There was Judas, and now there’s Brett Favre.

Okay, the betrayal is not quite biblical. But it is indeed epic.

This Sunday, Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre will step onto Lambeau Field in Green Bay to play against the Green Bay Packers, the team that employed him for 16 years. That’s bad. It gets worse. He’ll be wearing purple — something no self-respecting man should do — and not just any purple. Like Larry Bird playing for the Lakers, Mike Krzyzewski coaching UNC, Ronald Reagan strategizing for the Soviets, Favre will take the field wearing the purple helmet of the hated Minnesota Vikings.

We’ll be there. For the last two years, we have blogged about the Packers at www.packergeeks.com. For much of that time, we have followed the contours of a story that has become known in the jargon of sports journalism as the Favre Saga. When it started a year and a half ago, at what we thought was the end of Favre’s career, we were among Favre’s biggest admirers. Favre was the highly paid NFL star who played like he was enjoying his first Pop Warner game — a quarterback who sprinted down the field to congratulate teammates on their touchdowns, who threw reckless cutback blocks on running plays, who went facemask-to-facemask with 375-pound defensive linemen, who carried his wide receivers over his shoulders after their great catches, and who played through injuries to just about every part of the body that a man can injure. One of us even wrote an appreciation of Favre — “one of the best-loved and most-admired football players in generations” — for National Review.

Most of those who cover the NFL still lionize Favre. In a recent national radio broadcast, NBC’s Jim Gray wondered why the Packers kicked Favre out of Green Bay. ESPN’s Ed Werder — among many others — has voiced the same sentiment. That’s not what happened. It is certainly true that the Packers could have done more to convince Favre to continue playing for them, but failing to do enough to keep him is not the same as forcing him out. So consider this something of a correction — of both the NR appreciation and of the national storyline of the Favre Saga.

On March 3, 2008, the Packers held a press conference announcing Favre’s retirement. His final season had been a successful one. The Packers went 13–3 and made it to the NFC Championship game. And though Favre had thrown a bad interception to lose that game, he had played like a quarterback a decade younger than his 37 years.

Within weeks, though, Favre changed his mind. When he told the Packers that he wanted to unretire, the organization welcomed him back and made arrangements to have one more season with their Hall of Fame quarterback. Then, just days later, Favre changed his mind again. He was done. That was it. No question. Career over.

Favre had done this before. At the end of each of his final three seasons in Green Bay, Favre had mused publicly about retirement, setting off nearly full-time media speculation about his future and the future of the franchise. But this time felt different. While he and his agent, Bus Cook, repeatedly assured reporters that he’d get around to it at some point, he refused to make it official by filing his papers with the NFL.

So the Packers moved on. They gave the quarterback job to Aaron Rodgers, a promising young quarterback who had quietly waited for his opportunity since they’d drafted him in 2005.

Remarkably, none of this leaked to the press. Then on April 3, Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times reported that Cook, Favre’s agent, had been calling around to other NFL teams to gauge interest in a prospective return. Not surprisingly, Favre dismissed the reporting. A comeback “is the last thing I’m thinking about,” he told Peter King of Sports Illustrated. “I have no idea where that came from, but it certainly didn’t come from me. I’m happy about my decision and I haven’t once said, ‘I wonder if I made the wrong decision.’ I know it’s the right one.”

Then in early July, as the season approached, Favre tried to return to the Packers again. This time, however, the Packers hesitated. They were understandably worried that he wasn’t serious about coming back and, having named Rodgers the starting quarterback, were concerned about the damage that would be done to the team if they acceded to the demands of their former star.

So the Packers turned him down. Favre wasn’t happy. At first, he demanded his release. Sports Illustrated NFL writer Peter King, a frequent recipient of scoops from Favre, reported that Favre’s first choice was Minnesota. Wisconsin media outlets reported that Favre had already approached the Vikings.

