett comes out you do like any other opposing quarterback, you boo him," retired safety LeRoy Butler told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "If you don't want to boo him, don't say anything. But if you're going to stand up wearing Packer clothing or a Packer uniform and cheer when Brett Favre comes out, you should bring a bag and put it over your head.
"You don't cheer for somebody to beat your team, I don't care who it is. You don't cheer for another quarterback. If you want to cheer Brett, just bring a bag, put it over your head and you can cheer, and no one will hear you and that's fine. This is Aaron Rodgers' show."
Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt underscored the latter sentiment Thursday, when he temporarily renamed Minnesota Avenue in the city as Aaron Rodgers Drive.
The nod was among four suggestions out of more than 1,700 that Schmitt selected as ways Green Bay could "tastefully welcome back Brett Favre."
Up next is Flip Flop Friday, when Titletown residents are encouraged to wear the summer sandals they put away. Yet another ode to Favre's famously flip-flopping ways regarding retirement in recent years is waffle fries that will be served at a downtown Green Bay restaurant Saturday.
"This weekend is about a football game against a rivalry with a very special person coming into town, and we're going to have some fun with it and bring the community together and have a victory on top of it," Schmitt said.
Given what's at stake in this NFC North rematch, the Favre-back-in-Green Bay storyline would seem secondary. The Vikings lead the division with a 6-1 record, ahead of the 4-2 Packers. A Green Bay win creates a virtual tie heading into the second half of the season. A Minnesota victory puts the Vikings comfortably in the driver's seat for the stretch run with a two-game lead and a season sweep of the Packers in hand. Yet, there's no getting around where all of the attention has been and will be focused.
The contentious divorce between Favre and the Packers last year and his eventual migration west to Minnesota after taking a one-season detour out east with the New York Jets has divided a city, a region and a state that was as fervent about their folksy, gunslingin' quarterback as they are passionate about their publicly owned football team.
Like George Webber, Thomas Wolfe's character in "You Can't Go Home Again," Favre has been vilified and ostracized by a good number of Packers backers who supported Thompson's decision to be done with him. After Favre came out of retirement a second time this summer and signed with the Vikings, some irritated soul had the gall to put stickers over the "P" on the street sign for Brett Favre Pass, not far from Lambeau Field.
Nicknames of "Benedict Brett" and "Phony Favre" were spawned.
Favre even has fallen out of merchandising favor at the Packers Pro Shop inside Lambeau. The price of a giant-sized bobblehead of Favre was slashed by 30 percent from $449.95 — those of fellow Packers legends Bart Starr and Donald Driver aren't on sale.
"I always say you've got Brett Favre fans and you've got Packer fans," said Driver, the veteran receiver who maintains close ties with Favre. "For anybody that played for the Green Bay Packers, you leave and go to another team, most likely they're going to hate your guts. But, when it's all said and done and this guy retires, he'll go down in the Hall of Fame, he'll retire as a Packer, and they'll once again love him again. They'll probably boo him when he first comes in, but that's part of life. It ain't nothing, deal with it, move on."
Matt Catlin belongs to the other faction. The 27-year-old from Greenville, Wis., about 30 miles outside of Green Bay, is "a huge Packers fan," but his greater allegiances are with Favre. So, when he goes to the game Sunday, he'll bravely be wearing a purple 4 jersey and actually rooting for Favre to beat the Packers again.
"I think (coach Mike) McCarthy and Thompson just don't know what they did. I really don't have any other explanation for not allowing the guy to come back," Catlin said. "It just baffles my mind more than anything else. That's the way it is and that's their decision, so all I can do is be pissed at 'em and have Favre come and kick their ass."
As for those who still are sitting on the fence with regards to who was right in the big breakup and what it means for this impending game day of unprecedented proportions, the e-mail inbox of Christopher Handler has been inundated with all kinds of suggestions from around the world for slogans to mark the occasion. Handler, 53, a lifelong Green Bay resident and fan of the hometown team, is well known as the Packer Fence Painter — the handyman paints a catchphrase on a residential green-and-gold wooden fence on Lombardi Avenue across from Lambeau Field before the start of each season. He went with "How About A Big Hit Bigby" for safety Atari Bigby this year.
Handler has considered picking up a paint brush and scrawling a special message this weekend for Favre, whose name appeared on the fence in 2004 and '07. One suggestion that was made: "True Packer Fans Don't Wear Purple."
To carry that one step further, Jeff Vogels is of a deep conviction that former Packers players should never be allowed to wear Minnesota purple, and vice versa. Vogels, 46, has been a Vikings fan his entire life in the Green Bay area.
Yet, the sight of Favre on Vogels' beloved team has been an eyesore, no matter that the Vikings are division front-runners and possibly a Super Bowl contender this season. Vogels, who took a pass on attending Sunday's game, refuses to watch the TV when the Minnesota offense is on the field.
"(My) worst nightmare has come true," he said. "I can't even describe what it is. It would be like (Fran) Tarkenton playing his last year with the Packers or like Starr playing his last year with the Vikings. It's wrong on so many levels. (Favre's) a very talented individual and he's a great football player, but he's a Packer. Bottom line."
To boo or not to boo a legend who has changed his spots, that is the burning question facing thousands Sunday.
Todd McMahon covers the Packers for the Green Bay Press Gazette.
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