DownSwinging.com

This is slightly older news at this point, but I had to cover all of the baseball drama in a timely fashion. Yesterday, Brett Favre said that he was retiring, and would not be joining the Minnesota Vikings this season as their quarterback. This has remarkable consequences for the Minnesota franchise.

Before I begin, let me just state that I fully agree with the Vikings decision to chase Favre. In Adrian Peterson they have the best running back in football, but with Tavaris Jackson (and probably with Sage Rosenfels too) under center, teams are completely willing to put eight in the box to counter Peterson and it obviously makes it much harder on him. By adding even just Favre’s reputation, it would at the very least free up space for Peterson to do his thing.

But now, just days before the Vikings have gone to training camp, Favre says he doesn’t want to play anymore. After dragging them along this whole time, he’s calling it quits. Done. Personally, I was shocked. I thought for sure that between his shoulder surgery and all of his workouts, we’d be seeing Favre donning the purple. Apparently, not so. So how does this leave the Vikes? In complete disarray. Where all offseason they basically have been telling Jackson and Rosenfels that the organization wasn’t confident in them (probably rightfully so) they all of a sudden need to pick one of them to lead the football team to victory. And how do you think they feel about that? Or the rest of the team. I mean obviously they want to play, but no one wants to be a team’s backup plan. Had Favre made this decision earlier, the team might have either been able to make improvements in other areas, or at the very least go into the season on a united front. Not now. I won’t be expecting to see the Vikes in the playoffs in 2009.

And, if all that wasn’t enough, late last night Favre decided to say that while he didn’t think he would play again, he couldn’t rule it out. Please. Doesn’t he realize how much he is angering the entire country’s fan base? We know now what he wants. He wants to start the season five or six games in, so he doesn’t have to play the whole time. I get it Favre. Now I know. But even though I’m by no means a Vikings fan, I feel bad for them, they were deceived and tricked, by the Hall of Famer, Brett Favre.