Enlarge imageBy Steve Keating
GREEN BAY, Wisconsin (Reuters) - To understand what the National Football League (NFL) and the beloved Packers mean to the residents of Green Bay you need only ask for directions.
Chances are that sooner or later you will find yourself on Lombardi Ave or Holmgren Way, or might swing by Brett Favre Pass or down the newly paved Aaron Rodgers Avenue.
In Green Bay, all roads eventually lead to Lambeau Field but on Sunday many of the city's nearly 104,000 residents did not know which way to turn.
Favre was back in town and the famed quarterback, who never missed a start during 16 record-smashing seasons in Packers green-and-gold, returned for the first time wearing Minnesota Vikings purple and walked away with a 38-26 win.
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For some in this tight-knit Midwestern town, where many are shareholders in the NFL's only community-owned team, Favre's signing with the despised Vikings in August for $25 million (15.3 million pounds) was a slap in the face bordering on high treason.
For others, the 40-year-old Favre's return represented a chance to thank the future Hall of Famer, who led the Packers to back-to-back Super Bowl appearances, winning it all in 1997.
Many, like Bob Schaaf, who gave up a weekend elk hunting to take his wife and two sons to a game that attracted worldwide interest, did not know how to react.
"It just doesn't seem right but what can you do?" Schaaf said as he watched two men stroll past wearing Vikings jerseys with Favre's name and number on the back.
"I mean, anybody but the Vikings; going to the Vikings it just borders on war.
"We won't cheer him, we won't boo him. We'll do nothing. We like to watch him play and when he retires and goes in the Hall of Fame we'll cheer him but not the Vikings."
MESSY DIVORCE
For many Packers fans, Favre's departure was like watching their parents get a divorce, a split that was as messy and as public as any Hollywood breakup.
A generation of Cheeseheads, as Packers fans are known, grew up idolising Favre, who arrived in Green Bay in 1992 and blossomed into one of the NFL's all-time greats, winning three most valuable player awards while rewriting the record books.
Favre's boyish love for the game, his gun-slinging heroics and remarkable durability forged a special bond with not only Green Bay but the entire state of Wisconsin.
Green Bay grieved with Favre after his father's death in 2003, then marvelled when he took to the field the next night and tossed four touchdowns against the Oakland Raiders.
They anguished with him during his wife's battle with breast cancer and stood by him through his addiction to pain killers.
There was no forgiveness in evidence on Sunday, however, as Favre was lustily jeered by a regular-season record crowd of 71,213 at Lambeau from the moment he stepped off the team bus to face his former team for the first time since leaving them two years ago.
"I had mixed emotions coming in because I know how special these (Packers) fans are," Favre told reporters. "It was loud and that is what makes Green Bay such a special place.
"I want to lead this Vikings team to the Super Bowl but I also know that Packers fans, who make this organisation so special and unique, will never change. How could you not miss that?"
SOAP OPERA
After announcing his retirement in 2007, Favre had a change of heart but the Packers had moved on, putting their faith in the hands of understudy Aaron Rodgers.
The split sparked a long-running soap opera in which Favre spent last season with the New York Jets before agreeing to a two-year deal with the Vikings.
It also triggered angst and debate among the "Packers Nation," which stretches well beyond Green Bay's city boundaries with loyal supporters and season-ticket holders scattered around the world.
The Green Bay Press Gazette, which usually averages 35,000 hits on its website (www.greenbaypressgazette.com), was getting 750,000 views a day as anxious Packers fans followed the feud.
Sunday's game, which attracted media from as far away as Japan, marked the 281st consecutive sell-out at Lambeau field, which has nearly as many seats as Green Bay does residents.
The Packers are the epicentre of Green Bay life, with weddings and funerals planned around game days.
A ticket to watch the Packers is rated by at least one ticketing agency as the most coveted in all of sport.
When children are born in Wisconsin it is not uncommon for parents the next day to place their newborns on the Packers waiting list for tickets, which now stands at over 70,000.
Once worshipped by Packers fans, Favre's legacy in Green Bay is far from certain, although his Hall of Fame credentials are undisputed.
Before Sunday's kickoff, some Packers fans burnt replicas of his top-selling green-and-gold Green Bay jersey while entrepreneurs cashed in on the occasion, hawking T-shirts with "Traitor 4-Ever" and "Once a Hero, Now a Zero" scrawled on them.
One Green Bay sports bar even staged a "Funeral-4-Favre" attended by 500 people, complete with hearses, pall bearers and a mannequin of Favre lying in a casket in his number four Vikings jersey.
(Editing by John O'Brien)
