Favre's Excellent Adventure

Just when it seems I'm reconciled to proclaiming Brett Favre's NFL career complete, he steps up and does something he's never done before.

I refer, of course, to Favre's six touchdown passes for the New York Jets against Arizona on Sunday.

In his storied career as the record-shattering quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, Favre never threw six TD passes in a game.

That was something I already knew. When Favre joined the Packers in the early 1990s, I had already been a Packer fan for a quarter of a century (I was converted at a young age after watching the Packers and Vince Lombardi on TV), so I've been following his Hall of Fame career for a long time.

And his six TD passes on Sunday carved a brand-new entry in his biography.

"Favre Hasn't Lost the Magic Touch," shouts the headline on Steve Serby's column about Favre in the New York Post.

But this was "magic" that took football fans to an entirely new level of prestidigitation.

In the locker room, Serby says, Jerricho Cotchery, who caught two of the TD passes, asked Favre if he had matched his career best. Favre told him he had never thrown six TD passes in a game.

"'That,' Cotchery was saying now, 'was the end of the conversation,'" Serby writes, "'cause I'm scratching my head like, 'Really? He's never thrown six touchdowns before!' But, he played great today. He was just dialing it up, telling everyone, 'Get ready, the ball is coming.'"

And, as Favre has shown in other record-setting performances — like his almost mythical Monday night performance against the Oakland Raiders the day after his father's death in December 2003 — when "the ball is coming," you'd better be prepared.

Just think. There was a time in the days before the game when it was believed that Favre wouldn't be able to play on Sunday.

"Imagine if it gets closer to perfect," Serby writes. "Imagine when Favre, whose interception came on what he thought was a free play, has two healthy ankles, if Favre and the offensive braintrust, if Favre and his receivers, grow their newfound chemistry."

Even with New England's Tom Brady out for the season, it's still a longshot that the Jets will make it to the playoffs. As brilliantly as he played on Sunday, Favre still will turn 39 in less than two weeks.

Time is not on his side.

But, today, Jets fans are imagining things they haven't imagined in a long time, thanks to Brett Favre.