Favre and the Pope

(I originally ran this post in mid-March but seeing as the Pope's in town, I thought I'd run it again.)

And no, this is not a joke about Brett stumbling on the Pope shitting in the woods while boar hunting in the Mississippi Delta. It's bigger than that.

The Packers' chaplain, the Rev. James Baraniak, called the Favres at their Mississippi home to invite them to Pope Benedict XVI's Mass in Washington, D.C., next month, according to a report by Jeff Kurowski of The Compass, the newspaper of the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay. The papal advance team had invited the Favres and Packers coach Mike McCarthy. The call came just before Brett announced his retirement, so the timing was ill-fated. No word if the Favre's have accepted the invitation. By the way, Brett and his family are Catholics.

In a related story, the Caught on the Fly column on Sporting News.com - "Fly is a mostly Favre-free zone today, though we expect word from the Vatican soon on whether the Pope will exempt Brett from the rules that require someone to be dead for five years and perform two posthumous miracles to be considered for sainthood.

Would that be such a bad idea?