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By The Jazzy One on August 18th, 2010
It’s Official: Brett Favre Is A Viking
Brett Favre had a press conference today officially announcing his return to the team. He practiced with the team today, then spoke to the press
for about a half an hour.
Brett said that this coming season will for sure be his last one. “Twenty years and I’m done,” Favre said during his presser.
I actually think we can believe him this time. This is the first time he’s announced his pending retirement before the season began. I think Favre will officially hang up the cleats after this year.
Brett basically said that he’s coming back because of his teammates. He said there are still problems with his ankle, and after visiting with Dr. James Andrews last week he found out that there is a new bone spur that he’s going to have to deal with. He said at his age it’s probably impossible to be 100%, though.
Brett would like to play Sunday in San Francisco, but coach Brad Childress said he wasn’t sure if that would happen or not.
I would be shocked if Brett DIDN’T play Sunday night.
By The Jazzy One on July 23rd, 2010
A reader named Jack Follman sent me this email the other day, and I found it to be pretty interesting:
I thought that Vikings fans might find this interesting. Despite the fact that SportsNation’s poll found that 69% of more than 4,200 participants were annoyed by the news that Brad Childress visited Brett Favre, co-host Colin Cowherd disagreed. A sarcastic Cowherd joked, “These media guys who complain about Brett Favre, you know, they’re right, let’s instead break down the National League Central, that’s much more fascinating”. “Right or wrong, Favre is interesting and baseball mostly isn’t”.
After I read the email, I thought about it a bit.
Vikings fans (sometimes including myself) complain about all the Favre “drama”, yet when I write about it, or other bloggers write about it, people read it. My traffic slows waaaaaaaaaay down in the offseason, but when I have interesting things to write about Brett Favre, people come back to read it.
If Favre does ANYTHING the could even be slightly viewed as being noteworthy, ESPN is all over it. Think about that for a minute. ESPN is in the television and radio business. That means bottom line, the only thing that matters to them is TV viewers and radio listeners. If people around the country really didn’t care about Brett Favre, ratings would be terrible when they talked about him during ESPN shows. If ratings were terrible, ESPN wouldn’t spend as much time covering it.
Instead, if Brett wears purple underwear one day, ESPN spends the afternoon analyzing whether or not that’s a good sign or a bad sign for the Vikings.
Why? Because people tune in. No matter how tired vocal sports fans say they are about Brett Favre… the majority of people want to know what’s happening with him.
I follow the RSS feed for Vikings articles on BleacherReport.com. Of the 9 most recent articles, 5 of them have the name Brett Favre in them.
One of my favorite Vikings blogs is VikingsGab.com. Adam Warwas from Vikings Gab (who is one of my favorite Vikings writers on the planet) has been openly annoyed with Brett Favre and is not slow to criticize him. But I just looked at his RSS feed as well, and out of the 9 most recent articles from the site, 4 of the titles mention Favre.
For me, I get tired of the Brett Favre drama as much as anyone else… but I fully admit that I go running to any Brett news I can get my hands on. No matter how long he makes the team wait, I want the Vikings to be great this year, and I know their chances to up dramatically with Brett Favre under center. The reason I get tired of it is because the Viking fan in me is just dying to hear the words “I’m coming back”
By The Jazzy One on May 12th, 2010
Ah, Brett Favre!
He always finds a way to get himself in the news, doesn’t he?
The big question since the end of January, not only for Vikings fans, but for football fans in general is: Will Brett Favre Retire?
Of course, we don’t officially know the answer to that, and it’s likely we won’t until training camp is almost over, but since I’m a blogger and it’s my job to give my opinions on things, that’s what I’m going to do.
Brett Favre Will Play in 2010.
Yep, he will.
 There it is. I said it.
Why do I think so? Well, for one, he hasn’t retired yet. That’s the biggest factor in my prediction. In 2008, when he “retired” from the Green Bay Packers, he announced the decision on March 4th. In 2009, when he “retired” from the New York Jets, he announced the decision on February 11th.
Here we are on May 12. OTAs have been going on, training camp is drawing near, and we haven’t heard any definitive “I’m out” from Brett.
Don’t misunderstand… even if Brett had said that he is retiring, it’s STILL not definitive, but the fact that he hasn’t said it yet means that he still wants to play. In March of 2008 he felt like he didn’t want to play anymore. In February of 2009 he felt like he didn’t want to play anymore. As of May of 2010, he claims he is still “undecided”.
