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Packers’ Web site says Favre retires, retracts it

Associated Press
Vail, CO Colorado
** FILE ** Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre pumps his fist in celebration of a complete pass during the first quarter of an NFL football game against the St. Louis Rams in this Dec. 16, 2007 file photo, in St. Louis. New Packers president Mark Murphy believes Favre will return to Green Bay for another run at the Super Bowl. "My guess is that he's going to come back," Murphy said Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008, at a Milwaukee Press Club luncheon. "The team has gotten better around him and is in a position to really do great things next year." (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, file)
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Green Bay Packers’ team Web site says Brett Favre retires, quickly pulls it down

2020

AP Photo NY166



GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) ” Brett Favre’s retirement lore is becoming almost as popular as his on-the-field heroics.

On Thursday, the Packers’ official Web site briefly reported he was retiring, but the page under the breaking news section was live for only a few minutes.

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“There’s nothing to it,” Packers spokesman Jeff Blumb told The Associated Press. “People who handle our Web site had set up a dummy page in the event he was to retire. They were asked to take down that page.”

A call by The AP to Favre’s agent, Bus Cook, was not immediately returned.

Cook told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Favre, in his annual rite of winter, had not made up his mind whether to return for his 18th season. The three-time MVP’s decision one way or the other is not expected this week.

Several Internet sites have screen captures of the page that show Favre’s picture with a caption saying, “Packers quarterback Brett Favre has announced that he will retire.”

The page also had a blank area to enter the story’s text and details on general manager Ted Thompson holding a “brief press conference” to talk about the announcement.

This is not the first time a team put major news on its Web site, and then promptly removed it.

On Oct. 23, 1999, the news that Don Baylor had been hired as Cubs manager appeared on the team’s Web site, and was subsequently removed within hours. The team denied the story, but on Nov. 1, Baylor was hired.


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