Favre Passes on Scheduled Ankle Surgery
Wednesday, January 3, 2007; 5:58 PM
GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Now that the Green Bay Packers' season is over, Brett Favre is skipping town. He's also skipping the ankle surgery he was supposed to have this week.
Packers coach Mike McCarthy said on Wednesday that Favre has not gone through with the arthroscopic surgery on his left ankle that originally was scheduled for Monday. And McCarthy seems to think that the three-time MVP might put the procedure off for yet another year.
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"I don't know," McCarthy said. "I thought he was going to get it done Monday, but I guess this is year seven in a row that he has not gone through with it."
The decision to skip surgery may have no bearing on the broader question of whether Favre will return to play for the Packers next season, as the quarterback has been playing with a buildup of bone spurs in his ankle for years.
"It's up to him," McCarthy said. "He's played with it now for seven years, so it's something that really is a nuisance more than anything."
Favre said last week that he is reluctant to have surgery because he has gotten used to the pain and the limited range of motion in his ankle. The pain, he said, 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."
McCarthy said on Wednesday that he wasn't certain whether Favre was still in Green Bay, but said he "may have" left town on Wednesday.
McCarthy said he and Packers general manager Ted Thompson met with Favre before he left to tell him that the team wants him back next season.
"He knows exactly how the organization feels about him," McCarthy said.
McCarthy said the team hasn't made any promises to target specific free agents in an attempt to convince him to return.
"I'm not going to try to dangle carrots for Brett Favre to come back, and frankly, it's bigger than that," McCarthy said. "It's a decision that he has to make, and all the facts are on the table. I don't think you can sit here and worry about the unknowns, ideas and thoughts. And like I said, I'm not going to speak for him but I don't think that will factor into his decision."
McCarthy said the team did not give Favre any sort of deadline for his decision.
