How to watch MNF Classics: Vikings’ Brett Favre tops Packers for first time

Brett Favre was prone to hyperbole during his career. So when he said after the Monday Night Football showdown against his former team — his first game against the Green Bay Packers — that he was “about as nervous as I’ve ever been going into a game,” there was reason to wonder how much exaggeration went into the moment.

Jared Allen and Ryan Longwell, two of Favre’s closest teammates during his two seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, are here to verify it as fact.

“When we talked for basically the five or six months — I mean, we’d talk almost every other day before he committed to playing — and every single time, it was ‘What was it like going back to Lambeau?'” Longwell, who kicked for both the Packers (1997-2005) and Vikings (2006-2011) during his 15-year NFL career, recalled recently. “Like that was the whole thing. It was definitely on his mind.

“I’d been with Brett in a Super Bowl and big playoff games. I’ve been with him when his dad passed away, and I will tell you this: That week going into the Metrodome, I’ve never even seen him that nervous. Brett has a way of laughing off nerves better than anybody else, and he could not ditch it. It was just constantly on his mind. I’d never seen him like that. I’d never seen him that nervous.”

You wouldn’t know it by how Favre played that night: 24-for-31 passing for 271 yards with three touchdowns and not a single interception.

“I was about as nervous as I’ve ever been going into a game,” Favre said afterward. “I didn’t think I would be. As the week progressed, I thought I would be fine. But when I got to the hotel yesterday, it dawned on me.”

You won’t see any nerves when you watch the replay of the Vikings’ 30-23 victory over the Packers on Oct. 5, 2009, at the Metrodome. ESPN will reair that highly anticipated game on Monday (8 p.m. ET) as part of the Monday Night Football Classics series designed to provide “a small but welcomed distraction in the middle of a difficult and unprecedented time.” Last week, it showed the Saints’ return to the Superdome in 2006 after Hurricane Katrina, a game remembered for Steve Gleason’s blocked punt.

In Allen’s mind, Favre set the tone with a text the night before the game.

Hey, I need you to be a beast this game.

Sending motivational texts wasn’t a common Favre practice, Allen remembers, but this was Packers week, and Favre — who showed a flare for connecting with Vikings teammates in a short time — needed the Minnesota defense in the worst way.

Don’t worry, Allen told Favre: I’ve got you.

“He made it personal and brought me into his personal vendetta,” said Allen with a laugh. “We came out and had one of those special games.”

While Favre held his own, Allen was unquestionably the best player on the field that night, sacking Aaron Rodgers 4.5 times with a relentless first step that left a depleted Packers front confused.

Despite Rodgers’ wizardry in or out of the pocket, the Vikings felt the Packers’ offense was overmatched. Minnesota was among the league’s most stout run defenses. Each of the Vikings’ starting linemen were capable of eight to 10 sacks in a season.

And Allen felt Rodgers’ willingness to extend plays made him more susceptible to sacks.

That was the case with Allen’s fourth-quarter strip-sack that resulted in a safety: Allen got double-teamed but escaped the combo block to chase Rodgers to the other side, figuring the defensive backfield was probably bracketing receiver Jordy Nelson deep.

“There was a sense of living up to the hype and putting the stamp on the season and wanting to do it for Brett,” said Allen about the game. “Having an iconic quarterback where it could be his last year, going against his archrival — his old team — in a rivalry that’s great on its own, and we’re battling for first place in the NFC — it was this perfect storm for us. And we felt the majority of our good players were in their primes.”

Just a week earlier, Favre showed signs that he could return to his MVP-level play. He threw a game-winning, 32-yard touchdown pass to Greg Lewis in the back of the end zone with 2 seconds left to beat the 49ers. It moved the Vikings to 3-0 heading into the game against the 2-1 Packers.

“That was kind of the beginning of the aura of that team and that season,” Longwell recalled. “There were questions about whether he still had it, and he was coming off that so-so year with the Jets where he was decent early and then got hurt. Then that week, the 49ers week, there was something magical going on, and it just so happened to lead into that Monday night game. I played a lot of games as a Packer in the dome and heard it loud, but I’ve never heard it like it was for that game.”

Longwell believes it helped Favre that the first meeting against his old team came in Minneapolis, a month before Favre would make his visiting debut at Lambeau.

“He was equally as nervous going to Lambeau, maybe even worse,” Longwell said. “But there was a known commodity going into that game that there wasn’t going into that first game in the dome, when he didn’t know what it was going to be like seeing those helmets on the other side and you’re not part of it. So I think it was definitely advantage to playing at the Metrodome first.”

Favre celebrated wildly throughout the game, air bumping with Longwell after one touchdown and running around with his hand in the air after another.

“Obviously he’s 10 times the player I ever was, but it’s like the relief on a game-winning field goal when you look up and see it flying straight, there’s nothing like that relief,” Longwell said. “For him — and for that matter for me, because in an indirect way my neck was on the line that he was even there — it was a vested interest beyond just beating my former team and winning the game. I wanted him to succeed and be able to say all of my offseason conversations with him were worth it.”

The postgame locker room scene was memorable — and awkwardly painful, as Allen remembers.

“You could just tell, he wanted this game,” said Allen about Favre. “I think I still have a handprint on my butt from when he smacked it.”