Packers-Vikings rivalry approaches a peak tonight

~ EX-Green Bay star Brett Favre faces his former team for the first time

MINNEAPOLIS -- These Midwestern states of Wisconsin and Minnesota have much in common, including an intense dislike of each other's football teams.

It's more polite than the East Coast, but this is a true story: An angry Vikings fan was once arrested for trying to light a Packers backer on fire.

So when Brett Favre called off retirement for a second straight summer and did the unthinkable by signing with the Vikings, that loathing toward the NFL's all-time leading passer formally shifted east to Wisconsin.

Tonight, Minnesota will host Green Bay at the Metrodome in Favre's first game against his old team.

The still-strange sight of the soon-to-be-40-year-old quarterback in purple surely will spur passion to new heights.

"I want the Packers to kill him because they're the Vikings," said a smiling Mitch Mikkelson, a Beloit, Wis., man who wore a Packers cap while eating at a sports bar in Eau Claire, Wis., this week. "It's just, he's a Viking. Since I've been a kid, that's the team that you hate. Minnesota. Yuck."

Mikkelson had lunch at Milwaukee Burger Co., whose owners plan to burn a Favre jersey in a parking lot barrel during halftime of the game as part of a fire safety fundraiser encouraging Packers fans to rid their unwanted Favre memorabilia for a cause.

Julie Kolk, the bar's manager, said she didn't expect too many contributions becasue of the cost of the items. But the place is expected to be packed for the game, with fans of each team in attendance. Eau Claire is in western Wisconsin, less than two hours from the Metrodome.

Because they share a border, there are thousands of people in each state who either grew up on the other side or even commute to work across the Mississippi or St. Croix rivers. Minnesota was Packers-friendly territory before 1961, when the Vikings joined the NFL, and the rooting roots in each region run deep. Childen taunt each other at school, families feud each fall, and office break rooms are breeding grounds for heated my-team-is-better-than-yours debates.

Greg LeVevre grew up not far from Lambeau Field. He said he still respects Favre, but can't stand the sight of him wearing No. 4 for the enemy team.

What's it like?

"Seeing your ex-girlfriend dating an ugly guy," LeVevre said. "It is Packers first. It always is. The team won't go away."

Baby boomers remember plenty of dominant Packers teams, but for the under-40 crowd Favre is the face of the storied franchise's mid-1990s resurrection. His risky style has been nerve-racking for fans, but his success, personality, loyalty and durability helped him become an icon in Green Bay. It's a small, down-to-earth community, not all that different than Favre's Mississippi home save for colder weather and the absence of southern accents.

That's why, despite the traitorous view most Packers fans have of Favre right now, there probably won't be all that many of his green-and-gold jerseys burned in effigy.

Steve Brudos, a native of La Crosse, Wis., now living in the Twin Cities, plans to wear his Favre jersey while he watches the game.

"The Packer one, that is," Brudos said, in case there was any doubt.

With Aaron Rodgers emerging as a potential star quarterback, Packers fans don't feel as badly that the team decided to move on last summer. There's more sympathy toward general manager Ted Thompson now, and fewer Packers fans who feel he made a mistake.

Still, the loyalty to Favre runs deep. There are plenty of fans who will never forgive Thompson for refusing to let Favre come back once he changed his mind.

"I'm still a Favre fan. I always will be," Brudos said. "It's hard to understand for Packer fans why he would've gone to the Vikings. But I'm still hoping he gets 300 yards and three touchdowns."

That would certainly help the fantasy team, wouldn't it?

"I've got him as a backup, just for nostalgic purposes," Brudos said.

The key to this game is arguably more about the Packers stopping Adrian Peterson and the Vikings applying pressure on Rodgers than how well Favre actually does throwing the ball. It's easy to forget that with all the attention this flip-flop has received.

"I think a lot of people are going to be a little confused about what they're rooting for," Brudos said. "But the die-hards like myself are going to be with the Packers. He's on the other side now."

Welcoming Favre hasn't been very hard for Vikings fans. They've been starved for a stable quarterback since Daunte Culpepper went to the Pro Bowl after the 2004 season, and even then a lot of fans didn't trust his ability to come through in the clutch.

Favre's addition was widely seen as the missing piece for a Super Bowl contender.

"I think they recognize that there's something about the fella, historically, that he's able to do this," said Sam Howell, 53, after a lunch the other day at Hubert's, the sports bar across the street from the Metrodome. "He's a standout guy. He's done a lot that other people have not been able to do."

Including generate lots and lots of revenue.

Just ask Isaac Lenz, the sales manager at Sconnie Nation, a T-shirt company founded by University of Wisconsin students in their Madison dorm room. Lenz and his co-workers designed the popular "We'll never forget you, Brent" shirt that many Packers fans have picked up to help soothe their anger after Favre's arrival in Minnesota.

"Absolutely could not imagine that four or five years ago," Lenz said. "We joke that Brett Favre going to the Vikings is the best thing that could have happened to us."

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Associated Press Writers Robert Imrie in Eau Claire, Wis., and Jeff Baenen in Minneapolis and AP Sports Writer Chris Jenkins in Green Bay, Wis., contributed to this report.