GREEN BAY - Before the 2005 season, Brett Favre recalled a cautionary tale he'd seen firsthand as a teenager. Three years later, that memory seems more relevant than ever.

As a young Favre sat in the Louisiana Superdome stands for the first time, he saw a disappointing image that would stay with him: Kenny Stabler, who'd led the Oakland Raiders to the Super Bowl XI title, winding down his career with the New Orleans Saints, who would go 19-22 in Stabler's sad three seasons in the Big not-so-Easy.

''I was a young kid, and I remember going to a Saints game - 1983, maybe. And Kenny Stabler was the quarterback,'' the retired-for-now Green Bay Packers quarterback said in an interview during the 2005 training camp. ''My dad and my uncle and my older brother, Scott, we went. And I couldn't wait to see Kenny Stabler come out of the locker room.

''He came out and his hair was all long, his uniform was hanging off of him - his better days were behind him. I just remember, to the fans, he was just the savior. Boy, once they got him in New Orleans, he was going to turn them around. Well, that didn't happen.

''I'd hate to go somewhere else and have everybody say, 'Hey, we've got Brett.' I mean, too many great things have happened for me here. And if it ends tomorrow, it ends tomorrow. But I don't need to go somewhere else and prove anything.''

The interview was part of a story on how Favre would know when to call it quits. As a number of other legendary quarterbacks - John Elway, Troy Aikman, Dan Marino and Steve Young - talked about what a hard decision Favre would eventually face, Favre himself wondered whether he'd know when the time was right.

''Everyone is an expert, and we've all critiqued other players,'' Favre said then. '' 'Joe Montana, he played one year too long.' Or, 'Dan Marino should have left here.' Everyone was saying that about Elway, and then he wins a Super Bowl, and it's, 'I told you he should have stayed.' So you don't know. Because you are competitive and you still think you can play.

''There's no doubt Marino and Steve Young and those guys are extremely competitive, and there's just no substitute for that. Once you walk away, what do you do to make up for those Sundays? There's nothing you can do. I mean, I can only guess and wonder what that will be like. I'm sure it'll be difficult when that time comes, but I'm going to try to enjoy as much as I can before that.

''I really do believe I still can play as well as anyone in this league. And I hope if that changes, I will be the first to see that, and then I can walk away gracefully. And hold my head high.

''I don't see myself like a Kenny Stabler. No offense to him, he had a great career and he was a great quarterback. But I see myself as a Packer, and that's it. I don't ever see myself in another uniform. And when it's my time, I hope I know.''

And now ...

So how has it come to this?

How did Favre go from saying what he did through tears on March 6 - ''I don't think I've got anything left to give,'' ''I know I can play, but I don't think I want to,'' and ''it's been a great career for me, and it's over. As hard as that is for me to say, it's over'' - to, according to sources, contacting the Packers a few weeks ago to tell them he has the ''itch'' to play again?

What has changed that has Favre's brother Scott - who was with him in the Superdome stands that day watching a washed-up Stabler - saying there's a 50-50 chance Favre will play again, even if it's in another uniform?

How did he go from vowing to never be Kenny Stabler to possibly being Joe Montana with the Kansas City Chiefs, or Joe Namath with the Los Angeles Rams, or Johnny Unitas with the San Diego Chargers?

Through interviews over the past two days with league sources and sources close to the team and Favre, a picture emerges of a player who likely never would have retired in the first place - or would've reversed his decision before now had the Packers asked him to. Now, the team and the legend find themselves facing a potentially painfully awkward parting of the ways.

In the aftermath of the Packers' Jan. 20 NFC Championship Game loss to the eventual Super Bowl XLI-champion New York Giants at Lambeau Field, Favre was his typically uncertain self about returning for another NFL season. As he had in previous years, Favre told coach Mike McCarthy and general manager Ted Thompson that he was thinking about retiring.

But unlike past years, when the Packers gave Favre more time to think or actively tried to talk him out of hanging 'em up, the Packers simply accepted his decision when he said he was retiring on March 4.

That hadn't been the case after the 2004 season, when the Packers tried to set March 1 as a deadline for Favre to decide if he wanted to come back. When he told then-coach Mike Sherman that if he had to make the decision that day, he would opt to retire, Sherman told him to forget the deadline and think about it some more. Just 10 days later, Favre chose to return.

