Favre coming back to the Pack

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Brett Favre will return for his 17th NFL season, undeterred by his injuries and hoping to lead the Green Bay Packers back to the playoffs.

"I am so excited about coming back," the 37-year-old quarterback said Friday on the Web site of the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss. "We have a good nucleus of young players. We were 8-8 last year, and that's encouraging."

Packers general manager Ted Thompson confirmed Favre had told the team he plans to return.

"The Packers are excited by his decision and look forward to a successful 2007 campaign," Thompson said in a statement.

The team scheduled an afternoon news conference.

"My offensive line looks good, the defense played good down the stretch," Favre told the Biloxi newspaper. "I'm excited about playing for a talented young football team."

Packers chairman and CEO Bob Harlan said he already is receiving faxes from "delighted" Packers fans around the country.

PLAYER ALLEGATIONS: Former New England Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson said coach Bill Belichick subjected him to hard hits in practice while he was recovering from a concussion — against the advice of the team's top trainer.

Johnson, who helped the Patriots win three Super Bowl titles before retiring two years ago, told The New York Times that a collision with another player during that 2002 practice led to another concussion. And, after sustaining additional concussions over the next three seasons, he now forgets people's names, misses appointments and suffers from depression and an addiction to amphetamines.

"There's something wrong with me," the 34-year-old Johnson said in Friday's Times. "There's something wrong with my brain. And I know when it started."

The Boston Globe, which is owned by the Times, ran a similar story.

Johnson, who played 10 years in the NFL, said he began to deteriorate in 2002 with a concussion during an exhibition game against the New York Giants. He sustained another concussion four days later after Belichick prodded him to participate in a full-contact practice, even though he was supposed to be avoiding hits, Johnson said.

The next month, with their relationship already strained, Johnson confronted Belichick about the practice after the coach asked him to meet in his office.