Favre is a Jet

The Brett Favre era in Green Bay is now officially over. But Favre's legendary career is not.

The month-long saga has finally come to an end, with the Packers agreeing to trade their future Hall-of-Fame quarterback to the New York Jets, FoxSports.com reported late Wednesday night.

The compensation was not immediately known, but it is believed to be a single draft pick that increases in value depending upon how the Jets perform during the 2008 season. As a result of this, FoxSports.com says the Jets will likely release a quarterback. Signs have been pointing to

Chad Pennington as the likely player released because the team will need to free up cap room to fit Favre's contract under the salary cap.

The Jets were much more aggressive than the Tampa Bay Bucs in their pursuit of Favre all along. The bigger issue was getting Favre on the same page as the Packers front office as far as the Jets were concerned.

Finally, late Tuesday, Favre talked to Jets head coach Eric Mangini and others in the organization for the first time as they tried to convince Favre he would be a good fit in New York.

The Packers had been hopeful of getting a deal done with the Jets for two reasons. One, it was the better offer on the table as far as the quality of the compensation. Two, it sends Favre out of the conference, meaning a meeting in the playoffs is an extreme longshot.

This trade caps a roller-coaster offseason ride for Favre — the 38-year-old owner of nearly every meaningful passing record in NFL history — and the franchise that became synonymous with his legendary No. 4 jersey. Favre's on-again, off-again retirement has monopolized headlines for the past two months as news began trickling to the media that the legendary passer was second-guessing both his retirement decision and his status in Green Bay.

The sports world first bid farewell to Favre in a nationally-televised press conference on March 6. At the time, the decision to retire seemed somewhat of a surprise considering the resounding success of Favre's 2007 campaign — 4,155 passing yards, 28 touchdown passes, plus career-highs in both completion percentage (66.5 percent) and yards per attempt (7.8). In other words, one of pro football's best quarterbacks ever to play was his most accurate while throwing more deep balls than ever before ... in his 17th NFL season.

Most importantly, the Packers were coming off a revival of a season in which they went 13-3 record en route to winning the NFC North division title. Better yet, after the New York Giants shocked the NFC's No. 1 seeded Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs to give the Packers home-field advantage in the NFC Championship, the stars seemed to be aligning toward a perfect Hollywood storyline — the legend going to the Super Bowl in his final year. It was going to be perfect — after two straight years of subpar results and retirement waffling by No. 4, Favre was poised to have the chance to leave football on top like John Elway once did with Denver.