Tony Romo is going to miss watching Brett Favre as much as anyone.

The Dallas Cowboys quarterback grew up in Wisconsin watching Favre and the Green Bay Packers. And Romo modeled his game after that of the three-time MVP, who retired Tuesday after 17 extraordinary seasons in the NFL.

“His style of play was as unique as it was effective,” Romo said. “I admired his skills, his leadership, and especially his love for playing the game. You knew he was having fun when he played, and that made him fun to watch. He set the standard at the position for a long time.”

Romo and Favre started against each other only once, on a Thursday night in November at Texas Stadium. Romo outplayed Favre, before Favre was hurt in the second quarter of a 37-27 victory for Dallas.

A New York Giants team coached by Tom Coughlin beat Favre and the Packers in the NFC championship game en route to winning the Super Bowl.

“What he has meant to Green Bay and that franchise and to the fans in Green Bay has been a tremendous rallying point throughout the 16 years he played there,” Coughlin said. “He’s brought them a Super Bowl victory, he brought them to another appearance in the Super Bowl and brought them to the NFC Championship Game this year.”

Giants cornerback Corey Webster intercepted Favre’s last pass in overtime of the NFC championship game that set up Lawrence Tynes’ winning field goal.

“It’s an honor to have competed against Brett Favre in his last game,” Webster said. “Brett is by far one of the best quarterbacks I have ever competed against.”

Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy admired Favre’s competitiveness.

“He was the prototypical gunslinger type,” Levy said. “He’s the type of guy where, ‘Oh, what’s he throwing into that crowd for?’ But he had intuition, toughness, resilience. It helped to have a good cast around him, which he often did. Those are all qualities which good quarterbacks have.”