Do You Relieve...?

Favre's last big cry of the night came on the plane ride back to Green Bay, when he called his mother, Bonita, to see how she was doing. She told him that, a couple of weeks before he died, Irv had told a friend, "You think Brett's decided who he wants to introduce him when he's inducted into the Hall of Fame? I hope he picks me."

As it turned out, the Packers needed the win over the Raiders, plus a victory over the Broncos the next week, plus the Vikings' loss to the woeful Cardinals to get into the playoffs. And with the stubborn Seahawks leading 6-3 midway through the second quarter on Sunday, Green Bay needed something else to go its way. The Packers had a first down at their 20, and Seattle put eight defenders near the line of scrimmage to contain Ahman Green, who has run for 5,685 yards over the past four seasons, the most in football. Favre made a play-action fake to Green, who was swarmed, and threw a strike down the middle to wideout Javon Walker for 44 yards. Four plays later, from the Seattle 23, Favre pump-faked to William Henderson in the right flat, drawing defenders to his fullback, and then turned and threw a laser to tight end Bubba Franks in the end zone.

Favre is 34. He is in his 13th NFL season. He has played in 211 regular-season and playoff games. The touchdown pass to Franks was the 377th of his career, yet Favre reacted like it was his first. He spun in the air, pumped both fists, sprinted to the end zone and jumped on Franks, knocking his teammate to the ground with glee.

Yup. This is surely what Irv would have wanted his boy to be doing.