Favre says coaching change could push him to retirement

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Brett Favre says he would be reluctant to return to Green Bay next season if Mike Sherman isn’t still coaching the Packers.

The Packers (1-6) are off to their worst start since 1991, which has led to speculation about Sherman’s future.

In an interview with the Associated Press on Thursday, Favre said Sherman’s status would play an important role in his annual decision to keep on playing or to call it a career.

“I don’t think there’s one specific thing that would make me say yeah or no. It’s just a culmination of a lot of different things, that being one of them,” Favre said. “Maybe you’re on the verge of saying yeah, and then you say, ‘You know what, do I really want to sit in meetings and have to learn something all over again?’

“That could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

General manager Ted Thompson, who has refused to comment on Sherman’s future, was out of his office and didn’t immediately return a call from the AP.

Sherman, who signed a two-year, $6.4 million contract extension on Aug. 23 that would take him through 2007, declined comment on Favre’s remarks.

Favre, who turned 36 last month, has said he wouldn’t want to finish his career in another uniform because he’s too set in his ways to learn a new offense.

Favre, who was traded to the Packers in 1992 after a year in Atlanta, has spent his entire time in Green Bay running various versions of the West Coast offense.

“I think that I’ve been maybe the only player that’s ever played 14 years in the same offense,” he said. “This offense has evolved. It’s something a little bit different, but I’ve been here through the evolution. No one else has. The downside of that is, it would be so hard for me to learn something new in a year.

“It would just be so difficult. I mean, it could be done. Anything can be done. We’re talking about just the logistics of the X’s and O’s and stuff. But when you’ve spent 14 years, all they have to do is come in and say right now … instead of odd being to the left, now it’s going to be to the right. You see where I’m coming from?

“It’s no different than my first time in Tokyo. You’re driving on the wrong side of the road, and it was hell. And I didn’t drive. I just rode.”

Favre said that even small tweaks in the offense would force him to deprogram what he’s perfected and would have a big impact on his play.

“What happens is your mind almost has just been engraved with certain things,” he said. “I mean, it could be done. It would be a pain in the (rear end) I would think. Maybe I’m wrong.”

Favre said he won’t know about next season until the off-season, but the weekly grind of preparing for games wears on him more with each passing year.

“It could come down to some of the littlest things, what I’m willing to put myself through. I mean, if it was coming down to just games, I don’t think nothing could pull me away from the games,” Favre said.

“But you know, I know, it’s not baseball, it’s not basketball. You only play three hours a week. You spend all this time – people think at home that I just show up on Sundays and we play. I’m here taking a damn nap here at lunch, spend all day and watch film at night. For three hours. And if it doesn’t go your way, it’s so disappointing all the time you’ve put into it.”

Favre pondered retirement last winter while his wife, Deanna, was undergoing treatment for breast cancer, the latest tragedy to strike the Favre family.

When Deanna recovered, she encouraged her husband to keep playing so they could enjoy the twilight of his career after two years of heartache.

But Hurricane Katrina changed those plans, leaving some of his family members without homes.

Favre said the Packers’ record and rash of injuries this year won’t play a major role when he decides whether to return in 2006 because in the NFL a team can go from worst to first in no time.

“I think it comes down to a couple draft picks and luck, obviously, good luck, and very easily we could be sitting here and be totally different” next year, Favre said. “I’m well aware of that. I mean, I don’t sit here and say, ‘It’s going to take a while.’ You get a good crop of players, you get a couple veterans that you might bring in, it’s amazing how it can transform your team.”

Favre has thrown for 15 TDs and is completing a career-best 66.7 percent of his passes despite missing Ahman Green, Javon Walker, Najeh Davenport and Terrence Murphy, who are all out for the season.