ReggieWhite Posts -- FanHouse

Brett Favre Joins the 'Great Players Who End Career In Weird Jerseys' Team*

*-well, of somewhat recent history.

We all know that Brett Favre will play his first game as a New York Jet this week and the shock of seeing him in a non-Packers jersey will be a bit frightening (as was seeing Jason Taylor in Redskins garb). Still, it isn't like we haven't seen this before from our recently great players.

QB-Brett Favre (Jets)
RB-Emmitt Smith (Cardinals)
RB-Thurman Thomas (Dolphins)
WR-Jerry Rice (Seahawks)
WR-Chris Carter (Dolphins)
WR-Tim Brown (Buccaneers)
OT-Tony Boselli (Texans ... even though he didn't play)
OT-Richmond Webb (Bengals)
OG-Randal McDaniel (Buccaneers)
OG-Bill Fralic (Lions)
C-Mike Webster (Chiefs)

Packers to Retire Brett Favre's No. 4, Some People Wonder What's the Rush

Great news for those Packers fans still in mourning. Brett Favre will be gone but never forgotten: the team announced today that Favre's No. 4 will be retired later this year. Virtual high-fives all around.

Packer Report's John Lombardi is as psyched as the next guy about the news, but asks a pretty important question about another great Packers player ($):

... [Favre] should have his number retired as soon as possible, but why did it take so long [for the organization] to get around to [retiring] Reggie [White's number]? The swiftness with which the announcement about Favre's number is striking when compared to Reggie. What was the holdup? Did the Packers know he was going to unretire? Did Reggie say or do something that made it impossible to do it in 1999? Were the Packers embarrassed by him and some of his actions? I guess we will never know for sure. The Packers will undoubtedly not comment on this and Reggie took it to the grave.

Lombardi points out that White's last season in Green Bay was in 1998, but that he did come out of retirement to play with the Panthers in 2000. Who knows, maybe that had something to do with it. Whatever, White's number was eventually retired in 2005, some nine months after his death and almost a year before he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Or maybe this has everything to do with Favre being, well, Favre, and nothing to do with anyone else who ever played for Green Bay. Either way, Lombardi's right to ask.