Demand for the jerseys was such that JetShop.com was either offline completely, or had slowed to a crawl, for much of the day.
The site, when available, showed the Favre jerseys for sale at $80, but it warned customers "to allow extra time, regardless of shipping method," to receive their order.
Jets fans desperate to own an emerald-and-white team sweater bearing the Mississippi native's credentials had other, more expensive, Internet options. Favre Jets jerseys were selling on eBay Thursday for as much as $300.
The Jets aren't the first organization to be caught napping by a sudden spike in Web traffic and likely won't be the last.
New York magazine's Web site earlier this year went dark for a time after thousands of people attempted to view the publication's nude Lindsay Lohan photos online.
Also this year, Oprah Winfrey was forced to apologize to the millions of fans whose efforts to log into the self-empowerment guru's widely-hyped Webcast were thwarted by overwhelmed Internet servers. The Webcast featured Winfrey and Eckhart Tolle, whose New Age bestseller "A New Earth" was an Oprah Book Club selection.
In 1999, a Webcast of the Victoria's Secret fashion show in New York City famously crashed, leaving millions of viewers frustrated.
The Green Bay Packers formally announced Thursday that they had traded Favre to the Jets for future considerations, thwarting a last-minute effort by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to acquire the star athlete. The trade leaves the future of Jets' incumbent QB Chad Pennington in doubt.
