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Making his only public comments this week, Favre said he will need time and space away from football before he can divine some sort of meaning from the game -- or decide what he will do next year.
"I don't know what that's like, because I've never gotten away from it," Favre said. "I don't know what that feels like. And so to me it's just another game. It may be the last. But to me, it's just another game."
As Associated Press sports writer Chris Jenkins noted, after recovering from the worst season of his career to help the Packers bounce back from last year's 4-12 finish, Favre realizes most people see no reason why he shouldn't come back next season.
Despite the improved record, Favre said the Packers still have "a long ways to go, and I don't have that much time."
Only the Oakland Raiders' offense has been worse than the Packers in the red zone this season.
"We're not playing great," Favre said. "I'm just being honest. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. We can't score a touchdown, we've won a couple of games. Go figure."
Favre isn't happy with the way he has played, either.
"I expect to be more productive, regardless, and I'm not for whatever reason," he said. "I could point to a lot of those, but the bottom line is, I'm not as productive."
Although he's only eight touchdown passes shy of breaking Dan Marino's NFL career record of 420, Favre doesn't feel he has anything left to prove.
"In some ways, I felt like, 'Yeah, why not give it another shot?' In other ways, most ways, I've done a lot in this game, have had a lot of success individually and as a team that there's nothing left really out there for me," Favre said. "And I know sometimes people say, 'Come back and go out on top,' or all that stuff. But what if you don't?"
If Favre decides he wants to come back, he's probably going to have to do something about that sore left ankle.
Jenkins went on to note the veteran signal caller is still considering having arthroscopic surgery in the offseason on the ankle, which has a buildup of bone spurs that was bothering him even before training camp. Favre had surgery on the same ankle after a similar problem in 1995.
Favre said he is reluctant to have surgery because he has gotten used to the pain and the limited range of motion. The pain, he says, is worse in practice because in games, you just "suck it up and go."
"I don't want to sound like John Wayne," Favre said. "It's not, 'Favre's walking around with knives sticking in his foot.' It's painful at times, but there's a lot of people who go through similar things."
Given his past struggles with addiction to prescription painkillers, can he even take medicine to dull the pain?
"I guess I could, if it really came down to it," Favre said. "But that wouldn't help in this case. Because when I wake up in the morning, it takes me, I don't know, a while just to move around and all that stuff. But once I get going during the day, it's tolerable. And to take them during the game, which I never did before, that wouldn't be worth it."
But Favre said the offensive struggles and painful practices haven't prevented him from having fun this year. He just has to decide whether it will still be worth it next year.
"I'm glad I came back. I really am," Favre said. "And I've said this: If I'm out there next year, throwing a touchdown pass and running down the field -- 'Man, it looks like he's having a blast' -- I know I will do that. And I will do that until they drag me off the field. But there's so much more to it than that. ..."
Also of interest. ... According to Pro Football Weekly, despite losing their offensive coordinator after less than one year of service, the Packers feel plenty capable of absorbing the loss of Jeff Jagodzinski to Boston College.
Jagodzinski was brought in from Atlanta to implement Alex Gibbs' famous zone-blocking scheme, and the team built its 2006 draft around that system. The Packers believe an adequate succession plan is in place because they have three offensive assistants with a firm O-line foundation.
In fact, the early front-runner for the offensive coordinator vacancy may very well be OL coach Joe Philbin, who has also coached the tight ends in Green Bay -- a background that has produced Andy Reid and Mike Sherman. McCarthy is also said to be fond of receivers coach Jimmy Robinson.
However, Robinson does not possess experience as a coordinator, while Philbin served in that role at various stops at the NCAA level.