In my last post (which has been a while. I apologize; finals murdered me and buried me in their crawlspace) I foolishly assumed that the Brett Favre drama was dead. When we left off, Brett had supposedly called Minnesota head coach Brad Childress and expressed that he’d rather remain retired than join the Vikings. It seems like forever ago, doesn’t it? And how quickly things changed from there. It wasn’t even 24 hours until the rumors were back on: Brett’s sending X-rays to the Vikings, Childress is flying down to Mississippi to meet with Favre, teammates are taking sides on the issue… the whole thing is a mess. The only way for it to end any more dramatically is if we find out Brett Favre was really a ghost the whole time or Childress mails him Gwyneth Paltrow’s head in a box.

But you know what? I hope Favre does join the Vikings. I’ll say it again: I want Brett Favre to join the Minnesota Vikings. I know what you’re thinking: Jim, this is a guy who ruined (at a minimum) two Sundays a year for Bears fans, and now you want to seem him back in the division? Hell yes I do, and I’ll tell you why.

First off, Brett Favre isn’t the same Quarterback that he used to be. He’s going to be turning 40 this year, and I just don’t believe he has much gas left. He got off to a great start last year, but had just a 56% completion percentage in his last five games with a 2-9 TD-INT ratio. That’s the kind of quarterback play that ruins playoff bids, just ask Jets fans. I’m not sure how effective he’ll be with another year under his belt, especially without participating in OTAs. Also he supposedly has a ligament tear in his bicep, and while the severity is unknown, an arm injury is an arm injury. It will probably require some type of surgery, and 40 year olds don’t recover quite as quickly as they used to.

Secondly, I’m pretty sure he would be a colossal distraction. Favrewatch ‘09 is rivaling that of Favrewatch ‘08, and there’s no sign of it slowing down. Can a relatively small-market team handle the  media scrutiny that Favre would bring? Besides, the Vikings already have two starting quarterbacks on their roster in Tarvaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels. The team was planning on the two guys battling it out for the starting spot, but what happens if you bring in Favre and send these two young passers to the bench? It can’t be good for their confidence. And should Brett fail, the team might not be able to recover.

Team/Player Photos: Chicago Bears Team / Player Photos on Jul 24, 2010

Thirdly, I really doubt Brett’s motivation. Does he really want to join the Vikings in the hope of making a deep playoff run, or does he just want to piss the Packers off? It’s no secret that, after the Packers decided to move on from the Favre drama before the ‘08 season, Brett wanted to be traded to an NFC North team so he could exact his revenge. The Packers weren’t about to do that, so they shipped him off to an AFC team that wouldn’t be playing Green Bay for a long time. Now that Favre has retired his way into free agency (sidebar: doesn’t there have to be some sort of rule against that? If you’re not happy with where you’re playing, are you allowed to “retire” and then get an “itch to play again” a week later? That doesn’t seem ethical.) it seems he is finally capable of seeking his revenge. Will it be at the expense of the Vikings?

I’m not convinced Brett Favre makes the Vikings a better team. No doubt that he’s a Hall of Fame quarterback, but there comes a time where you just have to know when to hang ‘em up. If he does decide to come back, I have a good feeling that this is going to be his last year. If he does it with Minnesota, I’m still not worried about the Bears’ chances. They’ve overcome Favre before, they can do it again.