Countdown to Thanksgiving in Detroit

(excerpts from a Detroit paper on the eve of the Packers playing the Lions on Thanksgiving)

After Green Bay went 4-12 in 2005, Favre knew he could still play. He was reassured of that after a season-ending four-game winning streak and an 8-8 finish in 2006. This season, with the Packers holding a 9-1 record, every Cheesehead-wearing fan finally understands what Favre, 38, has known all along. The old man still can play.
"The obvious answer would be I told you so, my chest is stuck out and I told you I could do it -- redemption, whatever,"
Favre said Tuesday in a phone news conference with the Detroit press.
"But that's not even close. I knew I could play or I wouldn't have come back." "I don't feel like I have to come back to prove anything," he said. "I don't feel like I have to come back to still feel like somebody. It's all been done. I'm here because I love to play. I still think I could play at a high level. I still think I can help this team win. If it doesn't work out and I walk away, hey, it's been a pretty good ride."

There was talk the past two seasons in Green Bay about whether Favre had held on too long. Should he retire? Should he make way for a new quarterback? This season, that talk has been replaced with giddy chatter about a fourth MVP award. Favre can only laugh.
"Funny how things change, huh?", he said. Lions coach Rod Marinelli simply said of Favre, "I don't think I've ever seen him play better."

But it was Jon Kitna who paid his fellow quarterback the highest compliment. "He's made everybody around him better. That's why I consider him the greatest quarterback that's ever played," Kitna said. "If you said, 'Oh, well, tell me about the guys that Brett played with.' There's not a lot of guys you're going to just rattle off like Jerry Rice or guys like that."

"My decision-making is better," he said, "but I think it's because we've been up and we've played with the lead and we've had a chance to win it in every game. And that's different when you play that way as opposed to being down 17."

If it's one thing Favre always knows, it's the score. He knows his numbers and records and how they dot the 30 pages devoted to him in the Packers media guide like an outbreak of chicken pox. But he also knows numbers are fleeting.

"I'm well aware of what I've done and feel very honored to have played this game and have achieved all there is to achieve individually and as a team," he said. "Not many guys can say that. Believe me, for a good, old country boy from south Mississippi, it's quite an honor."

"I also know that records are meant to be broken, and they will be broken one day. I hope that what I've left behind up to this point doesn't need to be in the record books to be remembered."

"When it's over, all I care about is that people say: 'If I can play, I want to play just like him. The way he plays, the way he carries himself.' I would hope they say, 'I like the way that guy plays. You can't help respect the guy.' I want people to say that and nothing more."

I don't know who's gonna win this game - obviously the Packers are favored. I believe we're on the short end of the win column in Detroit on Thanksgiving.

I just hope it's a good game for the national audience. With that, a Happy Thanksgiving to you. By the way, I'm dedicating this game to my dear friend Nina's mother, who passed away Monday. Nina's an actor-friend of mine in Cedar Rapids - and a Bears fan (originally from Rockford, IL) but 2 of her 3 sons are Packers fans so that's her saving grace, the bum. And I'm not sure her mother even cared about football, but it's to honor her memory - and I told Nina to watch the game tomorrow morning as I thought she might be able to draw some strength from Brett Favre, as he's had a number of tragedies he's had to deal with in the last 4 or 5 years.