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.