Minnesota Vikings, Fans, and Brett Favre up for a Rude Awakening

Going into the season, I was liking the Vikings more and more in the NFC North.

The Packers lack identity, Jay Cutler is just beginning to tear apart the Bears, and are the Lions even playing this year?

Then, on Aug. 18 2009, which will soon be day of infamy in Minnesota, the Vikings went and signed Brett Favre. Not only that, but the contract was worth $10-12 million.

This is bad on so many levels, but I'll start with the good.

Favre will put butts in the seats, as well as score fat TV contracts. Big money will be coming Minnesota's way.

Another good thing about the signing is it brings a dimension to the Vikings' offense that has been missing for a while: Arm Strength. Tavaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels were not going to give that in any form of the word or act. Favre can still wing it, and he now has an All-Pro at running back to back him up.

The last good thing to come out of this is that Brett supposedly knows the playbook. This remains to be seen, but if true, it can make for a relatively seamless transition.

And now we move to the bad.

For starters, Childress has pulled an act almost as bad as McDaniels in Denver. Childress has alienated, lied, and gone behind the backs of his team, fanbase, and especially quarterbacks Jackson and Rosenfels.

One of you will be our guy. Or not.

Yes, you will get ready. Nope, forget it, Favre's coming back.

Changed my mind, make war with each other. Oops, Brett changed his mind, so I don't care what you do with each other.

Or maybe not. Or maybe so. Possibly. Maybe. Could be.

Childress will be fired at the end of the season, in main part because of his part in this Soap Opera.

Favre has lost the ability to develop chemistry with anyone. Rosenfels has spent the last four or five months developing chemistry and trust amongst him and his receivers.

Now that Favre has swooped in and wants to be the man, that time isn't just moot, it will in fact hurt the team. Favre is not the same quarterback in any way as Rosenfels, and it will take more time to develop something between him and those receivers.

Add to that is that outside of Bernard Berrian, the group is pretty lackluster. Receivers like Donald Driver who can bail Brett out of mistakes are not under contract for the Vikings.

Probably the biggest reason I don't like this move is that Favre doesn't fit in at all. For the Vikings to win, they will need control the clock and keep the ball out of the opposing offense's hands as much as possible.

Favre, particularly at this point in his career, is exceedingly careless with the football. And don't think he'll just watch Adrian Peterson do his thing like the Vikings need to do to win.

No, you see, the diva Favre gets media attention when he wings it, so by God he will wing it. Double coverage? Triple coverage? Quadruple coverage? It doesn't matter.

The Vikings need a game -ontrol quarterback who will neither win nor lose games by himself. Anyone who says that is remotely Favre-like, get off your meth.

For the sake of my sanity, this will be my last point I make public. Favre is getting old. It was painfully obvious last year, and this year he'll be a year older. In the last five games of 2008, he lost to the Broncos, 49ers, Bills, and Seahawks.

To put it lightly, those defenses sucked.

Also addressing the age thing, he'll 40 this October, and he has become more and more injury prone. How many hits can his body take? Twice a year he'll face Aaron Kampman. Also add in the Steelers and Ravens defenses, and Mike Singletary's and Steve Spagnuolo's new "no mercy" mentalities.

Signing Favre was a bad, bad move by the Vikings. I'll be willing to bet he throws more interceptions than touchdowns this season. And to think, Minnesota payed $10-12 million.

I'm not even a fan, and it makes me sick.