Brett Favre's father leaves the field Brett Favre looks back as he leaves the field following the game against the Chicago Bears in this Dec. 7, 2003 photo in Green Bay. Brett Favre's father, Irvin Favre, died Sunday, while he was driving . (AP Photo/Mike Roemer) AP, The News-Chronicle KILN, Miss. - Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre's father died Sunday of a heart attack or a stroke while he was driving, Mississippi state police said. Irvin Favre was 58. Favre went off the road at 5:23 p.m. near Kiln, the hometown of Brett, a three-time NFL most valuable player. Irvin Favre ran into a ditch, said Sgt. Joe Gazzo of the Mississippi State Highway Patrol. "It didn't appear that the accident was serious enough to cause him to be unconscious, so that leads us to believe that a medical condition was what caused him to go off the road," Gazzo said. Irvin Favre was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. An autopsy will be performed Monday. "First, the witnesses, then the ambulance, and then at the hospital they tried to revive him," Gazzo said. "It's going to be a great loss to the community, he was a great guy." Favre's status for tonight's crucial game against the Oakland Raiders would be determined today, Green Bay spokesman Aaron Popkey said from San Francisco. "Our thoughts are with Brett and his family," Popkey said. Favre has started 204 consecutive games, including playoffs, an NFL record for quarterbacks. The Packers trail Minnesota by a half-game in the NFC North. Bus Cook, Brett Favre's agent, said the elder Favre apparently had a massive heart attack while driving. "Right now funeral arrangements are incomplete," he said. "Of course, I don't know what Brett's going to do. ... "I know his dad would insist that he play the game," said Cook, who had known the senior Favre for about 15 years, ever since Brett Favre graduated from college. "No question. His dad would tell him get out there and play." Irvin Favre was his son's football coach at Hancock North Central High School in Mississippi. "Be hard to focus and concentrate maybe, but if anybody can do it he can," Cook added. In California, Packer right guard Marco Rivera said news of the death was spreading among team members. "Just put it this way, we're all in shock," he said. "Right now we're finding out about it one by one. I just saw it on the news." The Packers had not yet held their team meeting Sunday night. Irv Favre became a familiar face during his son's Super Bowl run, dubbed "the most popular interview in Titletown" by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 1996. Although he was Brett's high school coach, the elder Favre made no special effort to showcase his son, often using him as a blocking, option quarterback. "Frankly, I never worried about (personal) records," Irvin Favre said. "I felt they'd take care of themselves. And Brett was never concerned about that, he just wanted to play. He just wanted to be successful, and the way to be successful is to win." Irv Favre coached for 23 years at Hancock. Although he was a familiar face at Green Bay and on the road with the Packers, he kept his home in Kiln, Miss. "It's kind of laid back here, nothing flashy" he said in 1996. "There's good hunting and good eating places. If you live here, you don't want to leave.'' Indeed, the sign saying "Irvin Favre Road" near Kiln became a favorite target of souvenir hunters. Still, he became well enough known in Green Bay to do advertisements, including ones with his wife, Bonita, for a local ticket agency. A cookbook featuring the family's favorite Mississippi-style recipes was published in 1999. And after leaving high school coaching, the elder Favre coached the Mississippi Fire Dogs of the National Indoor Football League in 2002. He also owned a small interest in the team, which no longer operates. Favre described his father as a tough guy who let his kids learn from their own mistakes. "He looks like Sergeant Carter on 'Gomer Pyle.' But he let us sow our wild oats a little. When I dipped tobacco and threw up he said, 'That'll teach you,'" Favre said in an interview with Playboy in 1997. "My father and I have never sat down and had a long talk like you and I are doing. But we get along. It's a great relationship. Last year after we won the NFC championship game - we're going to the Super Bowl! - Irv came to the locker room. He was crying. I was still on a high from the game, laughing and hollering, but he had tears in his eyes and I remember he hit me. Kind of punched me and said, 'Good job, good job.'"