On Monday, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that Brett Favre would have surgery at the end of the week to repair a tear in his right biceps so that he could eventually sign with the Vikings. But ESPN.com’s Ed Werder is disputing that claim and says that Favre doesn’t want to have surgery.

Favre, however, remains focused on non-surgical options, including cortisone injections and natural movements like light throwing and bicep curls that might cause the tendon to release naturally, the source told ESPN. If the tendon releases and the pain subsides, Favre is virtually certain to play again. If he has surgery and his arm strength diminishes or the pain remains, he will remain retired, the source said.

At 39, Favre believes the less he has to do to correct the problem the better as he believes he still possesses the arm strength he had 10 years ago. The difference now is the injury is causing pain. According to the source, Favre will return to the NFL to play for the Minnesota Vikings if the tendon ruptures and it makes him pain-free. If he submits to arthroscopic surgery and it fails to resolve the problem, then Favre intends to remain retired.

Either way, Favre is losing patience, causing the source to say the shoulder problem must be overcome soon or Favre is likely to abandon his effort to play a 19th NFL season.

It’s past the point where we should question anything the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports about Favre. It’s almost becoming second hat that when they report something, it’s going to be disputed the next day by a major media outlet, although ESPN did take the bait yesterday in regards to this story, because they linked to the St. Paul Pioneer Press’ Favre-surgery report themselves.

It’s getting harder and harder to decipher whether or not Favre will play next year. One moment it looks like he’s doing everything he can to return, and the next it looks like he’ll stay retired. The key hurdle seems to be his health and whether or not he can play without having surgery. In the end, maybe he’ll throw his hands up to the situation and stay retired after all.

According to a report by the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Brett Favre is scheduled to meet with Dr. James Andrews to discuss having a procedure done to repair his torn right biceps tendon.

Surgery to release the tendon is considered routine and is expected to be performed by Andrews later this week. Rehabilitation for Favre would be six to eight weeks.
If it goes well, Farve, who will turn 40 in October, is expected to sign with the Minnesota Vikings.
Favre missed a scheduled appointment with Andrews last week.

The torn biceps tendon is one of several sources of pain in Favre’s shoulder, but could be the most correctable. If cutting the biceps tendon doesn’t eliminate the pain, Favre would have to consider whether other more complex surgical procedures are worth undergoing. That could hinder chances of him signing with the Vikings.

The St. Pioneer Press has been hit and miss with its Favre coverage so far, but ESPN.com cited the same story so there might be some truth to this.

What’ll be interesting to see is if Favre does have the surgery, will the Vikings sign him before they see him throw? That would be a ridiculous notion, but maybe they already have an agreement in place that if he has successful surgery, they’ll sign him no matter what. I would have to imagine that the Vikings would want their doctors to check him out before they sign him, but who knows. Favre seems hell bent on playing and if the Vikings are hell bent on signing him, then there might be nothing stopping him from donning purple and white next season.

According to a report by ESPN.com, Brett Favre consulted Dr. James Andrews, a highly respected doctor among athletes, on what kind of exercises would help strengthen his biceps injury so he wouldn’t have to go under the knife.

The development further indicates Favre’s willingness to consider coming out of retirement to sign with the Minnesota Vikings, particularly if there is a non-surgical solution to his damaged shoulder.

The source said Andrews and Favre experimented with one of several exercises that could accelerate the process of the tendon releasing on its own. During an interview with ESPN in February, Favre mentioned that he had a partially torn biceps tendon in his left shoulder during his Green Bay Packers career and that the pain subsided once it completely tore naturally.

If that fails to produce the desired results, it remains uncertain whether Favre would endure even arthroscopic surgery to prolong his career to a 19th season. A source close to Favre described that as an option but a projected 3-6 week rehabilitation is unappealing to the quarterback, who will apparently require no therapy if the tendon can be forced to tear through the exercise regimen.

This report doesn’t necessarily mean that Favre intends on playing again next season, but it sure as hell looks like he’s trying to do everything in his power in order to come back. (And I do mean everything seeing as how he has been working out with a high school team to stay in shape.)

Team president Mark Wilf reiterated that Minnesota is still interested in signing Brett Favre, although he won’t confirm if any meeting has been established between the Vikings and the grizzled vet.

“Certainly a player of Brett Favre’s (credentials), a Hall of Fame quarterback, with the competitive he has, that is a player that we would have interest as we would have other players,” Wilf said. “But, again, its process of evaluation and a variety of factors that go into it and that has to play itself out and I defer to our coach and our personnel people to really evaluate those issues.”

