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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TOPHAT" data-source="post: 159957" data-attributes="member: 781"><a href="http://www2.jsonline.com/packer/insider/memberservices/loginpi.asp?returnurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww2.jsonline.com%2fstory%2f%3fid%3d640599" target="_blank">http://www2.jsonline.com/packer/insider/memberservices/loginpi.asp?returnurl=http://www2.jsonline.com/story/?id=640599</a>Despite the critics, Favre remains adored The gray-haired old gentleman was remarkably spry as he moved about Clarke Hinkle Field. But why was there a football in his right hand where an AARP card belongs? Shouldn't this geezer be more concerned about breaking his hip rather than the passing records of Dan Marino? Hey, No. 4, time to pack it in and call it a career. Hop on your lawn tractor, grandpa, and ride off into the sunset on your way to the nursing home.   These are the images and messages being sent to one Brett Lorenzo Favre as he prepares for his 17th season in the National Football League, and his 16th as the heart, soul and arm of the Green Bay Packers.  The negative pictures and suggestions come from a cadre of critics, most of them toiling from a safe distance, well beyond the boundaries of the Dairy State. Some write newspaper and Internet columns. Then there are the bloggers. The squawk radio shows. And TV's talking heads. Or maybe it's your neighbor, Jerry, wailing to you over the backyard fence. Or your barber. How about that bartender in Minneapolis or the cop in Chicago? Brett Favre's critics might be getting louder, but according to his friend, Donald Driver, teammates and fans believe in their quarterback now as much as they ever did.   They all have one thing in common, according to Donald Driver, Favre's close friend and business associate:   "They don't know him, plain and simple," Driver said after a recent training camp practice. "Everyone is going to say what they want to say about everyone in this locker room. Not just Brett, but everyone. But if you don't know him, then you can't make any decisions on his career. "You can have an opinion. But if you don't know him, if you haven't seen him . . . You see him out there throwing and everybody's screaming, 'I love you Brett, I love this, I love that.'   "I think everyone in this locker room, especially the receivers, we know he can still throw. That's the test, that we know he can still throw." Driver has known Favre since 1999 when the wide receiver from Alcorn State defied the odds and moved from lowly seventh-round draft choice to be become the quarterback's No. 1 wide receiver and a two-time Pro Bowl selection. Favre has thrown 414 touchdown passes and needs just seven more to break Marino's all-time NFL record. Driver has been the catcher on 34 of those strikes, trailing only Antonio Freeman (57) and Sterling Sharpe (41).   But the real hookup between quarterback and receiver has nothing to do with numbers. What has Favre really meant to Driver?   "Everything," Driver said. "As a friend, as a teammate. I mean, I love him just like I would love my mom, my dad, my brothers. He's like family to me. Just like I'm family to him, and I think he would say that, too. "When you have that relationship between two people, it makes it hard to separate. Because they always say, people don't buy friends. I didn't have to buy his (friendship). He didn't have to buy mine. We just became one.   "And when you have that, it makes it so easy for both of us to tell another man that you love him. Grown men don't say that. But I can be the first to say that . . . I can tell Brett that I love him, and I'll bet you he'll say the same thing about me." Meanwhile, back at the Favre critics; there seems to be way too much focus on numbers and just not enough on, well . . . love.   Last season Favre threw a career-high 613 passes, but threw the fewest touchdowns (18) since 1992, his first season with Green Bay. The number most people dwell on, however, is 38: Favre's age as of October 10.   They say 38 is the age of no return for NFL quarterbacks. Nobody - or anything without a cork - gets better with age. Favre is no exception. He doesn't move as well as once did and doesn't run much anymore. And he frequently misfires on throws that were bull's-eyes 10 years ago.   But football is the ultimate team game and Favre's "low" touchdown production last season had more to do with his supporting cast and Green Bay's offensive scheme than the quarterback's ability. Green Bay was a day-care center in 2006, featuring a roster loaded with kids. Specifically, as many as three rookies could be found starting in the offensive line. To protect those linemen while they learned, the Packers frequently kept a tight end in the backfield or slot to help with pass blocking.   So Favre found himself throwing more and enjoying it less.  Open receivers were hard to come by. Sure, Favre threw his share of bad passes and interceptions (18), but it was the team passing game that suffered the most.  Eight times in Favre's career, he threw 30 or more touchdown passes. But he got more help from his friends in those days than he did last season. That could change his fall. The line is much improved, freeing the tight ends to look more for passes than oncoming linebackers. And Green Bay has 12 quality wide receivers. When the Packers trim that number to five, many of the casualties will find immediate employment elsewhere in the NFL.   Favre led the offense on the first day of training camp Saturday, but was called away when tragedy struck his family. His wife Deanna's stepfather, Rocky Byrd, died at the age of 56, in Gulfport, Miss. Favre missed the morning workout Sunday, practiced that night, then left early Monday for Mississippi. He was expected back at practice Thursday.  