Favre Downplays Lambeau Return

NFL News - October 29th, 2009 - Written by John

Brett Favre will return to Lambeau Field for the first time since his trade to the New York Jets this Saturday, but he isn't giving the media anything more to fuel the already hostile crowd that is awaiting. In a press conference on Wednesday, Favre said he hasn't put any added pressure on this game, and won't admit that he is feeling the nerves.

"There's no sentiments, really, one way or the other. We need to win this football game," Favre said.

Favre is the all-time passer at Lambeau Field, throwing for more than 20,000 yards and 200 touchdowns during his time as a Packer. He was traded during the off-season two years ago to the Jets before retiring and un-retiring again to sign with the Minnesota Vikings. The teams have already met once this season in a 30-23 Vikings win at home. Favre gave the company line, saying the game is simply one of 16.

Per ProFootballTalk, Favre also made comments about his former team, saying, "I totally understood the direction they wanted to go in...It's probably worked out best for both sides."

He also acknowledged that fans will likely be mixed in his return and that many will boo him.

Residents of the Green Bay area have been scrambling to find ways to welcome Favre back, some positively, some not so positively. The mayor of the town even sent out a survey to find out the best way for the city to officially greet him. Among the many entrants was a proposition to make a giant waffle in the shape of Favre's number four, to poke fun at Favre's waffling between retirements.

He is also dealing with reports that members of his '96 Super Bowl championship team say they were a better unit than the one he is on now, an obvious retort to Favre's claims earlier in the year that Minnesota was the most talented team he's ever played with.

"To say that the team he's on now, after seven games, is better than the '96 team -- that's just preposterous. Not only did we have the No. 1 defense in 1996, but we had No. 1 special teams," former safety LeRoy Butler said. "I bleed green and gold so much. I don't want somebody to beat my team."

The Vikings are currently 5-1 and are a game up on the Packers for the NFC North lead. A win Sunday would all but crush Green Bay's hope at winning the division, putting them two back and on the losing end of a tie breaker. Minnesota is probably more banged up than Green Bay. They are coming off their only loss of the season in which Pittsburgh's defense forced two turnovers in the game's final three minutes, returning both for touchdowns.

Green Bay, however, easily handled the Cleveland Browns by 28 points and showed no signs of looking forward to this week. Aaron Rodgers has become one of the league's best quarterback's since Favre's departure, and is currently the NFL's second-rated passer with 11 touchdowns and only two interceptions.

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