Wilf said he and the ownership group entrusted such decisions to head coach Brad Childress and player personnel vice president Rick Spielman and their respective staffs.
Asked directly if anyone from the organization has met with Favre in the last week, Wilf said, “I’m not aware of any meeting.

“But, the fact is, like I say, any football personnel matters, medical matters ,those types of issues, are really issues that we don’t typically discuss publicly,” Wilf said. “. And I hope the fans and the media can appreciate that. Because that’s the right way, we feel, to get the best product on the field and get our ultimate goal of a Super Bowl championship.”

Since ESPN reported last Tuesday that Childress was planning to meet with Favre, the Vikings have been mum on the matter, which has become the central NFL story in a usually quiet period of the offseason.

The Vikings don’t need to rush into any decision regarding Favre because they seem to be the only team competing for his services. By all accounts, Favre only wants to play for the Vikings, which means the team can take its time analyzing his health and whether or not pursuing him is the right move for the 2009 season. (Any consideration past 2009 wouldn’t be worth discussing since Favre changes his mind more than a 16-year old girl in possession of her father’s credit card while at the mall.)

What a surprise – it turns out that Brett Favre could still be Minnesota bound.

According to a report by ESPN.com, the Vikings are apparently evaluating X-rays that Favre had taken on his injured throwing arm to determine whether or not to pursue signing him..

A source close to the situation told ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap on Friday that X-rays of Favre’s right shoulder — he has pain resulting from a torn biceps tendon — have been sent to the Vikings and that the X-rays are in the process of being evaluated. If it is determined by Favre’s and the Vikings’ medical people that he needs anything less than “major” surgery on his shoulder, Favre will un-retire to play for the Vikings, the source said.

If “major” surgery is necessary, Favre will remain retired, the source said.

The news comes on the day after Yahoo! Sports reported that the 39-year-old Favre told Vikings coach Brad Childress he would remain retired.

Bus Cook, Favre’s agent, told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols on Friday that he did not know of any X-rays being sent to Minnesota.

Why would Yahoo! Sports report that Favre told the Vikings he’s planning on staying retired, only to have ESPN come out the next day and say that the Vikings are basing their decision on whether or not to sign him on his X-rays? Something doesn’t add up here.

Either way, as I wrote yesterday when the Yahoo! Sports report broke, until I don’t see Favre’s frumpy ass in purple and white by kickoff of Week 1, I’m going to assume that he’ll be a Viking in 2009.

Even though the Jets have moved on from the 2008 experiment with Brett Favre, his ex-teammates still can’t help but to lob a few grenades in his direction while he flirts (flirted?) with the idea of joining the Vikings.

To a man, the Jets said they weren’t surprised by the latest on Favre, and many wished him well, but there were traces of bitterness. After all, he quit after only one season with the Jets, claiming he was finished with football. Now there’s talk of him playing for the Vikings.

The media-friendly Kerry Rhodes refused to discuss Favre, saying, “I don’t want to get into it.” Jerricho Cotchery said, “Before he came to us, the whole thing was he wanted to go to Minnesota. You kind of feel bad if you were the team he settled for.”

Another player, who requested anonymity, launched this salvo at the future Hall of Famer: “I’m tired of being part of his soap opera. If he really wanted to win a championship, he’d be right here. Let’s call it for what it is: He wants to play for Minnesota so he can stick it to Green Bay twice a year. He’s just being selfish. I’m not surprised.”

Late Thursday, Yahoo! Sports reported that Favre had informed the Vikings that he’s going to stay retired, although nothing official came from Favre – his agent told ESPN that Favre is retired but left the door open for a change of heart.

I wasn’t around the situation to know for sure, but it seemed like Brett never embraced the Jets. Granted, maybe he never embraced the Jets because he felt as though they didn’t embrace him, but you got the sense that the Big Apple was just going to be a brief stint for him, which it inevitably turned out to be.

I don’t blame Jets players for questioning Favre’s motives to play last year and his possible motivations for continuing to play. Does he really want to help a team win a Super Bowl or is he only continuing to play to fulfill some self-serving prophecy? Did he really want to help the Jets win last year or did he just want to prove to Ted Thompson and the Packers that he could still play?

It seems that if he is going to come back, he’ll only do so if it’s the absolute best situation for Brett. I don’t know whether or not to applaud him for being smart (after all, what player in their right mind would want to join a situation where they might not succeed?) or join the unnamed Jets’ player and call him selfish.

According to a report by Yahoo! Sports, Brett Favre has turned down the Vikings’ attempts to sign him and will now stay retired.

In a phone call that took place sometime in the last day, the source said Favre told Vikings coach Brad Childress that he wanted to remain retired. Favre is expected to publicly explain his decision soon.

