Favre thrilled, surprised to be back for another season

	Brett Favre completed five of 10 passes for 66 yards in four series against the Chargers on Saturday. Stan Liu/US PRESSWIRE
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GREEN BAY, Wis. -- I came here last week still not knowing, deep down, why Brett Favre came back, at 36, for a 16th season. Because late last season he was done. Finished. He told coach Mike Holmgren as much twice, even saying in one late-season conversation, "I never should have come back this year.''

Former Packers center Mike Flanagan, now with the Texans, figured Favre was toast after an embarrassing 48-3 Monday-night loss at Baltimore in December. "Every time after a road game, on the bus, we'd always sit in back and talk about what worked and what didn't work,'' Flanagan told me. "Not that night. Brett just laid back there, saying nothing to anyone, like it was over.''

When Favre arrived at camp this year, all of his golfing buddies were gone. All of them. Doug Pederson, Craig Nall, Ryan Longwell, the last two in free agency this offseason. So why? Why was he back here, in a back hallway behind the Packers' locker room at Lambeau Field, holding up something that looked like a cross between a Devil Dog and a Moonpie, 10 minutes before his afternoon quarterback meeting, smiling with his mouth full and saying, "Pretty good lunch, huh?''

The easy answer seemed to be because he still wanted to play and the money was good. But there had to be something more, and I hadn't heard it yet.

"To be honest,'' he said, "I'm shocked too. I'm shocked to be back. Because I was gone.''

"So what happened? What really happened?'' I asked.

"I guess, really, there're two things,'' Favre said. "Last year, as our season kept going downhill [the Pack finished 4-12] and I knew it was over for me, I said to [then coach] Mike Sherman, 'I guess as soon as the season's over, I'll announce I'm retiring.'

"Mike said, 'Why? What's the hurry? Go home. Think for a while. With the season you've just been through, you don't want to make a quick decision. You're healthy. You owe it to yourself to take your time and think about it. If you make a quick decision, and if you make it now, you might regret it for a long time.'

"So even though I was sure I wasn't going to play, I thought what Mike said was smart. And I went home. I think I was home [in Mississippi] before this place even got cleaned out from our last game of the year. I had to get away. And as time passed, I knew I could still play. I felt healthy. I felt like I'd be a good fit in [new coach] Mike McCarthy's system. But I wasn't sure still, and as time went on, you know how it goes, you're looking for a sign or whatever to help you make that decision for sure.

"And one day, I'm down in Mississippi. I've got the satellite radio on. And I never do this, but for some reason I turned on the NFL Channel on the radio, and they're interviewing Phil Simms. I guess it was just a weird coincidence, but they asked him: 'What do you think Favre's going to do?'