Retirement Tour

Rumors of Brett Favre’s retirement have been greatly exaggerated.

Suffering from Tom Sawyer syndrome, Favre has staged his own professional ending the past several summers, presumably to see what would be said on that fateful day when Father Time finally does catch up with Mississippi’s favorite son.

But the fact remains: Brett Favre has never retired; he’s alive and well, wearing cleats and a helmet just like always.

Regardless of what Ted Thompson has wished for in Green Bay or Rachel Nichols has reported on from Hattiesburg, the 40-year-old graybeard gunslinger is back for his 20th NFL season after leading the Vikings to overtime of the NFC title game last season.

The “real, comfortable” quarterback took his first snaps of the preseason last night, during a 15–10 loss at San Francisco. Four days after arriving at Vikings training camp, Favre completed his only pass attempt, a 13-yard screen to Adrian Peterson, and took his first real hit of the year on a sack from All-Pro linebacker Patrick Willis.

“Wasn’t much to evaluate. Four plays. Got a completion to start it off. Got a first down. For me, it’s hard to explain to people what you’re trying to get out of four plays. When we played these guys last year, I think it was 93 plays. Big difference,” said Favre, who threw a game-winning 32-yard touchdown pass to Greg Lewis with two seconds remaining last year against the 49ers.

“There’s no substitute for getting in a game, calling plays, having a 40 second clock that you have to pay attention to. They blitzed on the last play. We technically could have picked it up. I could have made a call. But the mind wasn’t working quick enough.”

After another offseason of retirement speculation, Favre is on pace to start his 286th consecutive regular season game (310th straight counting playoffs) in the season opener on Thursday night, Sept. 9, in New Orleans — the scene of his final pass last season, a costly interception in overtime against the eventual Super Bowl champion Saints.

The four-time MVP is coming off arguably his finest season, one in which he led the Vikings to a 12–4 record, completing 68.4 percent of his passes for 4,202 yards, 33 TDs and only seven INTs, for a 107.2 passer rating. This time around, Favre — who had offseason surgery on his left ankle and continues to battle bone spurs — hopes to stay healthy and productive enough to lead Minnesota to a berth in Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium.

“From a physical standpoint, as you get older, it is, it’s tougher,” said Favre, who will turn 41 on Oct. 10. “(Last year) I felt fresh for probably the first 10 or 12 weeks, then I hit the wall. Not the rookie wall, I hit the old man wall.”

Having sent Steve Hutchinson, Jared Allen and Ryan Longwell — Favre’s three amigos who, coincidentally, represented offense, defense and special teams — to Hattiesburg to retrieve their star quarterback for one last title run, the time is now for the Vikings.

“The guys know where I stand. I know where they stand. Now you just got to go play,” said Favre. “We’ll see.”