National Football League

Brett Favre dons Packers jersey, says, 'I think I could still play'

Published Jun. 30, 2015 1:12 p.m. ET

foxsports

By Jason Rowan

For the first time in what must have felt like an eternity for Brett Favre — and perhaps Green Bay Packers backers — the legendary quarterback at long last donned the jersey of the team with which he rose to the status of NFL icon, something that at certain points over the past handful of years seemed as if it was never going to happen.

Favre, 45, pulled on a Packers jersey for a cover shoot that fronts an upcoming “Where Are They Now?” issue from Sports Illustrated.

Favre indicated a day after the shoot it felt as strange as it looked.

“It was so big on me,” he told SI. “It felt like a nightgown. That’s not my world anymore.”

The last time Favre was seen in Packers green was the NFC Championship Game on Jan. 20, 2008, when his last pass as a Packers player resulted in an interception during a 23-20 overtime loss to the New York Giants.

When asked if he thought he could still go out there and play, the quarterback gave a typically Favre-ian response.

“I think I could play,” he said. “As far as throwing. Of course, we’re not trying to start some he’s-coming-out-of-retirement deal.”

“Do I think I could play and lead a team? Look, no. But I could play. I could make all the throws I made before, I just couldn’t throw it near as far, but that never matters anyway.”

Before he began his late-career wandering through the NFL wilderness following a prolonged and messy breakup with the Packers throughout which Favre was nothing but wishy-washy regarding his NFL future, the notion of the Ol’ Gunslinger wearing any but a Packers uniform (save for an Atlanta Falcons jersey, course) seemed unfathomable.

Of course, that all changed. Favre went on to have a handful of average-to-outstanding seasons with the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings. And once he hung up his cleats for good, the icy relationship that existed between the Packers and Favre at long last began its slow thaw.

Such a long-awaited reconciliation of course required an arduous process of starts and stops that will reach its end when the team inducts the quarterback into the Packers Hall of Fame in July, a milestone event that will culminate in a ceremony during halftime of a game against the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving night at Lambeau Field.

It’s been one crazy ride, that’s for sure.

More from Sportress of Blogitude: