GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The hearses drove slowly past Lambeau Field, turned down Holmgren way and then passed the Brett Favre Steakhouse. Inside lay a dummy dressed in Wrangler jeans and a football helmet.
Some losses happen swiftly. Green Bay has said goodbye to an old friend in a more drawn out and painful way.
A retirement or two was one thing, but when Brett Favre joined the Minnesota Vikings, the most popular Wisconsin athlete in decades crossed a threshold some Packers fans couldn't accept.
"Let Brett be reincarnated as a retired football player, so that he can have his number retired and not go wandering around the NFL as a ghost in New York and Minnesota," prayed one mourner attending the service at Tom, Dick & Harry's bar less than a block from Lambeau Field.
"There were some who thought this was disrespectful to the memory of Brett and for all he did for Green Bay," admitted Len Nelson who came up with the mock Favre funeral with his morning show partner Rick McNeal from radio station WAPL. "But it's really not that Brett Favre we're burying. It's the one wearing purple."
Scott Propheter surveyed the collection of Favre bobbleheads, jerseys and other memorabilia dropped into the casket by attendees. "I'm a big Brett Favre fan, but he went Minnesota, he's done now, he's getting buried on Sunday."
But come Sunday Vikings fans expect the deceased to offer abundant proof, there is life after death.
(Copyright 2009 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)
