The Sports Xchange

Former Green Bay Packers legendary quarterback Brett Favre couldn’t ask for a better setting in a return to Lambeau Field to retire his No. 4 jersey on Thanksgiving night game against the Chicago Bears.

Favre owned the division-rival Bears as a member of the Packers and later with the Minnesota Vikings. He went 23-13 in 36 career games against Chicago, throwing for 8,606 yards and 60 touchdowns

“I felt like that was the right fit,” Favre said Wednesday during a conference call with reporters to promote his flag football game this summer. “The tradition and the history between the Bears (and Packers) dates back long before any of us were around. Just some fun games and rivalries over the years, and so being a Thanksgiving game, just the magnitude of that in itself is huge. And to me, it’s just the right fit, the right choice.”

Favre will be inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame on July 18. The Packers Hall of Fame, which is independent of the team, announced plans in January to hold Favre’s induction ceremony in the stadium’s atrium area.

Favre’s No. 4 also will be retired on the night of his induction, but all 1,600 tickets sold out to sponsors and supporters without any availability to the general public.

Fan access to Favre’s induction also sold out last week, when approximately 66,000 tickets to watch the ceremony on the Lambeau Field video boards were purchased within hours of their release.

“To say I was excited last week to find out so many tickets were sold to Lambeau so quickly, if there were any questions prior to that about how the fans felt about my return, I think those questions have been answered,” Favre said.

Favre’s last appearance at Lambeau Field came Oct. 24, 2010, when his second trip into Green Bay as a visiting player with the rival Vikings resulted in a 28-24 Packers win. Favre outdueled his successor, Aaron Rodgers, and the Packers 38-26 at Lambeau in 2009, his first year with Minnesota after he played one season with the New York Jets on the heels of his infamous post-retirement trade from Green Bay on Aug. 7, 2008.

Favre was hoping to actually play one more game at Lambeau this year, but the Packers passed on the chance to host his flag football game — called Brett Favre’s Legends Game — on July 19, the day after his induction into the Packers Hall of Fame.

The Packers said that a June 20 Kenny Chesney concert at Lambeau Field and wanting to keep the field in playing condition for the 2015 season caused them to pass on the flag football game.

The game instead will be held at the University of Wisconsin’s Camp Randall Stadium.

“I’d be lying if I said it wouldn’t have been great to play at Lambeau, for obvious reasons,” Favre said. “But it is what it is. They have to get ready for the season, and I guess it’s relatively close to that, and they have some other events prior to our flag football game. This is not Lambeau, but it’s pretty darn close. What a great place to play.”

Details of the flag football game were announced Wednesday.

Favre and some of his former teammates — including Mark Chmura, Frank Winters, Javon Walker and Andre Rison — will play against an all-star team quarterbacked by Donovan McNabb and include Herman Moore, Ron Dayne, Roger Craig among others.