Brett Favre held his seventh annual Celebrity Softball Game Saturday at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, Wis. The charity game provided many fans the opportunity to meet and receive autographs from their favorite players throughout the day. Many of the 8,107 fans came out early, tailgated and waited at the players' entrance to get a glimpse of the Packers.
The offense lit up the scoreboard and finished the day with a 29-14 win. Players for the most part sat back and enjoyed being able to participate, but running back Najeh Davenport admitted winning the game was always the goal.
"Anytime you can come away with a victory..." Davenport said, "...football, softball, kickball, it always feels good."
Davenport did his job to make sure the offense came away with that victory by tallying two home runs on the day.
It was also a good day at the plate for quarterbacks as Ingle Martin pounded out three home runs, Aaron Rodgers called his shot in left field late in the game for a long ball, and the crowd roared as Brett Favre homered in his last at bat to finish off a fun-filled day.
Running back Noah Herron said he was glad to see Favre homer.
"It's his event," Herron said. "I'm glad he hit one. We were all kind of anticipating it."
Head Coach Mike McCarthy also was on hand to get things started by throwing out the ceremonial first pitch. Other coaches at the game were running backs coach Edgar Bennett, who managed the offense, and special teams assistant Shawn Slocum, who managed the defense.
When the defense gave up some runs early on, defensive linemen Kenny Peterson and Corey Williams took the approach of not getting mad, but getting even. Peterson and Williams made several attempts to soak the offensive team with water pistols when offensive players stepped to the plate.
After the game more antics broke out as players from both teams engaged in a water balloon and silly string war. Players were also held down and doused with ice water during the exchange. Rodgers seemed to get the worst of the fun-filled brawl as he ran into another player and went down hard.
"I'm a little bruised up, but I'll be all right," he said.
When questioned about taking over the responsibilities of the game in future years, Rodgers commented that he would love to carry on this tradition but did not think his leadership would be necessary.
"With 8,000 fans I would love to do this, but I don't see why Brett wouldn't come back every year," he said.
Proceeds from the event will be dispersed to various charities across the state of Wisconsin. Last year's event raised more than $100,000.
