PRO FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : Favre Going From Dumpster to Summit?

Mike Holmgren, the Green Bay Packer coach whose team will be in Dallas on Sunday for the NFC championship game against the Cowboys, said that the team came close to losing its field leader.

Last season during a loss at Philadelphia, when Brett Favre completed 24 of 45 passes with one touchdown and two interceptions, Holmgren said he was so angry with his quarterback he was ready to give up.

“I was wound up, I was angry, I was not helping him at all,” Holmgren said. “He may even use some other words to describe me.”

On the flight home, Holmgren realized that with Mark Brunell showing promise as a backup, he needed to make a decision.

He decided to stick with the superior talent of Favre.

“I said to myself, ‘OK, I’ve got to start helping this guy,’ ” he said. “So I called him in and said, ‘Look, we are either going to the top of the mountain together, or in the dumpster together, but whatever we’re doing, it’s going to be together, OK?’ ”

Backed by that sincere vote of confidence, the next week Favre completed 30 of 39 passes for three touchdowns and no interceptions against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.