Celebrating Wootton not aware Favre was hurt

Rookie Corey Wootton's first NFL sack could make him the answer to a trivia question for years to come.

His flattening of Brett Favre may wind up being the last play of the future Hall of Famer's career, since he suffered what the Vikings are calling a concussion on the play. Wootton said if he'd known that Favre was hurt he would have toned down his post-sack, chest-bump celebration.

“I had no clue he was hurt,” said the fourth-round pick from Northwestern. “I walked toward the sideline and then turned around and everyone was pointing. I wouldn't celebrate if someone was hurt.”

“He'll probably get fined,” linebacker Brian Urlacher said, only half in jest.

Wootton beat veteran tackle Bryant McKinnie on the play.

“I felt like I got a pretty good get-off on that,” Wootton said. “It's something I've been trying to work on every week.”

A higher power:

Part of the reason Julius Peppers signed with the Bears in the off-season is that he saw the team's potential for success, and since coming aboard he's seen a strong work ethic.

“I've seen these guys every day, working,” Peppers said. “I see the type of players we have on the team, and I see the coaches. The coaches don't accept anything but our best, and anytime you have that combination of things working together, good things gotta happen. It's like, the football gods, they make sure good things happen to people who work hard and do things right.”

The resurrection:

The Bears were a bit taken aback by Brett Favre's amazing transformation from “out” on Saturday to “questionable” on Monday morning to starting lineup Monday night.

“It was a surprise,” said Bears coach Lovie Smith. “All through the week, they didn't say that he was out right away, but I assumed he was. At the end of the week they said he was out, so we weren't really preparing for him. I assumed out meant out. But you have to prepare as much as anything for the quarterback position, and that's what we did.”

Making amends:

Defensive end Julius Peppers' first-quarter interception of a Brett Favre pass that was deflected by Henry Melton led to the Bears' first points — on the first of 4 Robbie Gould field goals. It also made amends for Peppers' gaffe two plays earlier when his offsides infraction negated an interception by Tim Jennings.

“It was important for me personally,” said Peppers, who was able to laugh about it after the game. “It allowed me to make up for a huge mistake that I made. As far as the team, it was also big. It kind of started to turn the momentum.”

Extra points:

For the record, the 10 players on the field blocking for Devin Hester on his record-setting punt-return touchdown were: Craig Steltz, Rashied Davis, Devin Aromashodu, Rod Wilson, Corey Graham, Kellen Davis, Garrett Wolfe, Danieal manning, Zack Bowman and Corey Wootton. … On quarterback Jay Cutler's only interception, he was hit in the chin by the helmet of a Vikings player and received three stitches, but he didn't miss any snaps.