It’s official: Brett Favre is now a Minnesota Viking after signing a two-year deal. Below are six quick-hit observations on the topic.

1. Nobody should be surprised by Brett’s decision.
When Favre told the Vikings in July that he would stay retired, you would have had to been naïve to believe him. Thus, nobody should be shocked by this news today. The key to this situation was that Brett didn’t want to go to training camp. He doesn’t like practicing and given his experience in the WCO, he didn’t need the extra camp reps. He must have known that Brad Childress was okay with him skipping camp and signing a deal once preseason started.

2. Childress should grow a pair.
If I were a Minnesota player, I’d be wondering how much sack my head coach has after this situation. Childress allowed Favre to dictate everything that went down, including when he would sign. Childress wanted Favre to sign so badly that he was willing to look past Brett skipping training camp while the rest of his teammates were putting in hours of hard work on the practice field. It’s a joke that Childress and the Vikings didn’t walk away from this situation when Favre said he was going to remain retired (even if they knew he would eventually change his mind). And even if Brett gets the Vikings to a Super Bowl, they’ll still be the team that put a single player above an entire organization.

3. The Vikings wronged Rosenfels.
I don’t care that Rosenfels is a career backup quarterback or that Favre is a legend – the way the Vikings handled this situation was a slap in the face of Rosenfels. Minnesota acquired Rosenfels from Houston earlier this offseason so that he could compete with Jackson for the starting quarterback gig. Then the Vikings tossed Rosenfels and Jackson aside for months while flirting with Favre. Once Brett said he would stay retired, Rosenfels then went into camp and busted his ass believing that he had a legitimate shot at winning the starting job, only to be thrown to the backburner again with the signing of Favre. As far as anyone knows, Rosenfels was kept out of the loop when it came to the Vikings’ pursuit of Favre, which makes the situation even more ridiculous now that Rosenfels is once again delegated to backup duty. How ironic would it be if Favre goes down with an injury and Minnesota’s playoff hopes rest on Rosenfels’ shoulders?

4. Putting aside everything else, Favre still makes the Vikings better.
Even though Favre is going to receive most of the attention this year, keep in mind that it’s still the Adrian Peterson show in Minnesota. Peterson is the backbone of an offense that got to the playoffs last year despite having limitations at quarterback in Jackson and Gus Frerotte. The Vikings also have one of the better offensive lines in football and drafted a true playmaker in Percy Harvin. Favre doesn’t need to be the savior in Minnesota, he just needs to stay healthy and limit the mistakes. Granted, those two things could be hard for a 42-year-old, interception-prone quarterback who had surgery in the offseason, but again, he won’t be required to win games on his own so he this should mostly be a positive move for the Vikings football-wise.

5. Don’t forget how productive Favre was last year.
People are quick to note how the wheels fell off for Favre and the Jets last year, but don’t forget how good he was for the first 12 or so weeks of the season. After the Jets beat the then-undefeated Titans in Week 12, some even considered Favre a MVP candidate. His health is a huge concern, but he proved last year that he could still be effective. There’s a good chance that he’ll break down again throughout the course of the season, but it’s impossible to project whether or not a player can stay healthy and the Vikings can’t concern themselves with that either. The bottom line is (as I mentioned in No. 4) that when he’s healthy, he makes the Vikings better.

6. Fantasy spin.
Check out John Paulsen’s post about what kind of an affect Favre signing with the Vikings have in the fantasy world.

In case you missed it, pending a physical, Brett Favre is about to become a Viking.

People are justifiably interested in talking about the on-again/off-again Brett Favre saga, and how the Vikings bent over backwards, allowing #4 to skip training camp because…well…he doesn’t like to practice.

But what about his fantasy impact?

First things first, the Vikings have one of the easiest schedules for a QB. Whether it’s Brett Favre, Sage Rosenfels or Tarvaris Jackson, the Minnesota QB is only projected to have one tough matchup all season.

Fans around the country have been dumping on Favre since the Jets’ December swoon last season, but let’s not forget the fact that he was in the MVP conversation as late as Week 12 after he led the Jets to a 34-13 victory over the then-undefeated Titans in Nashville. At that point, Favre was averaging 224 yards, 1.8 TD and 1.2 INT per game. Had he continued on that pace, he would have finished as fantasy’s #9 QB, ahead of David Garrard and behind Matt Cassel. Somewhere around this point in the season, Favre tore his biceps which led to his late-season swoon. Even so, he finished as QB13.

