ESPN NFC North Blog

Posted by ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert

Favre

MILWAUKEE -- The Favre-as-deity sect is on the ropes.

One of the most unique aspects of Brett Favre's relationship with the Green Bay Packers has always been the reverential treatment he has received from the team's fans. A large group of Packer fans didn't just root for him, they worshipped him as if he lived on Mt. Olympus. They wore "Brett Favre for president T-shirts," cried when they saw him in person and overlooked any flaw -- big or small.

Not everyone felt that way, of course, but there wasn't much vocal opposition as long as Favre was playing well and taking the Packers to the playoffs.

Favre might have been counting on his pull with the fan base as he attempted to convince Packers management to bring him back out of retirement. What he has found, however, is that his power base is in a difficult-to-defend position while fans of the team more generally are speaking out against him for the first time in a long while.

That's part of the reason why only 30 people showed up for a pro-Favre rally in Wisconsin's largest city Monday. And in a poll of Green Bay citizens taken over the weekend by a Chicago company, only about a third of the nearly 10,000 respondents said they wanted Favre to return as the team's starting quarterback.

Scott of Evanston, Ill., e-mailed ESPN.com and encapsulated the feelings of Packer fans who don't worship at Favre's altar.

"Yes, Packer fans like Favre and they'd welcome him back," Scott wrote. "But fans aren't necessarily stupid, and they don't all view this as being [general manager] Ted Thompson's fault."

That perception has made its way down to Favre, who spoke about his place among Packer fans during an interview Monday with Fox News Channel.

"I understand how the public is," Favre said. "It's kind of like, 'make up your mind already.' But, there's no way that I could expect them to understand what I'm going through."

So the people left squarely in his corner are those who trust and root for him implicitly. Erick Rolfson, one of the organizers of Monday's rally, has given voice to those people. As he said several times Monday to ESPN.com: "He is Brett Favre. He deserves to come back."

Rolfson added: "You can only speculate that the organization has moved on. There are two sides to every story. I don't think this is over yet."

Incredibly, Rolfson seems to be falling into a minority of thought. From the outside, it would seem that bringing Favre back to Green Bay would require a tremendous degree of compromise on both sides. The damage may be permanent. Only blind faith can obscure that.