WILD TIMES ARE OVER

By Sam Farmer

March 5, 2008 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

More than once Tuesday, Green Bay’s mayor felt the need to gently remind his teary-eyed staff members of this: Brett Favre retired, but he’s still alive.

Regardless, the sudden jolt of it all -- Favre’s decision to end his 17-year NFL career -- hit hard, especially in a place where he spent 16 seasons, won three most-valuable-player awards, a Super Bowl, and more games than any other starting NFL quarterback.

“It’s somber here,” Mayor Jim Schmitt said in a phone interview. “Even though we all knew Brett Favre was going to retire some day, I don’t think the majority of people thought it was going to be this year. . . . You know how you go through the stages of grief? The denial stage was there for a while.”

Such is the impact Favre had not only on the Packers, but on a country of NFL fans. Though spectacularly talented, with an arm as strong as any in the game, he was football’s everyman, an accessible sports hero who played through pain -- physical and emotional -- and never bothered to disguise his feelings.

Along the way, he and the Packers had terrific success. He started more consecutive regular-season games than any quarterback, and he holds most of the league’s passing records, including touchdowns, attempts, completions and yards. He also holds the dubious honor of most passes intercepted.

“I know I can still play, but it’s like I told my wife, I’m just tired mentally. I’m just tired,” Favre, 38, told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen in a voice-mail message.

Former Packers general manager Ron Wolf, who acquired Favre in a trade with Atlanta in early 1992, called him “the greatest player ever to play for the Green Bay Packers.”

“That,” Wolf said, “speaks volumes.”

Favre’s final season was among his best. As the quarterback of the league’s youngest team, one loaded with unheralded and overlooked players, he completed a career-high 66.5% of his passes for 28 touchdowns with only 15 interceptions and led the Packers to the NFC championship game against the New York Giants.

He struggled in that bitter-cold game at Lambeau Field and the Packers lost in overtime, 23-20. His second of two interceptions set up the winning field goal.

In a way, it was fitting that Favre’s career would end on an interception. Because even though he was among the greatest quarterbacks in history at directing two-minute drives, he will also be remembered as a risk-taker who relied on his cannon arm to make plays that other quarterbacks simply could not.

“Because of Brett Favre’s daring style, he made more good plays and more bad plays than any great quarterback in history,” said Steve Sabol, president of NFL Films. “He made plays that would be uncoachable, unthinkable and unpredictable.”

Sabol called Favre “the last of the old-fashioned quarterbacks who refused to be mechanized by systems and the endless scouting reports” that now are so commonplace.

And the camera loved him. NFL Films has more footage of Favre than of any player in league history, Sabol said, including hours of him driving his tractor in his hometown of Kiln, Miss.; riding on his party boat in Biloxi, Miss.; hunting with former teammate Ty Detmer; and at a daughter’s birthday party.

To many, Favre wasn’t just a football player. He was an inspiration who overcame an addiction to painkillers, played one of his best games while grieving the death of his father a day earlier, and helped nurse his wife back from breast cancer.

“You always saw what his emotions were,” NBC announcer Al Michaels said. “He didn’t hide them and try to act. What you saw was what you got. He was just very real.”

That made Favre all the more popular in Green Bay, a place that prides itself in having the country’s only nonprofit, community-owned major league sports team.

“He gave everyone in this city bragging rights, not only because of his play on the field but because of his character,” Schmitt said. “He was just an all-around good guy. Talk about a favorite son.”

Already, Green Bay has named streets after Packers greats such as Vince Lombardi, Mike Holmgren and Bart Starr.

For Favre, the city might do more.

“If we do something with a street, it would have to be a major thoroughfare,” the mayor said. “We can look at some of our great parks, our buildings. We’re going to have to come up with something pretty neat.”

sam.farmer@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

BRETT FAVRE RETIRES

NFL records held by Favre, who announced his retirement Tuesday after 17 seasons:

Most Associated Press MVP awards (1995, 1996, 1997)

Seasons with 30 or more touchdown passes

Consecutive

3,000-yard passing

seasons

Consecutive playoff games with a

touchdown pass

Career games with at least three