In early July, when Favre-to-Minnesota looked inevitable, he was going in the 12th round. I suspect that he might go a bit earlier (maybe the 9th-11th) now that it’s (almost) official. This puts him the QB15-QB20 range. I’d probably take him after Cassel/Hasselbeck/E. Manning/Garrard but before Orton/Edwards/Flacco/Delhomme.

Favre is still starter-caliber when healthy, but his age makes him better suited to be part of a QBBC. With that in mind, I re-ran the QBBC numbers, assuming that Favre would score 251 fantasy points (in a high performance scoring system) figuring that last year’s total (which included five games with a torn biceps) would be a fair estimate of his 2009 production. It turns out that Favre’s schedule combines well with Shaun Hill (#14 combo), Garrard (#20) and Cassel (#27), so if you’re trying to get one of my recommended QBBC combos — Cassel/Hill, Garrard/Hill or Garrard/Cassel — Favre works with all three of those QBs. Put him alongside Trent Edwards on your list of backup options if you miss out on one of those players.

As for the rest of the Vikings, the threat of Favre in the passing game should boost the value of Adrian Peterson, while his experience and talent should help Bernard Berrian, Percy Harvin and Visanthe Shiancoe.

If you do draft Favre, be sure to grab Sage Rosenfels as his backup. Prior to the Favre signing, Rosenfels was leading the QB competition and has the best chance of being Favre’s backup.

According to a report by WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, free agent quarterback Brett Favre will sign with the Vikings sometime today.

Favre is on currently on his way to Minneapolis and is expected to sign with the team this afternoon, the source said.

WCCO-TV spoke with an official at the Hattiesburg, Miss., airport, who saw an airplane with the Vikings logo leave the airport Tuesday morning. The flight number for that plane has been blocked from tracking systems.

This is ridiculous. What has changed since July 28, when Favre told the Vikings that he would stay retired and not play football in 2009? What, does his arm feel significantly better today than it did at the end of July? Or did Favre just want to skip training camp and now that the Vikings have begun preseason play, he’s ready to join them?

If the Vikings sign Favre, it would be a massive slap in the face of Sage Rosenfels, who was brought to Minnesota this offseason in order to compete for a starting gig. Minnesota dragged Rosenfels through the ringer while flirting with Favre all summer, only to tell him that he was once again in line to be the starting quarterback after Brett said he would stay retired. Then, Rosenfels goes out and completes 10-of-13 passes for 91 yards in the Vikings’ preseason opener last week and now will once again take a back seat to Favre when/if the former Packer is signed.

I get that a legend like Favre would pull rank over a 31-year-old journeyman like Rosenfels, but it’s the principle of the matter. When Favre told Brad Childress that he was going to stay retired, that should have been the end it. But instead, Childress is so far down Brett’s pants that he’ll do anything in order to have Favre in purple and yellow this season.

Or maybe Childress knew all along that Favre was going to sign as soon as training camp was over. If that’s the case, then I still stand by the notion that Childress is sackless, because he should have told Favre to get his ass into training camp if he wanted to play this season.

What a load of crap.

The NFL Network’s Scott Hanson is reporting that Brett Favre will continue to throw and work out, despite telling Vikings head coach Brad Childress that he wants to stay retired and not play in 2009.

Via Rotoworld:

You’ve got to be kidding. Favre reportedly said he’s still not totally sure about whether he’ll stay retired or try to play, even after “confirming” he’d re-re-retire to Childress and in an ESPN interview. Asked by Steve Mariucci how he’d feel about his decision on Wednesday morning, Favre replied “I’m wondering that myself.” It wouldn’t shock us one bit if Favre “gets the itch” again and tries to come back late in camp or even after the season kicks off.

If I’m Childress and Favre calls me in a week saying that he’s ready to come back, I tell him to piss off.

Brett will always be a NFL legend for what he did in Green Bay and I, as well as many other football fans, will always admire how he played the game with such passion, reckless abandon and determination. The guy was flat out fun to watch.

That said, news of him being unsure about his decision to stay retired shouldn’t surprise anyone. Favre is more indecisive than a 15-year-old girl at the mall and I wouldn’t be shocked if he changed his mind once every day until the start of the season.

He’s just flat out incapable of making a decision without changing his mind 14 times.

