What Favre Craves Now Is a Super Bowl

Brett Favre figures he’ll have to dodge plenty of prescription pill bottles and empty whiskey miniatures tossed from the stands this season.

He supposes, too, that linebackers, some peppering him with taunts of “junkie,” will try to send him to the sidelines like never before.

And as a recovering substance abuser, the Green Bay quarterback understands he’ll no longer be able to take narcotics to deal with pain.

None of that seems to have diminished the considerable bravado of the NFL’s most valuable player, who has endured six operations in the last five years yet still has managed to start 68 consecutive games, including playoffs.

“You know, I’m going to beat this thing. I’m going to the Super Bowl,” Favre declared Wednesday in his first public comments since admitting an addiction to painkillers on May 14.

“There’s a lot of things I’m going to do,” Favre added. “And all I can tell people if they don’t believe me is just bet against me. Because, eventually, they’ll lose.”

Favre said he’s prepared to take anybody’s best hit.

“I don’t know how they can come any harder, I really don’t. But yeah, if they can take a shot at me, they may,” he said. “But I’m still tough ol’ Brett. Nothing has changed.”

Actually, much has changed since Favre’s seizure after routine ankle surgery in February.

Favre, who completed a 46-day stay at the Menninger Clinic, an drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Topeka, Kan., on June 28, lost 14 pounds at the clinic along with his taste for Vicodin.

He married his girlfriend of 10 years in a private ceremony in Green Bay on Sunday. Favre said his marriage should have a settling influence on his life. His hard-living, beer-drinking nights with pals Frank Winters and Mark Chmura are over.

“We’ve had a lot of fun in the past and probably will again,” Favre said. “But as they said, Coke and pizza after the game. And that’ll be fine with me.”

Favre said his stay at the Menninger Clinic showed him that he had an addictive personality and that treatment centers aren’t vacation spots for the stars.

“This doesn’t make you a bad person, to be addicted to anything,” Favre said. “When I was growing up I thought an alcoholic was just a bum on the street. I thought someone who was addicted to drugs was just some bum who was a loser. It’s totally the opposite.”

Although Favre adamantly denied being a problem drinker, he did say: “I realize that while I am in this program I must abstain from alcohol.”

Coach Mike Holmgren said he was still trying to get details of Favre’s aftercare program from the league, but said Favre doesn’t face any sort of suspension. He also said the team’s stringent controls on pain pills recently passed a check by the NFL.