"He came to me with three game tapes of the preseason of the Atlanta Falcons," remembers Thompson, "and he said, 'I want you to look at this quarterback. His jersey number's 4. He'll probably just play in the second half. And tell me what you think.'
"So I'm flipping through, and I had not been involved in football for several years, so I knew his name was Brett Favre, but I didn't really understand that he had been the first or second player taken in the second round (in 1991), which is a valuable draft pick. I'm just looking at him and Brett is Brett, but even more Brett. He's running all over and making great throws, and then the ball gets batted and he catches it and is running around.
"So I go back and he says, 'What do you think?' And I said, 'He looks like a guy that's a little bit raw but has a tremendous arm and great athleticism and a passion and all that.' He goes, 'Well, I'm going to give up a first-round pick for him. Do you think that's a good idea?'
"And I said, 'Well, do you think it's a pretty good idea?' And he goes, 'Yeah, I do.' And then I said, 'Then I do, too.'"