By TIM REYNOLDS
MIAMI (AP) — Daunte Culpepper, who starred for the Minnesota Vikings before a major knee injury in 2005 curtailed his career, retired from the NFL on Thursday.
Culpepper completed 64 percent of his passes in a nine-year career, with 142 touchdowns. He tried to resuscitate his career with the Miami Dolphins in 2006 and the Oakland Raiders last season, struggling in both of those stops, and wasn't in training camp with any teams this year.
"Since I was not given a fair chance to come in and compete for a job, I would rather move on and win in other arenas of life," Culpepper said.
Culpepper has spent the past months hoping for chances with any team, including the Green Bay Packers, saying just last week he'd accept a backup job there behind Aaron Rodgers. The Packers had Culpepper in for a workout before this year's draft, with apparently little contact since.
"No matter what I did or said, there seemed to be a unified message from teams that I was not welcome to compete for one of the many jobs that were available at the quarterback position," Culpepper said.
Daunte Culpepper retires from NFL....
By Chris Mortensen
ESPN.com
With his family "tugging" on him to play, Brett Favre has an "itch" to come out of retirement and report to training camp with the Green Bay Packers later this month, according to sources close to the team and player.
Favre has communicated his potential desire to coach Mike McCarthy but talks have not advanced to a substantive stage, a Packers source said.
The source said the Packers would be reluctant to open the door for Favre because "Brett retired for the right reasons, even though I know his family is tugging on him [to play]."
Another source conceded Favre was "getting the itch" to play football in 2008.
However, Favre's agent downplayed the likelihood that the quarterback could un-retire or that he was prepared to report to camp July 28.
"As far as I know, right now, Brett Favre is retired and until he tells me something different, that's what it is," James "Bus" Cook, Favre's agent, said.
Favre was unavailable for comment. A Packers spokesman said that McCarthy and general manager Ted Thompson were on vacation.
Source: Favre has 'itch' to ditch retirement, report to camp....
