Favre says he’ll be back with Packers

Brett Favre will return for his 17th NFL season, undeterred by his injuries and hoping to lead the Green Bay Packers back to the playoffs.

“I am so excited about coming back,” the 37-year-old quarterback said Friday on the website of the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss. “We have a good nucleus of young players. We were 8-8 last year, and that’s encouraging.”

Packers General Manager Ted Thompson confirmed Favre’s plans.

“He didn’t tell me exactly why he wanted to come back, except in our conversations prior to the end of the season,” he said. “He was having a good time, he liked the team.”

Favre seemed to echo those comments to the newspaper in his home state.

“My offensive line looks good, the defense played good down the stretch,” he said. “I’m excited about playing for a talented young football team.”

Thompson said he was in a meeting Friday morning preparing for the NFL draft when Favre called.

“He said something like, ‘I think I’m going to give it another shot,’ ” said Thompson, who wasn’t given a commitment beyond 2007.

Favre has started 257 consecutive games including the playoffs, an NFL record for quarterbacks. He broke Dan Marino’s record for career completions (4,967) in 2006 and is closing in on Marino’s marks for career touchdown passes (420) and yards passing (61,361). Favre has 414 career touchdown passes and 57,500 yards passing.

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Five months after he was shot by an off-duty policeman, San Diego Chargers linebacker Steve Foley believes his career may be over.

“I don’t want to count anything out or rule myself out, but it’s a reality that I won’t be able to play again, period,” Foley said by phone Friday from Miami, where he was visiting friends during Super Bowl week.

Foley declined to comment on the events of Sept. 3, when he was shot three times by off-duty Coronado policeman Aaron Mansker near his home in the San Diego suburb of Poway. Foley wouldn’t comment on the civil suit he filed Wednesday against Mansker and the city of Coronado or on the drunk driving charges against him.

Eight days before the season opener, Mansker shot Foley after following him on the freeway to Foley’s home.

Mansker was a rookie officer who was off-duty at the time and suspected the football player of drunk driving.

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Taking a different tact than his predecessor, Atlanta Falcons Coach Bobby Petrino will let quarterback Michael Vick take a more active role in running the offense. That includes allowing him to call audibles.

Under former coach Jim Mora, Vick basically had to go with whatever play was called by offensive coordinator Greg Knapp.

Vick’s only options were changing the protection scheme and calling which side of the field to run the play.

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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed David Boston to a contract, giving the former Pro Bowl receiver another chance to come back after sitting out most of the last three seasons because of knee injuries.