The second factor is the Minnesota coaching staff. I really think that they know more than they’re letting on. Brad Childress has claimed several times that they’re is no time table for Favre’s decision. He’s making it clear that he doesn’t want to rush Brett along.
But at the same time, he has claimed that the Vikings have to go on as if Favre is not coming back. But have they done that? Did they make any move to pick up a quarterback in the offseason? They passed one up in the draft. Is that really the path that a team that is going on as if they don’t have Brett Favre would take?
I can’t believe that it is.
I have a theory that Childress and Bevell know that Favre is coming back AFTER training camp. I have a theory that they’re just fine with that, because it means that Jackson gets more work with the first team players… work that Brett doesn’t necessarily need. I think, though, that Childress and the coaches think that it will lower team morale if Brett is excused from camp with no penalty, so rather than saying “Brett is coming back, he just gets to skip camp”, they’re all going with the “Favre hasn’t decided” story.
If that is the case, though, I don’t think I agree with the logic.
I mean, I understand where they are coming from, and it sounds good on the surface, but these players all know they have a MUCH better shot at winning with Favre under center. I think everybody on that team wants Favre there no matter what… even if it means they have to go to camp and Favre doesn’t. I actually think the morale of the team would be BETTER if Childress and Favre came out and said that was their plan. The players would go into camp knowing that they are a Super Bowl contender, and they’d be ready to play hard.
Of course, I could be wrong on all of these opinions… maybe Favre is going to retire.
But if I were a betting man, I’d put my money on him taking the first snap for the Vikings in the 2010 regular season.
By The Jazzy One on May 7th, 2010
For those of you who are friends with the Viking Ship on Facebook, you probably saw a link I posted last week to an article on the Vikings UK Blog called “From The Beard of Chilly”. If you didn’t see it, it was a humorous article written diary-style from the point of view of Brad Childress’ beard.
Well, the beard is back this week for more!
Here’s a little taste:
3.30am – Brad can’t sleep, so I can’t sleep. Every time I drop off the bugger grunts something about a “good football team” or “how do you like these Wranglers?”
I highly recommend checking it out to escape from the drama of Brett Favre’s surgery and the Williams Wall trial. It’s a quick read, but it’s a fun one.
Click here to read this week’s “From The Beard Of Chilly“
And here is a link to last week’s, in case you missed it.
By The Jazzy One on April 1st, 2010
Brett Favre is coming back to Minnesota!
 Big big BIG news for Vikings fans today with Brett Favre confirming that he is coming back to play the 2010 season for the Minnesota Vikings. ESPN is reporting that Brett has told his agent Bus Cook that he is feeling better and rejuvenated after a few months of rest, and he’s ready to come back and lead the Vikings to Super Bowl 45.
That is great news for Vikings fans, who have been wondering if the Vikings were blowing it by not going after Donovan McNabb. Most of those fans agreed that Favre was the best choice, but McNabb was far better than the Vikings other choices for their quarterback position.
It’s still unknown if the Vikings are going to require that Favre comes to training camp in July, though. Many experts assume that skipping training camp was one of the agreements that the team made with Favre in order to assure his return.
You have to think that having Favre back will shoot the Vikings back up the list of early Super Bowl favorites.
But, of course, there will still be those out there that are assuming that this will be the year that he “gets hurt and can’t play”. How many times did we see that prediction last year.
You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello
It wasn’t all good news coming from Minnesota today, though. Adrian Peterson, upon returning from Uganda recently, has decided that there are more important things in life than football.
“I’ve made a lot of money and fame in 3 years in the NFL, and I believe I can put that money and fame to use” said Peterson Thursday morning to reporters. “I want to start football camps for underprivileged children in Uganda”
While that seems noble, a lot of people are questioning his reasoning. It seems that Peterson could do a lot more good by earning the big paychecks for another several years.
This isn’t the first time that the Vikings have lost a young running back to retirement. Former running back Robert Smith retired from the Vikings after only 8 season in the NFL, leaving after his best statistical season.
“We hate to see Adrian go” said Vikings coach Brad Childress “but we understand what he feels like he needs to do. We have a good young back in Albert Young who will have to step up and take his place.”
No offense to Albert Young, who I am a HUGE fan of, but maybe the Vikings really should have pushed harder for LaDainian Tomlinson.
Is it me, or does it seem like you read the craziest news stories on April 1st? 
