ST. LOUIS - The money was on Greg Jennings to catch the record-breaking pass, but this one went to Brett Favre's old pal, Donald Driver.
With a 7-yard pass to Driver in the fourth quarter on Sunday, Favre became the NFL's all-time leader in passing yardage, breaking Dan Marino's mark of 61,361 yards.
"It means a lot," Driver said. "I haven't caught a pass from him to break a record yet, and to get that one was amazing."
Favre finished the game with 227 yards passing in the 33-14 victory over St. Louis to move 44 yards ahead of Marino at 61,405. He was 19-for-30 with two touchdowns and two interceptions on the day.
Until Sunday, the momentous passes Favre has thrown over the past couple of seasons had all gone to Jennings. As a rookie, Jennings caught Favre's 400th career TD pass in Detroit, and then this season he caught Favre's 420th TD at Lambeau Field to tie Marino's record in that category, as well as the record-breaking 421st in Minneapolis.
This time Favre hit Jennings for a 44-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter that put the Packers ahead 27-14 and pulled him within 1 yard of tying Marino. With the offense on the sideline during the Rams' ensuing possession, equipment manager Red Batty was spreading the word that the next catch would break the record.
Favre and Driver didn't talk about collaborating on the record-breaker, but it worked out on the first play of the Packers' next possession.
A running play was called, but as Favre has done often this season, he saw single coverage on Driver on the outside and checked to a quick pass.
"Brett kind of looked at me, and I looked back at him, and he looked at me again, and at that time I knew he was throwing it," Driver said. "I just had to make sure I made the catch."
Driver caught the slant for a 7-yard gain on first down on a drive that eventually ended in a field goal that made it 30-14.
The game was stopped momentarily as Favre and Driver exchanged high-fives and hugs. Several teammates gave Favre congratulatory slaps on the helmet as Batty removed the record-breaking ball from the game.
"Donald and I have a great history together," Favre said. "He goes down in my record books for a lot of things."
Driver had five catches for 80 yards, making a little history of his own on the day by moving past Boyd Dowler and into fourth place on the Packers' all-time receiving yardage list. Driver also eclipsed 1,000 yards receiving for the season for a fifth time, only the third Packers player to do so, along with Sterling Sharpe and James Lofton.
{sportsad300}But for Driver, all those statistics have come through his partnership with Favre, and that made catching Sunday's record-breaker all the most special.
"I'm happy to be able to say I'm part of his record-setting career," Driver said. "You always want to be a part of that. Even though you know you're going to be a part of his legacy, to be in the record books with him makes it even better."
Over the past two seasons, Favre has now broken Marino's marks for career attempts, completions, yards and touchdowns. The completions record came last year, while the others have been this season, including the TD record in Week 4.
Favre also broke John Elway's career record for victories by a quarterback in Week 2 this season.
With this latest record, Favre was as humble as he's been for the others, all of which he said would never have happened without his ironman playing streak, which now stands at 251 consecutive regular-season starts.
"I've said this all along and will continue to say it, I've never considered myself in the same league as Dan Marino," Favre said. "What a great passer, maybe the greatest passer ever.
"The way he did it is probably the way you would coach another guy to do it. The way I've done it, I don't know if you would coach guys to do it that way. But it's worked for me, and to be mentioned in the same breath with him is quite an honor."