The Packers reversed course almost immediately. General Manager Ted Thompson told ESPN that he was prepared to welcome Favre back, and not as a backup to Aaron Rodgers. In an interview with Greta Van Susteren of Fox News, Favre accused the Packers of being dishonest and claimed he was pressured into retiring — something he had denied in his tearful retirement press conference.

In that same interview, Favre suggested that Packers general manager Ted Thompson was guilty of “tricking” him into playing in 2005, when Favre first started talking publicly about retiring. Favre told Fox News that Thompson had promised that the Packers would re-sign one of two standout guards — Mike Wahle or Marco Rivera — and on that condition Favre agreed to return for another season. Then, according to Favre, the day after Favre announced his return, Thompson let the players sign elsewhere.

It was a good story. But it was entirely false. Both Wahle and Rivera were gone by March 3, 2005, and they had signed with other teams by the time Favre said he was coming back on March 10. And yet when Van Susteren asked Favre how he felt about being a Packer, he said: “I can’t envision being with anyone else, or haven’t envisioned being with anyone else.”

The Packers invited Favre to training camp and told him he could compete for his old job — a competition that the veteran would be sure to win. Favre flew into Green Bay and watched the opening scrimmage from a luxury box. His successor struggled on the field and was even taunted by some uncharacteristically classless fans.

The next day, Favre met with Packers coach Mike McCarthy to discuss his future with the team. But during a break in that meeting, Favre surprised everyone by calling ESPN’s Chris Mortensen to say that he didn’t want to return to Green Bay. His reason? After retiring and unretiring — twice — and after seeking to play for division rivals and after throwing the entire organization into months of turmoil, Favre told Mortensen that he didn’t want to do anything that might affect the team negatively. (Seriously.) Then he once again accused the Packers of lying.

“Stuff has been said, stories planted, that just aren’t true. Can I get over all that? I doubt it,” he told Mortensen. And that’s the key point — one that all of those covering the game this Sunday should remember. Brett Favre chose to leave the Green Bay Packers.

Favre signed with the New York Jets and played one mediocre season. But he also worked hard to make sure his old team didn’t succeed. “Favre called the Detroit Lions, starting off with (former Detroit general manager) Matt Millen,” said Fox Sports reporter Jay Glazer. “Matt Millen then put him in touch with the coaching staff and gave the coaching staff like an hour or a 90-minute dissertation, every single thing that the Green Bay Packers do on offense. It’s his former team. He’s calling a division opponent of a team he has nothing to do with anymore and just lets loose all the family secrets. How about that?”

After the season, Favre once again declared an end to his career.

When Peter King asked him how he knew he would stay retired this time, Favre said that he had to — he could never betray Jets General Manager Mike Tannenbaum, considering that the Jets headman had taken a chance on him. “I foresee getting the impulse to play,” Favre said. “But as good as Mike Tannenbaum has been to me, I could never bring myself to do it. I know I won’t do it. If I did, I’d be putting the Jets in a tough spot, because I know they can’t release me.’’

But Favre did ask the Jets to release him, and after once again declaring he was done for good joined the Vikings at the end of training camp. It was what he had wanted all along. When Favre first retired, his agent called the Vikings. Favre himself carried on off-season conversations with the Vikings coaching staff. In one interview he said he wanted the Packers to trade him to someone in the NFC North so that he could face them twice each season, and in another he pleaded for the Packers to “let me play against them.” He admitted to King that he wanted to come back in order to “stick it to Ted” — Ted Thompson, the Packers general manager who let him go.

He did that once already this season. The Vikings beat the Packers in Minnesota. And they may well win again on Sunday at Lambeau Field.

Many Packers fans gave up on Favre at some point over the last two years. He may have lost even more when he told ESPN’s Jon Gruden recently that despite the good times, Packers fans “just have to let it go and just move on.”

We will. A Packers victory on Sunday would certainly help. But even if the Packers lose, they won’t be wearing purple.

– Stephen Hayes is a senior writer for The Weekly Standard, and Andrew Hayes is a writer in Wisconsin. They blog at www.packergeeks.com.