Favre Tells Paper He's Coming Back
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre will return for his 17th season, Favre told the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss., on Friday.
"I am so excited about coming back," he told the newspaper. "We have a good nucleus of young players. We were 8-8 last year and that's encouraging.
"My offensive line looks good, the defense played good down the stretch. I'm excited about playing for a talented young football team."
The news came as a surprise to Packers CEO Bob Harlan.
"I hadn't heard it, and I hadn't seen the Biloxi paper - not that I read the Biloxi paper every day," Harlan told The Associated Press on Friday. He said he immediately contacted Packers general manager Ted Thompson and he confirmed that he'd gotten a call from Favre on Friday morning about it, but Harlan would not elaborate about the nature of the call.
Harlan said Thompson would speak at a 3 p.m. CST news conference on Friday.
The league's only three-time MVP, Favre, 37, last left the field in an emotional scene in Chicago after leading the Packers to a victory over the Bears to finish the season 8-8.
Favre has started 257 consecutive games including the playoffs, an NFL record for quarterbacks. He broke Dan Marino's record for career completions (4,967) in 2006 and is closing in on Marino's marks for career touchdown passes (420) and yards passing (61,361).
As he has done in the past several offseasons, Favre returned to his home in Mississippi after the season to deliberate about his future. Last year, Favre waited until late April to tell the team he was returning.
Favre complained about nagging injuries and the drudgery of practice toward the end of last season, then choked back tears as he talked about missing the game and missing his teammates in a television interview immediately after the season finale in Chicago - leading many to believe that he intended to retire.
But he apparently couldn't resist one more chance to try to lead the Packers back to the playoffs after a season in which a Packers team that wasn't expected to do much won its final four games and was in playoff contention until the final weekend of the regular season.
© 2007 The Associated Press.