CHARLOTTE -- To most, Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre is a future Hall of Famer, a record-smashing passer and a time-defying war horse who continues to fling darts to all corners of the field even after his 40th birthday.
To Carolina cornerback Captain Munnerlyn and others along the central Gulf Coast, Favre is something more: the local hero. Favre began crafting his legend at Southern Mississippi, which until this year was the closest Division I football school to Munnerlyn's hometown of Mobile, Ala.
"My favorite player," Munnerlyn said. "I had Brett Favre's jersey and a Green Bay Packers Starter jacket growing up. Some of my teammates in high school would be like, 'He's still your favorite player? He's getting old.' I was like, 'He'll always be my favorite player.'"
Getting old, perhaps, but not exactly slowing down. His 106.0 passer rating this season ranks second in the league, and if it holds through the next three games, would be the best of his career. The same is true for his completion percentage; in fact, his three best completion percentages have come the last three seasons. He's also on pace for his sixth 4,000-yard season.
Interceptions, which in many years were Favre's bugaboo, have also been cut; he's tossed just six this season and is on pace for just 7.4; by comparison his previous low for a full season was 13.
"If I intercept the ball from him, I'm probably going to ask him to sign it," Munnerlyn said. "I don't know if that would be a good idea.
"Hopefully I don't get star struck when he's under center when he's out there playing. (I might be thinking), oh, it's Brett Favre, and then -- hike!"
Favre's path inspired Munnerlyn, who admits he nearly opted to attend Southern Miss before choosing South Carolina, where he got close looks at a pair of Favre's primary targets with the Vikings: Gamecocks teammate Sidney Rice in practice and former Florida Gators standout Percy Harvin for one game per season.
Munnerlyn and Rice had daily duels on the practice field in Columbia during the 2006 season, giving the rookie cornerback a mental foundation from which to work this week. But when he watched footage of Rice this year, he saw a different receiver.
"Sidney just got hungry. It's like he wants it real, real bad," Munnerlyn said. "When he was at South Carolina, he was the same way, but he's better coming off the line and he's running great routes. He always ran good routes. It seems like he just wants it. He wants it. He can turn the NFL upside down. Brett Favre said he's one of the best receivers he's ever played with. Coming out of Brett Favre's mouth -- those are strong words."
Rice leads the Vikings with 1,075 yards on 67 receptions; Harvin is second with 681 on 48 but has also turned the Vikings' special teams into one of the league's most explosive units, with two touchdowns and a 29.0-yard average on 34 kickoff returns. Harvin runs through tacklers and defenses as though his uniform was coated in cooking oil, a quality that was in evidence at Florida when Munnerlyn faced him.
"We were playing down there (in Gainesville) and lost by one point my freshman year (2006), Munnerlyn said. "He kept running the same route against us and we could not stop that route to save our lives.
"I was playing a man-to-man, and he kept running a crossing route. (The coaches said), 'We're going to try zone,' so we tried the zone, and it was third and (about) 12, and they threw a crossing route to him, and I'm sitting right there, I was like, 'I'm about to hit him.' I missed him.
"He's hard to tackle. When he gets the ball, he's like a running back. It's hard to miss him. Percy is a great player."
MUNNERLYN COULD BE IN LINE for his fourth start of the season because fellow cornerback
MATT MOORE WILL AGAIN START AT QUARTERBACK as
Four Panthers are listed as probable: defensive end
RAW CONDITIONS greeted the Panthers for practice that morning, as they worked in 36-degree temperatures accompanied by spits of sleet and 10-miles-per-hour winds that dropped the wind chill to 28.
There is no precipitation expected Sunday, but with temperatures forecast to be in the upper 20s or low 30s Sunday, the practice offered the Panthers a chance to get accustomed to the weather they will face.
If the kickoff temperature is 33 degrees or lower, it will be the coldest game in Bank of America Stadium history, surpassing the 34-degree mark for a 16-3 win over the St. Louis Rams on Dec. 3, 2000. The Panthers have played six games in temperatures at freezing or below; all were on the road and none have taken place since a 27-24 loss at Philadelphia on Dec. 4, 2006.