According to Vikings head coach Brad Childress, Brett Favre has decided to stay retired and will not play this season.

Judd just received a phone call from Brad Childress who said he talked to Brett Favre and that he was informed that Favre is staying retired. Childress cited the daily grind both mentally and physically as part of the reason why Favre remained retired.

“I just think it was a rare opportunity to explore a Hall of Fame quarterback who had background in the NFC and in this division,” Childress said. “He knows our system inside out … This doesn’t change anything about how I feel about our football team.”

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m shocked. I thought for sure that Brett was coming back, but ultimately I think this was the right decision. I don’t think his body would have made it through a full 16-game season and I know just the thought of him being in white and purple was enough to make most Packer fans throw up their lunch.

My first thought was to write about how Brett screwed the Vikings by putting them and their players through the ringer for the past two months. But really, what has changed? They planned on going with either Sage Rosenfels or Tarvaris Jackson before all of the Favre talked spread, and now those two players will battle it out in camp. Chances are, Rosenfels and Jackson are going to put all of these behind them fairly quickly and get ready for training camp. With the season still a couple months away, Favre will be old news in Minnesota in a few weeks and the players will move on.

Then again, the season is still a couple of months away, so Favre could still change his mind…no! He wouldn’t…would he?!

Here’s a shocker: Brett Favre is unsure about something.

According to a report by ESPN.com’s Ed Werder, Favre is conflicted about whether or not to play this season.

With Minnesota Vikings players scheduled to report to training camp in less than a week, Brett Favre remains anguished about whether he should come out of retirement and join the team. That decision, according to sources, has become more difficult in recent days because of the efforts of Vikings players including Adrian Peterson, Jared Allen and Steve Hutchinson, all of whom have now begun calling and texting Favre in an attempt to convince him to become Minnesota’s starting quarterback.

“If it weren’t for the involvement of the Vikings players directly telling Brett they want him on their team, I think he might have already decided against playing again,” a source said.

A source said that Favre is beginning to feel a sense of obligation, not only to Vikings players but to a coaching staff that has been recruiting him since the moment the New York Jets released him in April. According to sources, Favre has been communicating regularly with Vikings head coach Brad Childress and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, who was Favre’s offensive coordinator in Green Bay for three seasons.

Money is not an issue, as a source says that Favre and the Vikings have negotiated a one-year contract worth approximately $10 million. But the quarterback has not decided whether to sign it.
What seems unresolved in Favre’s mind is whether, at age 39, he can reasonably expect to be healthy enough to play 16-plus games for the Vikings while maintaining the standard of performance he expects of himself.

Hey Brett, do you want to play or not? You’re 39 years old – of course there’s a chance you might not be able to make it through an entire season. You didn’t technically make it through last season as you essentially had your biceps duct taped to your arm for the final couple weeks of the year. But again, do you want to play or not?

Favre shouldn’t feel like he has an obligation to the Vikings to play this season because ultimately, it’s his decision. But he does have an obligation to the Vikings to make a damn decision one way or another, especially considering we’re in late July now and not April. Minnesota has been patient this entire time with Brett, so he needs to make a decision so the Vikes can move on either with or without him.

He said he was going to make a decision by July 30. Then he said he should know by this Friday. All indications were that he was going to tell the Vikings yes, now he’s conflicted. It never ceases to amaze me how this guy can draw every last bit of drama out of a situation both for the good and the bad.

Vikings’ head coach Brad Childress said over the weekend that he hasn’t spoken with Brett Favre in a few weeks, but also noted that the free agent quarterback’s throwing motion looked fine when he recently viewed him on video.

“I liked his throwing motion, the little bit that I saw on tape,” Childress said. “It looked fine to me.”

Childress has received first-hand reports on Favre’s throwing from offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and head athletic trainer Eric Sugarman, who both made the trip to visit Favre in Mississippi two weeks ago. Favre is recovering from arthroscopic surgery in late May to release the partially torn biceps in his throwing arm and how his arm feels is going to be the key factor in his decision on playing another season.

“I think [Bevell] thought he was progressing,” Childress said. “I think Suge felt the same way.”

Childress said he liked Favre’s throwing motion…I think I’ll wet myself.

Favre is supposed to make a decision by July 30 on whether or not he’s going to play this season. Until then, all of us continue wait on pins and needles, at the edges of our seats or grasping to our computer screens for him to announce his decision.