Vikings placekicker Ryan Longwell saw the greatness of Brett Favre for nine seasons in Green Bay when the two were Packer teammates. What does Favre’s retirement mean to the Vikings’ fate in the NFC North?
“Well, obviously when you take a hall of famer out of the division, everybody moves up a notch,” Longwell told Sports Headliners recently. “I am very good friends with Aaron Rogers (Favre’s successor) and I know he will do a very great job over there. So it’s not like you don’t have to show up and play them.
“They’ll still have a great team and they’ll still have a good guy playing quarterback, but you know the logical equation, anytime you take a hall of famer away…there’s a void there for sure.”
Rogers, who is a California alum like Longwell, has been in the NFL three seasons. He has no career starts and played in a total of seven games. He was impressive last season replacing an injured Favre in a Packer loss to Dallas and threw his first touchdown pass.
Longwell has high expectations of Rogers. “He has very high standards for himself,” Longwell said. “He will play well. There’s no doubt.”
Was Longwell surprised that Favre, 38, retired? “You know, not really,” Longwell said. “I know he had been toying with it the last couple years on whether to step away or not. It gets to a point in this game where you’ve got nothing else to prove on the field. You feel like you’ve given it everything you possibly can, and he wants normalcy, some time with your children and your wife and your house. …I wasn’t shocked. He had a good year last year and he went out that way.”