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Apparently Brett Favre had decided more than a week ago that he wasn't going to join the Vikings, but the Vikings wouldn't take "no" for an answer.ESPN.com's Ed Werder reports that Favre told Vikings offensive coordinator Darren Bevell on July 20 that he would not be coming back, and that Bevell and the rest of the Vikings staff asked him to wait and think about it a little longer. The Vikings then had Adrian Peterson, Jared Allen and Steve Hutchinson call or text Favre to try to convince him to come out of retirement in what a source told ESPN was a full-court press.
Clearly this is from a source from Favre's camp trying to help polish some of the imperfections in Favre's now wishy-washy reputation by putting the late decision on the Vikings' shoulders. But there has also not been a denial from the Vikings on this report.
If true, it looks bad for the Vikings' front office. It's one thing to entertain the idea of bringing Favre to Minnesota, but when they asked Peterson, Allen and Hutchinson to help lobby Favre, they essentially asked them to turn their backs on a couple of their current teammates. If Favre had signed, there was a decent chance that Tarvaris Jackson would have been cut or traded -- he's in the final year of his current deal and Minnesota already had Sage Rosenfels to be Favre's backup with John David Booty as the long-term developmental quarterback
When the Vikings players had been asked by the media this summer what they thought about Favre coming to town, most had been smart enough to play it like Switzerland -- completely neutral and down the middle. He's a great quarterback, cliche, cliche, but we also have some very good quarterbacks already on the roster, cliche, cliche.
That was the perfect thing to say to keep everyone happy. But with phone calls and text messages, the three Vikings' stars were essentially lobbying for Favre to potentially take Jackson's job. That will be fun to explain in the locker room and huddle.
Jackson and Rosenfels have handled this situation about as well as it could be handled. And every player in the NFL knows that he's only one trade or injury away from being replaced. But by making it clear how desperately the Vikings wanted Favre, Minnesota's front office has also made it known that it's now going to be stuck with Plan B, which can't make Jackson or Rosenfels feel particularly thrilled.
Ideally, it will serve as excellent motivation that brings out the best in them. But if the chemistry in the locker room starts to fall apart, it's fair to wonder if asking Peterson, Allen and Hutchinson to take sides was a bad idea.
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