Favre says his goodbyes

On his decision: "I know I can play, but I don't think I want to. It's been a great career for me, but it's over."

On the pressure of playing: "Brett Favre got hard to live up to."

On why fans have embraced him: "If I had to guess, and I hear, 'He's one of us.' Well, I am. I just play professional football. That is a little different job than most people. But we are regular people. Things have happened to our family maybe being that we're in a public eye, things we've had to deal with, tragedy, obviously is dealt with in the community and the world. And when other people are able to deal with it privately, people say, 'You know what, death does happen to Brett Favre, Deanna Favre. Cancer does happen to them.' It's not all about making a lot of money and being on TV all the time. There is more to it than that."

On maturing: "I've become a better person, a more likeable person, I hope. And as my skills maybe have diminished, maybe I have picked up the slack in other areas. I'm probably as proud of that as anything I've done on the field. I'm not perfect by any means. I'm not going to say that. Not even close. Nor will I ever be."

On whether he will second-guess himself: "I will wonder if I've made the wrong decision. I just don't think I can give anything else -- aside from the three hours on Sunday."

On what's next: "I don't even want to think about next year. Will I watch games? I'm sure I will. Will I be involved? I always made the joke I'd be here for an honorary coin toss. Well, that time may come, so I may be back for something like that. But as far as giving advice, I don't think that will happen."

On the Packers: "I hope that with every penny they've spent on me, they know it was money well spent. It wasn't about the money or fame or records. I hear people talk about your accomplishments and things. It was never my accomplishments, it was our accomplishments."

On appearing unshaven and in an untucked dress shirt: "This is about as dressed up as you're going to see. I thought about wearing a suit. I really did. I thought about shaving. But what you see is what you get."

On his wild playing style: "The way I played the game. I've always said people watching in the stands, if I could play, that is the way I want to play."

On whether the Packers tried hard enough to talk him out of his decision: "There have been comments and issues in the press about why I'm leaving, whether or not the Packers did enough, whether or not [GM] Ted [Thompson] or [coach] Mike [McCarthy] tried to convince me to stay. None of those things have anything to do with me retiring, and that is from the heart."

On breaking into tears: "I promised I wouldn't get emotional. ... I've watched hundreds of players retire and you wonder what that would be like. You think you're prepared ..."

On watching TV coverage of his retirement: "I've realized what it's like to die."

On his final game, which ended with an interception that led to a game-winning field by the Giants in the NFC title game: "I'm going out on top. Believe me, I could care less what other people think. It's what I think, and I'm going out on top."

On why he retired now: "I don't think it would get easier next year or the following year. It hasn't up until this point. It's only gotten tougher, and something told me, 'You know it's gotten too hard for you.' I could probably come back and do it. Suck it up. But what kind of a toll would that take on me, my family or my teammates? At some point it would affect one of those if not all of them. Maybe it has already. I don't know."

On the bottom line: "There's nothing left to prove."

COMPILED BY CHRIS MILLER FROM WIRE SERVICES