Brett Favre Will be a Minnesota Viking [J. Mark English]

Let the groans begin. Yet again, Mr. Favre has decided that retirement is not enough. Or maybe he is already in retirement, and has decided he will screw around with three NFL franchises as a part of a post football past-time. His next victim will be the Minnesota Vikings. This is from the Mark Maske of the Washington Post:

Quarterback Brett Favre is expected to sign a contract Tuesday with the Minnesota Vikings to come out of retirement again and play for the team this season, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Favre arrived at the Vikings' training complex after traveling to the Minneapolis area earlier in the day. He exited a plane at a St. Paul, Minn., airport and got into a waiting vehicle. He is to undergo a physical and, barring any unexpected snags, is to sign a deal that apparently will pay him approximately $12 million this season.

The contract reportedly contains an option for a second season. He could be on the practice field Wednesday and play in a preseason game Friday.

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In case you can't tell from my intonation at the top, I think this is absolutely crazy on the part of the Vikings, and self serving on the part of Favre. What did the Packers do to him that makes him want to now play in their own division, after a year in which the Pack pleaded with him not to go to the Vikings. Also, he set the New York Jets back a year in development of possibly a franchise quarterback.

Peter King of Sports Illustrated concurs that this whole episode is nefarious at best:

If I were Childress, I'd have waited until Sage Rosenfels struggled -- if he struggled -- and then made the call to Favre. By doing it now, Childress loses Rosenfels and Tarvaris Jackson; how can they ever trust anything he says now? I'm sure both are furious, and Rosenfels, particularly, is crushed. And the way Favre talked to me three weeks ago, there's a chance he won't last the season and Childress will have to turn to one of his angry quarterbacks.

What Favre told me late last month he wasn't coming back because he felt totally beat after some hard summer workouts, how could he think he'd have enough stamina to make it through a season? He simply didn't think he'd be able to handle the physical rigors of the season. "I just didn't think my body would hold up the way it had in the past,'' he said.

The perfect scenario would have been for the Vikings to see if Rosenfels or Jackson played well enough through a piece-of-cake early schedule (at Cleveland, at Detroit, San Francisco), and if the position was an Achilles heel, then reach out to Favre to see if he was interested. By doing it now, Childress tells his team he doesn't trust Rosenfels or Jackson. That could come back to haunt him if Favre's body breaks down.

Childress has looked like a desperate man throughout this melodrama. He made it known internally that Favre had to do at least some work in the offseason program or the veteran mini-camp to be considered. Favre never showed. Then he had to come by the start of camp. Favre didn't come, opting for his third false retirement in 17 months. Now the Vikings let him come back after the team has gone through training camp. Favre's the wishy-washiest player in memory -- and the Vikings are his enablers. It's ridiculous.