GREEN BAY, Wis. — Brett Favre came through the home tunnel for pregame introductions at Lambeau Field approximately 170 times during the course of a 16-year career with the Green Bay Packers. ADVERTISING GREEN BAY, Wis. — Brett Favre came
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Brett Favre came through the home tunnel for pregame introductions at Lambeau Field approximately 170 times during the course of a 16-year career with the Green Bay Packers.
He entered twice through the visitor tunnel.
The two times he wore a purple and white helmet to a cascade of boos could have spoiled the lasting memory of so many trips out of the darkness and into the light of his sprawling backyard at 1265 Lombardi Ave.
They are the most recent recollections of what it was like to enter the stadium he once owned.
So, when Favre comes out to greet a crowd of 67,000 people Saturday night at Lambeau Field, he will enter through the home tunnel one more time. And instead of the invectives he heard as a Minnesota Viking, the reception should take him back to the place he once was.
“This goes for any player who’s had a chance to experience even just somewhat close to what I’ve been able to,” Favre said in a phone interview this week. “Catch a touchdown pass, have a sack; it may be one, it may be 20. Run a touchdown in, whatever.
“If you’ve had a chance to experience that, then you know what an amazing feeling that is. But you also know that when you leave the game, there’s never anything that can even come close to comparing to that feeling.
“To be able to go back again and to enjoy that one more time is awesome. I mean, I don’t know what else to say. To see that in an hour and a half, you’re sold out. I mean, are you kidding me?”
Favre was off a bit on the time it took to sell out tickets for a stadium view of his induction into the Packers Hall of Fame and the retirement of his number Saturday evening. It actually took eight hours.
But when you consider those folks are paying to watch the actual induction ceremony and unfurling of a banner bearing his No. 4 inside the Lambeau Field Atrium on a video board, you understand his disbelief.
Before the induction banquet, Favre will address the crowd through a short question-and-answer session at midfield with WTMJ broadcaster Lance Allan. Just weeks shy of the seven-year anniversary of when his estrangement from the Packers organization began, Favre will return to the place some think he built.
“A lot of people might want to take credit for it all, but he was the one who brought about the reformation around here,” former general manager Ron Wolf said. “All of what you see, all of the remarkable transformation of this place, that’s all the result of Brett Favre.
“I don’t know who else you can give credit to. He changed the whole complexion of the Green Bay Packers. They called old Yankee Stadium, ‘The House That Ruth Built.’
“This is the house that Favre built.”
The Packers’ resurrection in the early 1990s had many other components, not the least of which were Wolf’s keen personnel decisions. But when you talk about the injection of life on the field, the explosion in popularity off it and the millions of dollars that allowed the Packers to build their Taj Mahal, Favre is the single most identifiable reason.
The Packers had a 9,000-name waiting list for season tickets in 1987. By the end of the 1990s, it had reached close to 100,000.
Every year Favre was with the Packers, his jersey was among the most popular purchased in souvenir stores. In 1989, three years before Favre was acquired from the Atlanta Falcons for a first-round draft choice, the Packers ranked 20th in total merchandise sold. By 1997, they ranked first in the NFL, creeping ahead of the Dallas Cowboys for the first time.
Favre made the Packers a must-see in Wisconsin and a regular on national TV, too.
In 1992, the local rating for Packers games was 31. In ‘97, when they went to Super Bowl XXXII, the ratings had jumped to 48.5. Since Favre joined the team, the local ratings for Packers football have been among the highest in the NFL.
“I think his leadership, his personality made him popular,” former president Bob Harlan said. “I think Green Bay was a perfect fit for Brett Favre. He was comfortable here. He liked his beer and his pizza, and I think that resonated with fans.
“Part of the leadership was the way he played through injury. He made 253 consecutive starts. Every Sunday, everyone knew he was pretty beat, but he refused to not play. He’s the greatest competitor I’ve been around.”
Even as late as 2006, Favre’s popularity was booming. According to a Harris Poll of American sports fans, Favre was their favorite player. He topped the ‘03 and ‘04 polls as well and finished second to Peyton Manning in ‘05.
When Favre signed with the Minnesota Vikings in 2009 — a year after he and the Packers had severed ties — the team sold 2,000 season tickets and 6,000 single-game tickets on the day the news broke.
