New helmet did not deter Saints defenders, as quarterback had hoped

Brett Favre wanted to go out in style. Though he didn't quite have enough yesterday to lead the Vikings back to the Super Bowl, he did, however, make a dramatic fashion statement. The 40-year-old quarterback from Mississippi was the only member of the Minnesota squad to wear three-dimensional viking horns on the sides of his helmet. "I really thought the defenders would think twice about trying to sack me if I had real horns," said a distraught Favre, who was knocked to the ground repeatedly throughout the 31-28 overtime loss to the Saints in the NFC Championship game. "Obviously it only made them more determined." Though Favre was not sacked in the game, he was hit hard and often and, at one point, limped off the field with an injured ankle. "When I saw the horns in pregame warm-ups," said Saints' linebacker Scott Shanle, who sustained a deep wound to his abdomen in the second quarter from Favre's left horn, "I knew it was going to be a fun day. The kind that linebackers live for."