Packers' Favre passes Marino

~ Green Bay quarterback becomes the NFL's career leader for yards passing.

ST. LOUIS -- After Brett Favre threw a short 7-yard pass to Donald Driver early in the fourth quarter, he noticed the referee waving his arms to stop the clock.

Driver caught the ball, so Favre wasn't sure what was going on.

"My first impression was, 'What happened, a penalty or something like that,'" Favre said.

There was no penalty. Referee Ron Winter stopped the game to briefly honor Favre for breaking Dan Marino's career passing yards record during Sunday's Rams game. The 7-yard pass gave Favre 61,367 yards passing in his career, a new NFL record.

"To pass a guy like Dan Marino, regardless of what record it is, I've never considered myself in the same league as Dan Marino," Favre said after his Green Bay Packers defeated the St. Louis Rams 33-14. "What a great passer, maybe the greatest passer ever. The way he did it is probably the way you'd coach another guy to do it.

"The way I've done it, I don't know if you'd coach guys to do it that way, but it's worked for me. To be mentioned in the same breath as him is quite an honor."

Favre went 19-of-30 for 227 yards against the Rams, giving him 61,405 yards passing in his 17-year career. Marino set the record in 17 seasons.

Winter shook Favre's hand and handed him the ball after the record-breaking pass. The crowd, which was almost split evenly between Rams and Packers fans, offered its support with a standing ovation.

"When I caught that ball, I laid on the ground for a while," Driver said. "I wanted to give [Favre] the ball, but I knew the official had to give it to him to make it official."

The 38-year old Favre flashed a goofy grin as he sheepishly accepted the ball from the referee. The record almost didn't happen on the play, mainly because the play was supposed to be a run.

"I didn't realize where we were on how many yards he needed," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "I'll be honest with you, it makes for a good story, but no, it was a base play in our plan and Brett did a good job executing it."

Favre moved within 1 yard of tying the record when he lofted a pass to Greg Jennings that went for a 44-yard touchdown. There wasn't a Rams defender within 10 yards when Jennings hauled in the catch for a 27-14 lead.

The Rams went on a drive that lasted more than six minutes, but ended with a Jeff Wilkins 48-yard field goal attempt that landed short. Favre admitted he knew he was close to the record when he retook the field.

"I was reminded on the sideline that I have a few yards to go to break this record, which is good and bad," he said. "I expect it's going to happen, but I want to win the ballgame and I want to focus on that and not be distracted or have the team be distracted by something like that."

If Driver had been unable to haul in the pass, Favre said he didn't plan to keep running passing plays until he broke the record.

"I don't think we really went out of our way," he said.