http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/ ... 24621.html
This a great article that every Packer fan should read. Favre was as responsible for anyone as to why there is still an NFL team in Green Bay and that it is thriving.
Whenever he decides to come back to Green Bay for the jersey retirement, I'm figuring out how to get a ticket. There won't be a dry eye in the house.
"...Favre presses his palms together and stares at his thumbs. By a full centimeter, at least, his right thumb is shorter than his left. It "shrunk." That knuckle, he explains, broke off.
He flashes back to Oct. 19, 2003. Favre's hand smacked the shoulder pad of guard Mike Wahle at St. Louis on a release and he felt a pop. Thinking he only jammed it, Favre pulled on his thumb all game. Tests later revealed a break. Favre convinced team physician Pat McKenzie to let him play and then, splint and all, won at Minnesota the next week.
Threw for 32 touchdowns that season. Led the Packers to within a fourth and 26 of the NFC Championship. Played on.
All season the thumb "hurt like hell." Yet the velocity of his passes didn't dim one RPM. The sensation that overcame Favre that three-touchdown day inside the Metrodome was the same sensation that masked all injuries.
"It was just like, 'Damn, you can do this.'"
Broken thumbs, severely sprained ankles/knees, torn biceps, dislocated shoulders, blackout hits to the head, he channeled it all into adrenaline. Now he wonders aloud if it was all worth it. Favre sees his own mortality.
He points to a black trash bag near an outdoor fireplace, where his dog is licking up some liquid. After Minnesota lost the NFC Championship to New Orleans, his ankle and thigh turned that color, he says.
How many concussions? No clue. Seeing stars was common. So was "ringing," he says, twirling a finger around his ear.
The result, 297.
He expects someone to eclipse the record some day, but it does mean a lot to him.
"You have to be hardheaded," Favre says, "and you have to be a little bit insane."
