GREEN BAY -- Brett Favre is back with the Packers. Determining how long he stays -- and what role he will fill if he does -- is next on coach Mike McCarthy's to-do list.
The Packers and their iconic quarterback are back together, thanks to the organization's about-face decision on Sunday to give Favre a chance to regain his starting job after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced he would reinstate Favre.
Despite saying everything to the contrary for the last six weeks, the Packers are now opening up the position for competition between Rodgers and Favre, a source close to the situation said before the Family Night Scrimmage Sunday night at Lambeau Field.
McCarthy said afterward that Favre would come to Lambeau Field at noon today, take a physical and a conditioning test, and then sit down one-on-one with the coach.
"From that conversation, there will be information that I will use to make a decision on how we move forward with the quarterback decision," said McCarthy, who will relay the results of his talk with Favre to the team at a 7:30 p.m. team meeting, then to the media at an 8:15 p.m. news conference.
"I'll talk to everybody here tomorrow night and I'll let you know the direction that we're going. As of now, there has been no decision made. It's important for Brett and I to sit down face to face and have that discussion tomorrow.
"There have been no promises. Once again, there has been indecision throughout Brett's path back here to Green Bay. It's important for us to sit down and communicate."
The Favre-Rodgers competition may never occur. An NFL source said the Packers approached NFC North division rival Minnesota late last week to let the Vikings know that they no longer were dismissing out of hand the idea of trading Favre within the division. The source also said Favre has expressed a strong interest in playing for the Vikings.
The Packers, who levied a tampering charge against the Vikings last month that the league office investigated but has yet to rule upon, had been adamant about not trading Favre within their division.
At the time of the conversation, which the source said was "very preliminary" and did not include any talk of trade compensation, the Packers thought Favre was going to take the 10-year, $20 million marketing and licensing offer that was on the table if he remained retired.
Instead, Favre, who arrived in Green Bay Sunday evening, will officially be reinstated at noon. The Packers, in turn, will have to put him on the 80-man roster and must make a corresponding move to make room for him by 3 p.m.
"This was not planned, but once again you have to have a plan that has the ability to adjust. We're doing that," said McCarthy, who also confirmed that the Packers hired former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who addressed the team as a guest speaker on Thursday, for one month to help them handle the public relations nightmare the situation has created.
"I'm not up here trying to win a popularity contest. Every decision we will make will be in the best interest of our football team."
Said Rodgers: "I'm going to give it my best shot. Right now, they say I'm the starter. If they're going to open it up to competition, then I get a chance to compete and I'm going to do the best I can and let Coach make the decision.
"I'm a competitor. I'm going to compete. This isn't going to be easy. It's going to be a dogfight. I know if they do open it up to competition, not a lot of people give me a chance, but I believe in myself."
The news of the Favre-Rodgers competition broke shortly after the Packers cut off negotiations with Favre and his agent, James "Bus" Cook, on the marketing and licensing deal the sides had been discussing after Favre decided to fly from his home in Hattiesburg, Miss., to Green Bay and report to training camp following Goodell's decision.
The team also released a statement from president and CEO Mark Murphy, who had spent the previous five days engaged in talks with Cook on marketing deal.
"Sixteen years after Brett Favre came to the Packers, he is returning for a seventeenth season. He has had a great career with our organization and although we built this year around the assumption that Brett meant what he said about retiring, Brett is coming back. We will welcome him back and turn this situation to our advantage.
"Frankly, Brett's change of mind put us in a very difficult spot. We now will revise many actions and assumptions about our long-term future, all predicated on Brett's decision last March to retire. As a result of his decision, we invested considerably in a new and different future without Brett and we were obviously moving in that direction. That's why this wasn't easy. Having crossed the Rubicon once when Brett decided to retire, it's very difficult to reorient our plans and cross it again in the opposite direction -- but we'll put this to our advantage.
"Brett will be in camp tomorrow. Although there has been uncertainty regarding Brett's return, Ted Thompson and Coach McCarthy had previously discussed this and have had a plan in place. Coach McCarthy will talk to the team and the quarterbacks about the plan moving forward, and after he has done that, we will share it publicly.
"No matter what, I look forward to another successful season for the Packers and our fans. This has been a tough situation, but the Packers will make the most of it."
Favre's private plane, a Cessna Citation, landed at 7:04 p.m. at Austin Straubel airport, where a throng of 100 or so adoring fans welcomed him, Cook and Favre's wife, Deanna. Favre waved several times while loading his baggage into the back of a burgundy Cadillac Escalade before driving off. The contingent then headed to Favre's home in Ashwaubenon, just a few miles from Lambeau Field, where the scrimmage finally got underway just before 8 p.m. He was later spotted in a private box watching the practice.
Rodgers, who has maintained a surprisingly even keel throughout the controversy, did so again after the scrimmage.
"(My) mentor and I get to compete. I guess that's what's going to happen," Rodgers said after completing only 7 of 20 passes for 84 yards and one interception in the scrimmage. "If that's what happens, then I'm going to give it my best shot."
Asked if he feels betrayed by the organization after being told all off-season -- even after Favre began his comeback -- that he would be the unquestioned starter, Rodgers replied, "Not at all. I think the organization has been put in a tough spot. That's a difficult situation when Brett decided to change his mind. But, we're going to welcome him back and move forward as a team.
"I'm a football player, and I've got to focus on things that I can control and that's playing football. With him coming back, and if they do open it up to a competition, then I get a chance to compete. That's all I can ask for."
Asked if he's been told he has to win the job now, Rodgers replied, "I have not been told that."
The start of Sunday night's made-for-TV scrimmage was delayed by an hour by thunderstorms, and when the live portion of the event finally began shortly after 8 o'clock, public-address announcer Bill Jartz announced Rodgers at quarterback to mostly cheers but a smattering of boos. That minority booed again several times when the Rodgers-led No. 1 offense failed to score in the 2-minute drill.
"They're booing all of us, probably me mostly. So, yeah, I take it personally," Rodgers said. "But I'll tell you this: it's not the first time I've been booed, and it probably won't be the last time."
Jason Wilde, a Milwaukee native who graduated from Greendale Martin Luther High School and the University of Wisconsin, is a two-time Associated Press Sports Editors award winner and a Wisconsin Newspaper Association award winner.
His daily coverage can be found on the State Journal's Web site and through his Packers blog on madison.com.