The various online accounts of Vikings quarterback Brett Favre’s postgame comments following Friday night’s preseason contest against the Chiefs make general reference to Favre’s acknowledgment that he was feeling nervous before the game.
“All of a sudden I started having butterflies,” Favre said. “That was probably the oddest thing. I was talking to my oldest daughter and she was telling me good luck and all this stuff. I said, ‘I’m nervous.’ She said, ‘Oh, you’ll be fine.’ I just don’t want to screw up.”
But we’ve yet to find a transcription of a different excerpt that aired earlier today on SportsCenter.
Favre explained that it was a good thing for him to feel nervous before the first game of the year, and that it’s far better than being on the field and wishing for a game to end.
That remark caught our attention, because Favre’s demeanor in his final game for the Packers -- the 2007 NFC title tilt against the Giants -- suggested the latter sentiment. Regardless of what he was feeling on the inside during the Ice Bowl revisited at Lambeau Field, he came across as a guy who simply wanted to get the thing over with and retire. (And then unretire. And then retire again. Then re-retire. And then unretire again.)
Whether he ever feels that way while playing for the Vikings remains to be seen. For now, however, he seems like anything but the gray-bearded dude wearing the cow-pasture hat we all saw on Tuesday.