By PFW staff
Aug. 7, 2008

“The last 24 hours have been crazy.”

And with those words to the mostly New York media assembled in a cramped pressroom in the bowels of Cleveland Browns Stadium, the Brett Favre era with the Jets commenced. Although all the dotting of the “i’s” and crossing of the “t’s” had transpired during the past day, Favre made it clear Thursday afternoon that the process of cloaking him in the Gang Green was a long time in the making.

“(My agent) had been telling me for a while, ‘Just talk to them. Talk to Mike (Tannenbaum), talk to Eric (Mangini),” Favre said with Tannenbaum, his new general manger, sitting next to him. “I held off for so long because I knew once I talked to them, I’d be sold.”

But the day of the Jets’ preseason opener against the Browns wasn’t all a celebration of the team’s newest acquisition. It also marked the day the squad said goodbye to Chad Pennington, their quarterback since 2000, who was cut in response to the Favre acquisition.

“It was tough with Chad,” Tannenbaum said. “Even in light of all the adversity over the years, he’s been a true professional. We simply had to go through this process for the purpose of trying to improve the team, which we do every year.”

It didn’t take long for Jets Nation to embrace the future Hall of Famer, who they hope will lead the club back to the postseason. NFL Network reported that hits on the team’s official Web site today alone were similar to the number of hits for the entire month of July. All this shouldn’t be surprising, given the fact the fans had been turning out in droves to the team’s camp, chanting Favre’s name even before the deal was in place. But Favre stopped short of calling himself a savior, to put it mildly.

“I’m just one man,” Favre said. “One out of 53. … I’m a little out of shape compared to these other guys (that have been in camp).”

Lightheartedness and nostalgia peppered the brief media session, a session that was almost exclusively Favre answering questions after brief opening statements from owner Woody Johnson and Tannenbaum. For as much enthusiasm as Favre spoke with regarding his new team, he spoke glowingly about his legendary tenure in Green Bay.

“I’ll always be a Packer,” Favre said. “We had some differences, but you know what? There’s nothing like Packer fans, with or without me.”

For now, Favre’s concentration rests squarely in indoctrinating himself in his new surroundings, specifically with his new teammates.

“Right now, they don’t know me, but in time they’ll get to know me and they’ll know I want to win,” Favre said. “The only way I’ll get to know people is by being at practice and being at meetings. Chemistry is everything.”