Fans at Lambeau Should Give Favre Silent Treatment

On Sunday Brett Favre will make his return to Lambeau Field.

For the first time since he threw that ill-fated pass in the NFC Championship game in January 2008, Favre will once again suit up and trot onto Lambeau Field, as he's done 116 times before. Only this time he won't be donning green and gold.

How the Lambeau Field crowd will receive their fallen hero is still a mystery. Favre has always said that his days in Green Bay were special to him. That he was proud to be a Green Bay Packer. That the fans meant so much to him.

But lately, his actions and words suggest otherwise. In August when he signed with the Vikings, he said "true" Packer fans would still cheer for him and be happy for him. True Packer fans should cheer for the Vikings? Either Favre has an overinflated ego or he's taken one too many shots to the helmet.

In Favre's weekly press conference Wednesday he sounded anything but grateful to fans for supporting him through thick and thin, interceptions and touchdowns for 16 years.

“This is a totally different year, and I have no idea how this will unfold. But there’s no sentiments, really, one way or the other. We need to win this football game," Favre said.

No sentiments? The man who sobbed uncontrollably in front of the nation the day he "retired" from the Packers has no sentiments about his return to the place that made him famous? Ouch.

So maybe Packer fans should have no sentiments about Favre returning either. I mean the past is the past, right? Why should we reflect on the glory days? If Favre doesn't care, why should we? He even went as far as to say that the 2009 Vikings are the best team he's ever played on. That 1996 Packers team that won a Superbowl, eh they were nothing special apparently.

Favre has turned his back on Packer fans. That's why I think the appropriate greeting for him on Sunday, will not be boos, not cheers, but silence. Fans should turn their backs to the number four wearing lavender. If he doesn't care, neither should fans.

Apparently Favre thinks we owe him something.

“The people who have jumped ship or whatever completely — what can I do?” Favre said. “And I’m not going to concern myself with it," Favre said. "Because we have gotten a lot of letters and responses from people, not just this year but the last couple years — very supportive (of him), still very supportive of the Packers — that I’d call true fans. There was always Brett Favre haters out there, and that will never change.”

So now Packer fans who don't support players on the teams of division rivals are "Brett Favre haters"?

Even Vikings teammate and former Packer Ryan Longwell thinks Favre should be greeted with boos.

 “I think he will. I think he should, when the game starts, because we’re the opposing team. If they’re cheering, I think their fans are misplaced," Longwell said.

Longwell gets it. He gets that fans are angry at him for choosing to play for a division rival. He gets that Packer fans are passionate about their team. He gets that if fans boo, it doesn't make them haters, it makes them fans.

Fans don't get press conferences and national television interviews to voice their opinion. This is the only chance we get.

We want Favre to feel the same pain we feel every Sunday, watching him throw touchdown passes for the Vikings. We want him to know what it felt like to watch him celebrate with Vikings offensive linemen on October 5th in the Metrodome. We want him to know how it hurts to listen to him talk about how great the Vikings and their fans are.

Favre has been taking shots at the Packers since last July when he asked for his release.

This is our chance to finally take one back.