Plenty of Favre to go around

First there was the bombshell news announcement, followed by around-the-clock reaction and reflection, followed by Thursday’s emotional news conference in Green Bay, Wis.

Brett Favre this week has carried the national sports media as far as he can possibly take them . . . or has he?

Today, the Green Bay Packers are facing a hard fall and a colder-than-usual winter -- a.k.a.: Season One of the Aaron Rodgers era. As for spring and summer, well, the media clearly have some tough days ahead.

In recent years, Favre meant as much to the media during the off-season as he meant to Green Bay during the regular season. The is-he-or-isn’t he? retirement speculation served as a bottomless stockpile of kindling for talk-show and Internet fires desperate for conversation topics once the NFL draft had been driven into the ground.

This time last year, a popular theme -- one echoed by many within Packer Nation -- was that it was time for Favre to step aside and make way for Rodgers. Twelve months later, that sentiment has been stashed into the cautionary file labeled “Be Careful What You Wish For.” This week, the media have staged a massive Favre Talk extravaganza, bringing together all the traditional themes, and mixing in some new ones.

Is Favre the greatest quarterback of all time? Is he the greatest Packer of all time? Should he have won more championships? Did he throw too many interceptions? Is he really retiring, for good, case closed? Or did anything about his body language Thursday leave the door cracked open? Does he really want to end his career with that lousy interception in the NFC title game against the New York Giants?

And if this is really the end of his playing career, what’s next for Favre? How about a move to the broadcast booth?

What network would turn down a free-agent signing like that?

Actually, Favre as a television commentator is a concept far too limited in scope.

How about Favre as a television network?

This week, the NFL Network schedule has read like a game plan for Favre TV. The network will air 30 hours of Favre-related content this week, including these features on Saturday: 10 a.m. -- “In Their Own Words: Brett Favre.” 11 a.m. -- “Brett Favre 4-Ever.” A one-hour documentary about the Packers great narrated by Billy Bob Thornton, not the name of any proposed 24-hour Favre channel. Though it has potential.

Noon -- “America’s Game: 1996 Green Bay Packers.” 1 p.m. -- “NFL Classics: Packers vs. Raiders -- Dec. 22, 2003.” Favre’s 399-yard, four-touchdown passing performance on the night after his father’s death.

3:30 p.m. -- “NFL Films Presents: Favre’s Backups.” Interviews with the men who carried the clipboard while Favre made football history. Or, to put it another way: Idle Conversation. Already aired this week -- “State of the Franchise: Green Bay Packers.” In a word: Anxious.

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Also available for viewing in the days ahead:

North Carolina at Duke (Saturday, 6 p.m., ESPN): The No. 1 team in the nation against No. 6 for the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season championship. That’s one way to look at this game. Another: Including ACC and NCAA tournaments, only the first of three possible meetings between these two in the month ahead.

Clippers at Lakers (tonight, 7:30, FSN West and Channel 5) and Sacramento Kings at Lakers (Sunday, 6:30 p.m., FSN West): Not much to choose from between the Lakers’ next two opponents, judging from the Clippers’ double-overtime victory over the Kings on Wednesday. That result enabled the Clippers to end a six-game losing streak and kept the Kings winless against Pacific Division teams. Once, not that long ago, these were big rivalry games for the Lakers. Now, they are tune-ups for Tuesday’s game against the Toronto Raptors.

Montreal Canadiens at Kings (Saturday, 1 p.m., Prime): Whatever happened to the 1993 Stanley Cup finalists? The Kings would prefer you didn’t ask.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Kobalt Tools 500 (Sunday, 10:30 a.m., Channel 11): In NASCAR, they dock your team points if the body of your vehicle has been illegally doctored. Teams that used to employ Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are lucky baseball doesn’t do that.

Pete Sampras versus Roger Federer (Monday, 4:30 p.m., Tennis Channel): Tennis exhibition match that sounds better suited for a video game than Madison Square Garden in 2008. Federer, 26, and Sampras, 36, played three times in Asia in November and Sampras actually won the third match. That’s exhibition tennis for you.

Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel (Monday, 10 p.m., HBO): Profiles on Tennessee men’s basketball Coach Bruce Pearl, Rutgers women’s basketball Coach C. Vivian Stringer, former big-league outfielder-turned-stock consultant Lenny Dykstra and ex-Dodgers relief pitcher Mike Marshall, still a maverick frustrated that baseball remains resistant to his unorthodox ideas about training techniques for pitchers.

“I never found Major League Baseball to be the intellectual capital of the world, if you understand,” Marshall says during the program. “I loved the guys I played with. I thought the coaches were nice guys, great guys, who didn’t know a damn thing about what they were doing.”

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christine.daniels@latimes.com