Favre, who announced his first retirement in March 2008 after spending 16 seasons with the Green Bay Packers, decided to resume his career last summer and was traded to the New York Jets in August. After one season in New York, Favre retired again and was subsequently released by the Jets on April 29.

Just days after his release from the Jets, speculation began that the Vikings were interested in bringing in a veteran to compete with Sage Rosenfels(notes), who was acquired this offseason from the Houston Texans. Rosenfels is atop the depth chart heading into training camp, with Tarvaris Jackson and John David Booty(notes) also on the roster.

The moment the Vikings step onto the field in Week 1 of the new season and I don’t see a No. 4 jersey with Favre on the back, then I’ll believe Brett isn’t coming back. For now, I’m just going to assume that he’s upset that Childress has asked him to show up to minicamp and he’s going to bide his time until most of the padded workouts are complete.

I’m not going to believe anything until it comes out of Brett Favre’s mouth. And even then I’m going to question the hell out of what he says.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune (via an unnamed NFL source), Brett Favre would agree to have surgery in order to play for the Vikings next season.

One key topic will be the condition of the partially torn biceps in Favre’s throwing arm that derailed his only season as a member of the New York Jets. But a resolution to that situation appears close — and the sides could reach a deal quickly.

Favre, according to NFL sources, is agreeable to undergoing a minor procedure in which surgeons complete the cutting of the tendon. The recovery period would be quick, and Favre would be ready to go long before training camp.

I urge everyone to take these reports with a grain of salt considering most of them (including this one) come from unnamed league sources. But either way, the Favre-to-Vikings rumors are heating up.

One think that has intrigued me is how Favre wants to play with the Vikings in order to get back at Packers’ GM Ted Thompson. That’s ridiculous if it’s true (again, if it’s true), especially considering Thompson often had to wait several weeks to full months after seasons (plural) to hear from Favre about whether or not he was going to retire or come back to Green Bay. Favre essentially put Thompson (a GM mind you, who has to prepare for free agency, the draft and everything else in the offseason) through the ringer several times regarding his retirement plans, yet the one offseason Thompson plays hardball with him, Brett gets his feelings hurt. (And don’t forget that Thompson was still willing to take him back at one point last offseason, yet Brett changed his mind twice before stating that he wanted to be traded.)

One thing Brett might want to consider is his fans in Green Bay. They treated him like an NFL god for over a decade and would gladly step in front of a bus for him at a moment’s notice. How are they going to feel the day he holds up that purple No. 4 jersey at his Vikings’ press conference? I hope his legacy in Green Bay takes a major hit the moment he steps onto Lambeau Field in a rival’s uniform.

That said, from a pure football standpoint, he would be great for the Vikings’ offense. Minnesota has a tremendous running game thanks to a great offensive line and Adrian Peterson, a couple of solid receiving threats in Bernard Berrian and Percy Harvin, and Brad Childress employs an offense Favre is already accustomed to running. I just don’t know if his arm would hold up for an entire 16-game season, although the Vikings appear to be addressing that question by making him have surgery.

According to ESPN.com and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Brett Favre will meet with Vikings’ head coach Brad Childress sometime this week at an undisclosed location to discuss his return to football.

The ESPN report stated that there is a mutual understanding that sometime soon after the meeting, Favre will decide whether to sign with the Vikings and that Childress would expect him to participate fully in the offseason minicamps and training camps. Favre, who will turn 40 on Oct. 10, was never fond of participating in the Packers’ offseason camps. The future Hall of Famer did not get traded to the New York Jets in time last year for that to become an issue.
One thing working in the Vikings’ favor is that Favre is very familiar with the West Coast offensive system the team runs — he directed the same offense for several years in Green Bay. He also is extremely close with former Packers assistant and current Vikings offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell.

Perhaps the Vikings’ biggest concern will be the condition of Favre’s injured right biceps tendon, which played a role in his struggles late last season when the Jets won only one of their final five games. ESPN reported that Favre might believe his arm can heal on its own without surgery, and how the injury heals will be a factor in his decision.

Assuming of course that these reports are true and that he wants to come back, the question the Vikings should be asking themselves is whether or not Favre makes them better. Since 1998, he is 3-6 in the playoffs with 16 touchdowns and 18 interceptions and his play dramatically fell off again towards the end of last season because of his biceps injury. Is he completely healthy? If he is, can he stay healthy for an entire season?

I’m not entirely sure that at this point Favre is significantly better option than Sage Rosenfels or Tarvaris Jackson. The same core that got the Vikings to the playoffs last year is returning and while Rosenfels isn’t a spectacular quarterback, he can certainly turn around and hand the ball to Adrian Peterson 25 times a game.