This time, though, there was no come-back sales pitch, and on the day the news broke, both Scott Favre and Favre's agent, James ''Bus'' Cook, expressed that Favre might have returned for another season had the Packers pursued free-agent wide receiver Randy Moss or done more to convince Favre to come back.

''I don't think anyone forced him to make that decision. But I don't know that anyone tried to talk him out of it,'' Cook said that day. Scott Favre said Thompson should have done more to ''let Brett know how much they needed him.''

At his news conference two days later, Favre denied that Cook and his brother's comments were correct. But Wednesday, Favre's mother, Bonita, told Milwaukee television station WITI-TV that her son had gotten the feeling from the Packers that they didn't want him back - and that this year wasn't the first time.

''He's felt like that for the last couple of years, that the Packers didn't really want him back,'' Bonita Favre said. ''But nothing's been said. It's just been bits and pieces throughout the last couple of years, things that would come up, and it just didn't seem like they went out of their way to keep him. It was kind of like, 'You're done.' ''

''A different direction''

Indeed, Favre said so himself a few days before the 2005 season finale. With heir apparent Aaron Rodgers on the roster, ''maybe (the Packers) want to go in a different direction, and they don't know how to tell Brett Favre, 'We want to go in a different direction,' '' Favre said. ''We're 3-12, and from a business standpoint, wouldn't you think they're sitting there going, 'OK, if we're running a risk of this happening again next year, we might as well save the money and put that money elsewhere, for the future?' ''

Favre came back in '06, completing 343 of 613 passes (56.0 percent) for 3,885 yards, 18 touchdowns and 18 interceptions for a passer rating of 72.7 as the Packers went 8-8. But that maybe-they-don't-want-me theme came back several times over the next two years.

For instance, late in the 2006 season, while talking about whether he'd want to play another year, he brought up the possibility again, saying, ''You know, the thing I think we're not thinking about is what direction this team wants to go in,'' Favre said. ''I mean, that sounds crazy and I've said that in the past, but who knows? They may say, 'Brett, it's been great, but we may want to go in a different direction.' I have no idea.''

The Green Bay Press-Gazette reported Wednesday night that Thompson visited Favre at his Hattiesburg, Miss., home in May and, according to sources, Favre would have un-retired at that point had Thompson asked him to come back. But Thompson never broached the subject with him.

That led to Favre's call to McCarthy a couple weeks ago, when Favre expressed his interest in returning. One league source said Cook tried contacting Thompson repeatedly during the same time frame but Thompson didn't respond.

Sudden decline?

Favre, who turns 39 on Oct. 10, never did file his retirement paperwork with the NFL Players Association, and his desire to play again would create all kinds of headaches for the Packers, who placed him on the reserve/retired list on April 25 and who appear wholly committed to Rodgers as their new starter.

The team hasn't wavered despite several unretirement musings from Favre (to David Letterman, the Biloxi paper and ESPN), instead drafting two quarterbacks as backups to Rodgers and wasting no time scheduling the retirement of Favre's jersey, choosing the regular-season opener on Sept. 8 against the Minnesota Vikings for the ceremony.

Despite a renaissance season last year - Favre completed a career-best 66.5 percent of his regular-season passes for 4,155 yards, 28 touchdowns and 15 interceptions for a 95.7 passer rating, his best since 1995 - multiple sources said Thursday that the team isn't convinced that the NFL's career leader in victories (160), yards (61,655), touchdown passes (442) and interceptions (288) won't suffer a precipitous drop-off if he returns.

As troubling as the prospect of Favre going elsewhere and playing well might be to the Packers, bringing him back at the expense of Rodgers' development, only to see Favre falter, would be equally scary.

After all, it's happened before, to other great players. In 2003, a few days before an early season game against the Arizona Cardinals, who'd signed ex-Dallas Cowboys star running back Emmitt Smith, Favre talked openly about how he'd never do what the shell-of-his-former-self Smith was doing.

Another cautionary tale, just like Stabler was some 20 years earlier to Favre.

''I'm not saying leaving (the game) would be easy. But you don't want to still feel like you can play and in reality you ain't worth a (expletive) and then after the fact you realize, 'I should have left.' So yeah, that's a concern for me,'' Favre said then. ''I know this: I won't go and play somewhere else. It ain't worth it to me to start over, to try to start another career for a year or two. I don't want to do that. Too much has happened here. Emmitt Smith is a Cowboy to me and he's always going to be. That won't happen with me.''