By The Jazzy One on March 25th, 2010
Donovan McNabb is now being put up for grabs by the Philadelphia Eagles, but he will not be a Minnesota Viking, in my opinion, and the reason for that comes down to two words: “Brett Favre”.
 If it wasn’t for Brett Favre, I really believe that Brad Childress would be chomping at the bit to get McNabb. He worked with Donovan for a lot of years in Philly when he was the offensive coordinator. McNabb knows Childress, knows how he thinks, and knows his system. McNabb would be a great fit in Minnesota if Favre was not going to come back.
Don’t get me wrong… When I say all this, it sounds like I’m bitter about that fact, and for the most part, I’m really not. I just think it’s the truth. What would make me a little bitter about it, though, is if McNabb gets traded away from Philly, and Brett Favre does not come back to Minnesota.
Let me back up and state a few things, real quick.
First, I think Donovan McNabb is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL today.
I think Brett Favre, though, is one of the best quarterbacks of all time. If I had to choose between one more year of Brett Favre and three years or so of Donovan McNabb, I would choose Brett Favre without hesitation. I believe that Brett Favre gives the Vikings a better chance to win it all next year than Donovan McNabb would in the next three years.
However, if I had to choose between three years or so of Donovan McNabb and hearing about quarterback competition between Tarvaris Jackson, Sage Rosenfels, or whatever other “veteran” they find out there to compete, I would of course just as quickly choose Donovan McNabb.
The problem is, since Brett Favre will take until mid-August to decide if he’s playing for the Minnesota Vikings in 2010, if he decides to really retire, the Vikings will have missed their chance with McNabb.
This is where my feelings on Favre get hazy.
I am all for the Vikings not rushing Favre, because I think it increases the chances of him wanting to come back. I’m all for Chilly and the Gang telling him that there’s no time-table. But at the same time, I realize that if the Vikings knew one way or another what Favre wanted to do, they could pursue a guy like McNabb if they wanted to.
I guess what I really wish would happen is that the Vikings would say “Brett, if you say right now that you will come back, we will let you skip OTAs and training camp. Just show up the first day of the preseason, and we’ll call it good. But you have to tell us yes right now.”
But, that’s probably not going to happen.
By The Jazzy One on March 24th, 2010
Here are some recent articles and blog posts from around the web that you are probably going to want to read.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=ba1cb235-0b63-42c1-b5fb-1ea9bebbf07b "Awesome Vikings Links That Youll Want To Read (March 24th) minnesota vikings links")
By The Jazzy One on March 13th, 2010
Will LaDainian Tomlinson Replace Chester Taylor?
By A.J. Riot
This has been a busy week for Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress, who has studied every area of his football team to improve their 2010 season roster. The Vikings will be one of the best options to choose next year when compiling NFL expert picks.
After Chester Taylor left Minnesota, the Vikings put all their attention on running back Ladainian Tomlinson. Tomlinson is a different player then Taylor as he could be a better receiving force for the Vikings, if he joins Minnesota that will make them favorites in NFL betting lines for almost every game next season.
LT visited the Vikings on Wednesday night, and on Thursday he spent a lot of the afternoon with the star Adrian Peterson. However, Tomlinson left without any contract with the Vikings team and he scheduled an appointment to visit Rex Ryan and the Jets on Friday. He has also reported two more appointments with New Orleans Saints and Philadelphia Eagles.
Not having a signed contract does not mean that Tomlinson is not the replacement of Chester Taylor, but otherwise it seems that Tomlinson has his options open after nine good seasons with the San Diego Chargers.
Moreover, after losing Taylor to the Chicago Bears, Minnesota needs an experienced player behind Peterson. Tomlinson’s ability to catch the ball and his ability as a pass blocker makes it the ideal complement to match the running back star of the Vikings.
The Vikings have a strong defense, an impressive offensive set and an apparent commitment to hire a Michael Scott and Jim Halpert, and because of it the Jets could be even more interested in hiring Tomlinson.
With nine years of experience, LT could provide leadership for Peterson and young players like Ian Johnson, James Johnson and Albert Young. There is no doubt that he could be the best option for Minnesota.
However, there have been other options for Taylor’s replacement; this includes Brian Westbrook and other rookies who will be drafted in April.
By The Jazzy One on March 4th, 2010
Here are some recent articles and blog posts from around the web that you are probably going to want to read.
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