Brett Favre: All Signs Point To a Return in Minnesota

Who is going to be the starting quarterback next season, Brett Favre or the heir apparent?

It is a question that has plagued every team that has owned his rights since the 2004 season ended. For the first four years, that team was my Green Bay Packers. Then, it was the New York Jets.

Now it is the Minnesota Vikings. And unlike the Jets and Packers, the Vikings seem content to hope for the best instead of planning for the worst.

Let's face it: Favre is their best option.

Without Favre, they are putting career back-ups (quality ones, but back-ups nonetheless) under center, and Sage Rosenfels is not leading them to the NFC Championship Game. He is not leading them to a division title. Heck, he might not even lead them to a playoff berth.

Favre answered many critics who said he was washed up coming off a season when he had thrown as many picks as touchdowns and lost four of his last five starts to miss the playoffs.

In Minnesota, however, he had arguably his best season ever, seeming to finally stop throwing the ill-advised interception and having his best ever touchdown to interception ratio (33:7).

But under duress, a person often reverts to who he is, and the lure of a big-play was just too much on his final drive of the 2009 season: With ten yards undefended before him and when a five-yard scramble would have given one of the most accurate kickers a chance at a 47-yard game-winning field goal indoors, he reverted to the play of a reckless rookie.

Make no mistake about it—give Favre the judgment of someone with his experience, there would be no disputing his place as the greatest quarterback of all time. He would be on a short list of quarterbacks with more than one title, would have two touchdowns for every pick, and a winning percentage comparable to Joe Montana's.

He already has more wins, yards, completions, touchdowns, and yes, picks than any other quarterback in history. He already performed at a level no other player over 35 has, and he did it at age 40.

But he does not have the arm of a 40-year old, so why should he have the judgment of one? And it is the same competitiveness and lack of judgment that leads to the annual anguish of whether or not he is coming back.

Everyone else knows he is before he does. He just does not see the forest for the trees, and cannot see what he shows all of us.

All of the signs were obvious to me:

1. Who can leave a game he played so well in which he was one play away from a shot at the brass ring?

2. Did anyone seriously think Favre could leave a chance to beat the team he thinks did not want him twice again this season?

3. Meanwhile, the Vikings are doing exactly what Favre needs to see as proof they want him back—see more on this on this link to my PackerChatters article .

4. About a week ago, he told his alma mater's baseball team that if they made the College World Series, he would come back. Who says that unless they already want to be back, and who would make that decision based on something unrelated to it?

5. And now the clincher: Favre had the ankle surgery he will need in order to get on the field. Dr. James Andrews removed bone spurs and scoped his ankle—not a major procedure, but an unnecessary one if he was not going to play.

At this point, Favre's return is a safer bet than anything else in the 2010 football season...except perhaps for the failure of the Oakland Raiders.