Brett Favre learns you can’t go home again

For this week and this week only, visitors to Green Bay will not find Minnesota Avenue as it appears on city driving maps. This week, Minnesota Avenue has been renamed Aaron Rodgers Avenue.

The temporary renaming of the street is one of four fan-inspired suggestions Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt has chosen to help welcome back Brett Favre on Sunday when the Packers play the Minnesota Vikings at Lambeau Field.

Schmitt also announced an essay contest asking eighth-graders to come up with the top 12 reasons to stay in Green Bay. Why 12? That’s Rodgers’ jersey number.

Today, the mayor and his staff will wear flip-flops and are encouraging fans to do the same. On Saturday, Schmitt will host a pep rally where waffle fries will be available to fans.

The flip-flops and waffle fries are, of course, references to Favre’s back-and-forth wrestling with the retirement issue. Fans sent the mayor about 1,700 ideas to welcome back Favre. The best would occur Sunday, should the Packers beat the Vikings.

Trivia time

What is the oldest team name still in use in the NFL?

Danny Ferry was not involved

When a cable snapped on the Bay Bridge on Tuesday, causing the bridge to be shut down in both directions, the Houston Rockets were left with a logistical problem: how to get the team from its hotel in San Francisco to Oracle Arena in Oakland for Wednesday night’s game against the Golden State Warriors.

The answer: Take the ferry.

“This is the first ferry I’ve taken,” Rockets Coach Rick Adelman told the Houston Chronicle. “But you know, it wasn’t bad. It was a beautiful day, nice weather. The only difference I could see was we left earlier. It worked out really good.”

Forward Chuck Hayes, the Rockets’ only Northern California native, said, “I’m a BART guy. Get me on the underground train and I’m good. I was a little nervous. You see so many movies where boats sink.”

Breaking bad

In his new book, Andre Agassi reveals he took crystal meth in 1997.

Quipped Jimmy Kimmel: “I don’t know which is more shocking, the fact that Agassi was taking meth or the fact that John McEnroe wasn’t.”

Trivia answer

The Green Bay Packers.

And finally

After his Charlotte Bobcats scored a franchise-low 59 points in a Wednesday night loss to the Boston Celtics, Bobcats Coach Larry Brown was asked if he’d ever coached an NBA team that scored in the 50s.

Replied Brown: “I don’t know if they call that coaching.”

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