And when he returns, Driver will be there for his friend and teammate. Last season, Favre and Driver launched a post-touchdown tradition, with the quarterback carrying the receiver on his shoulder after a touchdown connection. Now, with Favre stalking Marino, Driver has a new wrinkle:  "Instead of him carrying me, we as a group of receivers, we may get together and just start carrying him every time he throws a touchdown. Just go grab him and carry him off the field." Meanwhile, Favre's critics will get carried away as they always have.______________________________________________________________<a href="http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=641707" target="_blank">http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=641707</a>Workouts paying off for Favre  Innovative regimen keeps him in shapeThere are pads you can wear on your ribs, braces you can wrap around your knees and orthotics you can put in your shoes, but when you play in the National Football League, there is no measure of protection against old age.  When the body signals the end, it's over.  It hasn't happened yet to the Green Bay Packers' Brett Favre, who at age 37 is the oldest starting quarterback in the NFL and the second-oldest quarterback overall.  If it doesn't happen this season, Favre can at least be assured that he will be in the best physical condition he possibly could. He and his personal trainer, Ken Croner, have seen to that, teaming on an eight-week program designed to sharpen the skills Favre needs most to play quarterback."Brett, his focus, his determination and the effort he put in, I can't even tell you," said Croner, a performance specialist for Athletes' Performance in Tempe, Ariz. "He looks better now than he did two years ago when I worked with him. I'm talking about movement, physically, everything.   "He's made the commitment to do everything he possibly could to get himself ready for the season. There's nothing that I do. It's Brett Favre. His work ethic makes this program work....But I can tell you he's moving better than (two years ago). I admire Brett, how he plays and why he plays and his work ethic. The time and effort he put in was amazing. It really is...."Designing the programFavre, who had to leave camp Monday after the death of his wife's stepfather and will return to practice today, sat down with Croner and broke down the quarterback position for him so he would understand what areas to focus on. Croner watched DVDs of Favre playing regular-season games and devised exercises designed to simulate the physical stress the quarterback will be under this year.  Using bungee ropes tied to Favre's waist, he had the quarterback drop back to pass under resistance. Sometimes it was a three-step drop, other times it was a five- or seven-step drop. Sometimes it was a rollout. Each repetition was timed precisely to coincide with how long Favre would have to get back to the line of scrimmage in a real game.Over and overCroner sometimes had Favre run the drill seven times to simulate a seven-play drive. Then he had him run it three times. On some days, by the time they were done, they had gone through an entire game. "We got really creative," Croner said. "When I was out here two years ago, we really put our heads together, and it's gotten better over time. The most creative things, we had some drills where I had him hooked up to a bungee and had him go with a five-step drop.  "I would drop the bungee, and I'd have him pick up an 8-pound medicine ball and throw it. Then I'd make him come back to the line. He's a little fatigued from the drop. In essence, we're trying to simulate him throwing a pass when he's tired."  Croner also had an apparatus that he could connect to both himself and to Favre, allowing Favre to get more creative with the drops.  "It allows him to rotate when he drops back," Croner said. "With a regular bungee he's dropping straight back. With this apparatus he's rolling out with me. He takes a three-step drop, looks, coverage is tight. He rolls right, coverage is still tight. He's got to backpedal and go to the left. All this time he has resistance."What does the resistance do? It forces him to focus on form and technique moving at an efficient speed." During all of his exercises, Favre wore a heart monitor so he could see his gains in cardiovascular conditioning. Getting in better condition makes his heart rate drop faster after a play and cuts the fatigue he would feel for the next play.A big focus of the program is keeping alive the spring in Favre's legs. He doesn't run as he did a decade ago, but as long as his feet are still quick, he can sidestep pressure and plant his feet to throw after sprinting out of the pocket.  "I never have him run farther than 10 yards," Croner said. "If you think about what he does in the huddle, we're working more on timing as far as his feet, being able to move efficiently. I want him to be powerful from the bottom up. It's getting Brett in a situation where he has control of his body."  Favre's sore shoulder from the end of the June practices cleared up in the final weeks before training camp, so there are not too many concerns there.Still, as he nears his 38th birthday in October, Favre knows time is running out on his career. But if he still has the mental and physical skills to be a top quarterback in the NFL, he'll not have squandered a shot at one last hurrah by neglecting his body. In a season with so many question marks, the Packers can at least be assured of that.</blockquote>

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