A Reception As Cold As The “Frozen Tundra”.
Written November 4, 2009 by Bob Harvey
There were two storylines out of Green Bay on Sunday. First there was the “Brett Favre Factor” and how the once beloved #4 would be greeted when he took fabled Lambeau field wearing the purple and white of Minnesota. The other angle, which not surprisingly took a backseat to the homecoming, was the game itself.
As expected, the reception for Favre was as cold as the “Frozen Tundra” in January. The way many Green Bay fans see it, Favre did them wrong before the ball was in the air. There were all sorts of T-shirts and signs — Favre jerseys with red slashes through the No. 4, some reading “Traitor” and “Drama Queen” — and, before the game, a plane dragging a banner that read “Retire 4 Good.” Every incompletion that Favre threw,(and there weren’t many) elicited a collective chant of “Go Back Home”, eerily similar to the In-Com-Plete phrase that’s so popular in Denver.
Just as he did less than a month ago when the Packers visited him in Minnesota, Favre carved up his former team. Favre certainly did his part, completing 17 of 28 passes for 244 yards and a season-high four touchdowns. In two games against his former club this season, Favre is 41 of 59 (69.5 percent) for 515 yards, with seven touchdowns and no interceptions, for a rating of 135.9.
But he could hardly take too much credit in his highly anticipated Lambeau Field homecoming. Favre wasn’t sacked the entire game, and, according to the official play-by-play, he was pressured just four times.
The Vikings’ special teams provided the offense an average starting point of their own 46-yard line; running back Adrian Peterson (141 all-purpose yards) and receiver Percy Harvin (261 all-purpose yards) provided timely plays for the offense; and the defense dominated the line of scrimmage, sacking Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers six times and hurrying him 10 other times. To put it in a real estate parlance: “Mr. Rodger’s neighborhood is nice but it’s still under construction”.
Favre meanwhile does and always will own Green Bay.