Favre to retire again(?)

Near the end of a rambling news conference to discuss his return to the Minnesota Vikings, Brett Favre said something Wednesday that was easy to scoff at: this season will be his last in the N.F.L.

“Twenty years, and I’m done,” he said.

The announcement might have seemed, well, disingenuous coming from Favre, who had retired and unretired twice already, in 2008 and 2009, and appeared undecided this year until three teammates flew to Hattiesburg, Miss., on the owner Zygi Wilf’s jet this week to fetch him. Even Favre, when asked if anyone should believe him, conceded: “Probably not. I do believe it now. I’ve got to fall apart some time.”

***

The latest development in the Brett Favre retirement drama came yesterday, from Favre himself.

In Hattiesburg, Miss., Favre told ESPN's Ed Werder that he would play for the Minnesota Vikings this season if his surgically repaired left ankle was sound, but that the ankle remained problematic. The Vikings' offensive coordinator, Darrell Bevell, who coached Favre with the Green Bay Packers and speaks with him regularly, said Favre had told him the same thing.

***

The joke going around yesterday after the latest round of will-he-or-won't-he with Brett Favre was that the three-time MVP should open a Waffle House in his hometown of Kiln, Mississippi.

Favre sure has waffled on the decision before, and it's difficult to believe his latest "see ya" will stick.

A source with knowledge of the situation has told the Associated Press that the NFL's most prolific passer is citing his injured left ankle as the reason he won't return for a second season with Minnesota. But the Vikings aren't taking his latest pronouncement as gospel, even after Favre texted some players to explain why he is MIA and won't BRB during a training camp that is in full swing.

Coach Brad Childress, who not only orchestrated the Vikings' acquisition of Favre last year but picked up his new/old quarterback at the airport, wasn't fully swallowing this news.

"I gotta hear it from the horse's mouth," Childress said.