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Favre Proves To Be Mortal When Packers Need Him

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 21, 2008

Updated: 01/21/2008 12:22 am

GREEN BAY, Wis. - The pass fluttered from Brett Favre's right arm and into the teeth of the evil arctic wind that had sliced and diced through Lambeau Field all night. The ball hung in the heavy sub-zero air for agonizing seconds until it was intercepted by Corey Webster of the New York Giants.

Just more than a minute later, New York's Lawrence Tynes kicked a 47-yard field goal with 12:25 left in overtime. The Giants had beaten the Green Bay Packers, 23-20. The Giants, not the Packers, will advance to the Super Bowl to stand as the last obstacle to New England's perfect season.

That can't be how this ended, can it? Not here, not in Favre's house. Favre's miracle season can't have ended in such a way. Not with this much riding on the outcome.

But Eli Manning, not Favre, will play in the Super Bowl.

Manning, not Favre, played a flawless game.

Manning had no interceptions.

Favre had two.

Manning managed the game. He managed to overcome mistakes by his teammates - a holding call that nullified a 48-yard touchdown run by Ahmad Bradshaw with 2:15 left in the fourth quarter; a missed 36-yard field-goal attempt on the final play of regulation.

Favre managed to blow perhaps his last chance to play for a world championship.

Big Chill

The chill that fell over this grand old stadium when the reality of the loss set in had nothing to do with the thermometer, which read minus-3 at game's end with a wind chill of 23 below. In an instant, it seemed colder. Most of the 72,740 fans, part of the largest crowd ever to see a game here, sat unmoving and mute for several minutes while the Giants celebrated before them.

"We know how good they are but we know what it takes to beat them," Manning said of New England.

That was supposed to be Favre talking. But what happened on this freezing Wisconsin night will be forever frozen in time. A legend proved mortal when his team needed him to be a legend. And Peyton Manning's little brother, well, let's just say we won't call him that any more.

The only time it was colder for a football game here happened a little more than 40 years ago. Green Bay carried the day that afternoon, beating Dallas for the NFL championship. Their old coach, Vince Lombardi, would have been aghast at what he saw from the Packers in this game, but he also would have given an approving nod at the way the Giants and Manning played.

One of Lombardi's favorite sayings was "Run To Win." The Giants outrushed the Packers 134-28 and kept the ball nearly 18 minutes longer.

He also would have approved of the way Manning frustrated Green Bay with a conservative, no-mistakes approach. But mostly, he would have wondered - as all Packerland no doubt does this morning - what in the world happened to one of the best quarterbacks ever to play.

Twice in the fourth quarter, with the score tied, Favre got the ball with a chance to lead a drive that would have put the Pack in the Super Bowl. Instead, he was two of six for 12 yards. And then he threw the fatal interception.

"I just kept thinking, 'How many opportunities are we going to let slip away? We can't keep giving them opportunities,'" he said. "But that's what happened."

Legacy Secure

That wasn't a changing of the guard - or changing of the quarterback, if you will - we just saw because there will likely never be another quarterback like Favre. But it's also true that the stage was set for magic here and few people would have predicted this ending.

"I didn't rise up to the occasion as I have in the past," Favre said. "I expect more out of myself. It's part of the game but it's very disappointing."

He'll go back to Mississippi now and decide whether to return for another season. For what it's worth, he didn't commit to coming back in the aftermath of this game.

While he is trying to figure that out, an unlikely story will fully unfold in Arizona at the Super Bowl. It will be the second straight season a Manning will quarterback in pro football's biggest game, but when the playoffs started it would have been hard to predict it would be this particular Manning.

But the good people of this frozen land will awake to a harsh, cold truth this morning. On a night when they needed their hero to just be himself one more time, what they got was something that chilled them to the bone.

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