Favre Expects to Play Again Next ... Week (Gotcha!)

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn -- Rested and relaxed from a week home in Mississippi and finishing up a pre-practice peanut butter and jelly sandwich, Brett Favre saw the question coming and found himself in just the right frame of mind to play with it. Initially, it was about Arizona's Kurt Warner, and reports earlier this week that he'd been considering retirement.

"Waffling? Is he waffling?" Favre deadpanned, drawing some chuckles from the crowd at his Wednesday news conference.

And when the question turned into one of whether annual thoughts of retirement were returning to Favre's mind, the Vikings' 40-year-old quarterback nodded thoughtfully said, "Good try," and went on to explain that he fully expects to beat the Cowboys in Sunday's playoff game and have another playoff game to talk about next Wednesday.

"I honestly see us sitting here next week having this same press conference again," Favre said. "And if that doesn't happen, it'll be a shock. So I just haven't thought about what next year will be like or what I'll be doing next week or anything like that. Our success this year has been very helpful in not having to talk about that."

It is the firmly held belief of this reporter that it's not worth wasting time asking Favre about his future, since his answers change so often as to be irrelevant. It's impossible to believe that Favre hasn't thought at all about what he'll do once this season ends -- whether that's this Sunday, next Sunday or Super Bowl Sunday. But at this point, with Anthony Spencer and DeMarcus Ware to occupy his thoughts, we can surely take him at his word that he hasn't yet decided what he'll do. (He almost never, in fact, seems to do that.) As he made clear Wednesday, Favre and the Vikings have long expected this season to extend beyond the divisional round of the playoffs, and those expectations have not changed.

"All I want to do is beat Dallas," Favre said. "To even think about next year right now is doing myself an injustice, and this team. I came here for one reason -- to lead this team to a Super Bowl, hopefully this year, not next year. And I'm not good enough to focus on this game and worry about what happens next year."

The Vikings' success has landed them a date with the Cowboys on Sunday. It earned them a first-round playoff bye as the No. 2 seed in the NFC. And as terrifying and dominant as Dallas has looked for the past month, the Vikings go into this game with the confidence of a rested favorite playing at home. Part of that confidence, Vikings coach Brad Childress said, has to do with Favre being their quarterback.

"It's an advantage," Childress said. "He's a seasoned guy with how many playoff games (22) under his belt? That's an advantage for us, to have somebody with that kind of experience."

Especially if he's feeling healthy. Which, to Favre's surprise, he apparently is. Speaking about his own health, Favre thought back to the end of the 2008 season, when a biceps tendon injury ruined the finish of his one and only season with the Jets. At that time, he said, he never would have imagined feeling as good as he says he feels in January of 2010.

"Here we are, playoffs, and I'm throwing the ball as well as I was two years ago," Favre said. "Looking back, you had to think that at 40, coming off surgery and with a rotator cuff tear, at some point it was going to show up. So from that standpoint, I'm a little surprised."

But at the same time, confident enough to expect that he'll be standing at that same podium next week talking about the Saints or the Cardinals, and not about whether he wants to play again next year.

"I hate to say I'm recharged this week, but I am energized about this week," Favre said. "As I have been all season."

So the retirement talk will have to wait. The good thing is, he can be sure it'll come up again. And again. And again ...