Perhaps you've heard, Brett Favre is returning to Lambeau Field on Sunday as a quarterback of the hated Minnesota Vikings.

True story, not making it up. Kickoff is 3:15 p.m. and the game will be nationally televised by Fox.

OK, OK, this game has been on the most-wanted list by Packer fans for weeks, or ever since Favre decided to unretire for the umpteenth time.

The game was recently moved from a noon start to a more enticing viewing spot at 3:15 p.m. Fox is beaming the game to 91 percent of the country.

"The first time these two teams played he talked about how nervous he was," said Fox analyst Troy Aikman. "I'm sure that experience was very emotional but different because of where that game was played.

"This will bring about a different set of emotions. On the other side, I think there will be a level of comfort for him because it is a place he is so familiar with.

"The strange thing will be that he's going to be dressing in the visitors' locker room. My guess is that, he'll without even thinking about it, walk into the Packers' locker room because that's what he did for all of those years.

"I think it will be a much more emotional experience for him than anything he experienced on Monday night in Minneapolis."

Aikman will be paired with Thom Brennaman on the game (Pam Oliver is the sideline reporter). Joe Buck, who normally works with Aikman, is doing the World Series, also on Fox.

"When I retired at age 34, it was hard to come back after a physical game during my last season and be prepared the following week to play physically," said Aikman. "You're just so sore and it started taking longer and longer to recover. Now he's (Favre) six years older than what I was and yet he's still coming back and is able to play and fight through a lot of things.

"To me, that's the most impressive part."

• NFL on Fox co-host Terry Bradshaw has a sit-down interview with Favre. Bradshaw was an outspoken critic on the way Favre handled the off-season and his ultimately signing with the Vikings.

• Howie Long, also on the NFL on Fox pregame show, talks about what the Packers have to do to prevent Vikings defensive end Jared Allen from disrupting the game plan like he did in the first meeting.

• Big game? Fox will employ a Favre-Cam on the game. There will be a camera stationed high on the 50-yard line and will isolate on Favre from the second he takes the field until he runs back into the locker room.

A constant video stream of this angle is available on FOXSports.com and NFL.com.

The NFL of Fox crew is also on Twitter at twitter.com/NFLONFOX.

• ESPN is all over the game as well. One interesting piece on NFL Countdown on Sunday (10 a.m.) is correspondent Tom Rinaldi talking to old-time Packers (Willie Davis, Jerry Kramer, Fuxxy Thurston) and former teammates (Leroy Butler and Antonio Freeman) think of Favre's return to Green Bay.

Around the tube

• While most of the country receives the Vikings-Packers game, get this. The Rams at Lions game will be shown to just 2 percent of the country. Since Detroit is blacked out, the only market the game will air is in St. Louis.

The Rams and Lions have won a combined one game.

• The Oct. 17 Notre Dame and USC game on NBC drew 6.5 million viewers, the most for a Notre Dame game on NBC since Sept. 9, 2006 when Penn State and Notre Dame drew 6.9 million.

• There is no Sunday night football on NBC due to the World Series on Fox, but "Football Night in America" will still air at 6 p.m.

• The Fox doubleheader with the Vikings-Steelers and Falcons-Cowboys combined for a 14.1 rating and 29 share and 23.5 million viewers, a record audience for the network.

The Vikings game attracted 18.5 million, a record for the noon time slow a nd the Falcons-Cowboys had 28.4 million viewers, Fox's most-watched Sunday NFL game in 13 years.

• Game No. 1 of the World Series Wednesday on Fox averaged 19.5 million viewers.

• The Minnesota and Michigan State game at 7 p.m. Saturday is on the Big Ten Network with Wayne Larrivee (play-by-play), Chris Martin (analyst) and Rebecca Haarlow (sideline reporter).

• Charter Communications has once again picked up a number of Minnesota Timberwolves games on KSTC-TV, which is not available on the cable system. Those games will air on channel 980.

Paul Christian is a Post-Bulletin sports writer. He writes a weekly Friday column dealing with TV and radio sports and can be reached at Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN 

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