“The fans in Green Bay were awesome. Green Bay has been awesome to me and my family. They have good players and good coaches, but it’s time to move on.”

And with that, Brett Favre’s career with the Packers has come to an end.

After spending a few days in northeast Wisconsin chatting about this ‘n’ that with team officials, Brett has flown back home to Hattiesburg, MS, leaving Austin Straubel International Airport for perhaps the very last time.

The GREEN BAY PRESS GAZETTE passes along Favre’s final thoughts on the whole sordid situation with the Packers:

“On their part, they obviously had taken the stance that at some point in the offseason that they were going to move on, and that’s OK. But they sort of changed that stance a little bit when I got back up there. We sort of figured that would happen. Otherwise, they would have released me. They didn’t want to do that, which I don’t blame them, but, you know, I really didn’t see, as much history as I’ve had in Green Bay and success, I really didn’t see the positives that could come out of it. I felt like it was always going to be a distraction. It’s best that they had a clear-cut path that they were going to go on. And if I’m going to play, try to play elsewhere, and see what happens.”

Brett’s agent James “Bus” Cook was a little less diplomatic, saying that the Packers just didn’t want his client around:

“Bottom line, he wanted to go back,” Cook said. “He was committed to play football. Was he committed to playing with the Packers? He was more committed to playing for the Packers than they were committed to having him. There was zero commitment to having him back. They didn’t want him back.”

As of this writing, the Packers have not yet found a franchise to box off Brett to. Talks have been ongoing with the Buccaneers (as mentioned earlier), while the Jets also appear to be back in the picture. And who knows - the Vikings may yet somehow be victorious in the Favre sweepstakes.

Now maybe Aaron Rodgers can get back to practicing in peace.