Favre Bowl I: Favre, Rodgers trade TD passes in 1st quarter; Vikings 7, Packers 7

Favre, Rodgers trade TD passes in 1st quarter

MINNEAPOLIS — Brett Favre got off to a rousing start for the Minnesota Vikings and his replacement in Green Bay responded in impressive fashion.

Favre threw a 1-yard TD pass to Visanthe Shiancoe in his first game against his former team and Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers came back with a 62-yard TD toss to Jermichael Finley in a 7-7 first quarter on Monday night.

Finley caught four passes for 91 yards in the first period of this long-awaited and much-hyped game.

Rodgers moved the Packers right down the field on the opening drive. But on first-and-10 from the Minnesota 24, he fumbled while being sacked by Jared Allen and Brian Robison.

The Vikings took over at the 33, and Favre and Adrian Peterson rolled right back the other way. The first four plays were runs to Peterson, likely to help calm down the excitable Favre on such an emotional night.

With everyone in the Metrodome on their feet, Favre completed all five passes, including one of his trademark line drives on a 16-yard slant to Bernard Berrian and a 1-yard touchdown pass to Shiancoe.

Favre met fellow former Packer Ryan Longwell at the 30-yard line for a leaping body bump.

But Rodgers came right back, stepping up in the pocket to draw cornerback Antoine Winfield in and then hitting a wide open Jermichael Finley for a 62-yard touchdown to tie the game.

Favre received a thunderous ovation when he walked onto the Metrodome field before the game.

“It wasn’t very exciting to be on the opposite side,” Favre said of his days for the Packers in this building. “It’s a crazy place to play. You don’t have to deal with outside elements, but it’s a frenzy. Being on the good side now, it feels good.”

The Packers selected Rodgers a captain for the game, so the two met at midfield for a handshake and the coin toss.

It is the showdown that many have been waiting for, ever since Vikings coach Brad Childress picked Favre up at the airport on Aug. 18 and drove him to the team’s headquarters.

Despite his long-standing status as Public Enemy No. 1 in Minnesota, all of Favre’s perceived misdeeds with the Packers have not only been forgiven, it’s as if they have been stricken from the record.

In Favre, Vikings fans see what the team has been missing for so long — a quarterback capable of winning a game. That idea was never more evident than last week, when Favre drove the Vikings 80 yards in 1:29 with no timeouts, capped by a 32-yard touchdown pass with 2 seconds to play, to lift the Vikings over the 49ers.

The performance had to sting a little bit extra in Green Bay, which shared a special 16-year relationship with Favre.

So Favre has now changed the face of this long rivalry — twice.

In Favre’s 16 seasons in green and gold, the Packers had just one losing season. He took them to two straight Super Bowls, winning one, to restore the nickname of “Titletown” to the NFL’s smallest market.

Packers fans were emboldened by the success and they started to make their presence felt 275 miles away in the Twin Cities, turning “cheesehead” into a four-letter word in these parts.

Brett Favre Pass runs by Lambeau Field. He set several career passing records and many in the state of Wisconsin wept when he retired after the 2007 season.

The divorce started in 2008, when he changed his mind on retirement and sought to rejoin the Packers. GM Ted Thompson, coach Mike McCarthy and the Packers had decided to move ahead with Aaron Rodgers by that point, and the ugly soap opera ended with Favre being traded to the Jets.

After one year in New York with the Jets, and a second short-lived retirement, Favre did the unfathomable and signed with Green Bay’s rivals in Minnesota.