Brett Favre

Say what you will about Brett Favre's ceaseless dramatics, the NFL is more interesting when he's playing.… Equally compelling to Green Bay Packers fans, of course, would be for Aaron Rodgers & Co. to derail Favre's Super Bowl aspirations with the Minnesota Vikings. … It could easily happen. A player putting eraser to paper should not be the enduring image of a major international sports event.… Golf looked silly Sunday, but rules are rules.

Brett Favre has not decided whether he will play for the Minnesota Vikings this season, and Wednesday he denied sending text messages to teammates that said he will call it quits. Reports on Tuesday said Favre had begun telling Vikings personnel, including teammates, that he would not play in 2010. Coach Brad Childress dismissed the reports Tuesday, saying he hadn't heard directly from Favre on the subject. Vikings offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and Favre's agent, Bus Cook, said Wednesday that Favre plans to return to the team if he is healthy.

Brett Favre will start at quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings in their exhibition game at San Francisco on Sunday and play a series or two, Coach Brad Childress said Friday in Eden Prairie, Minn. Favre, who returned to the Vikings on Tuesday after weeks of uncertainty about whether he would retire, said he needs to be in a game. "There's no substitute for calling plays in the huddle in a real game environment, and the only way I'm going to get the speed of the game down is being in games," he said.

Brett Favre's career isn't quite over yet. Minnesota Vikings interim Coach Leslie Frazier says the team is hoping to have Favre back this season ? and possibly this week. Favre's NFL-record streak of starting 297 consecutive starts ended when a sprained throwing shoulder and numb hand kept him out of Monday's game against the New York Giants. Frazier said Tuesday that an ultrasound on Favre's neck and shoulder showed no nerve damage. He said the 41-year-old quarterback's pain was subsiding and that his recovery was "headed in the right direction.

It's nice to have heroes. Everyone should. Growing up in Wisconsin, Tony Romo settled on Brett Favre. Sort of. All week leading up to Thursday night's NFC matchup, that storyline dominated all the talk about Packers vs. Cowboys. Romo did his level best not to sound in awe of the guy he followed as a kid. Turns out he could have saved himself plenty of worry.

How he started 1991 draft: Atlanta Falcons make Favre their second-round pick, No. 33 overall, out of Southern Mississippi. Rookie season: Active for three games during the regular season, he played in two (debut Oct. 27 vs. Los Angeles Rams and Nov. 10 at Washington). Only statistics were four incomplete passes in Redskins game. Feb. 10, 1992: Traded to Packers, for 17th overall pick in 1992 draft. Playing highlights Sept. 13, 1992: at Tampa Bay, Favre completes his first NFL pass -- to himself.

One minute, Brett Favre sternly insists he isn't out for revenge against the Green Bay Packers on Monday night. The next, he says it's only human for him to feel as if he has something to prove to the team that traded him. In his first extended interview with Wisconsin reporters since well before his unretirement saga went public last summer, Favre reluctantly revisited his departure from Green Bay. He also awkwardly backpedaled from previous...

The NFL assessed $125,000 in fines to the New York Jets and former coach Eric Mangini on Wednesday for violating the league's rules on injury reporting with former quarterback Brett Favre last season. The Jets failed to place Favre, now with the Minnesota Vikings, on the injury report during the final month of last season even though he had a torn biceps tendon. The league announced it had fined the Jets $75,000, and Mangini and Jets General Manager Mike Tannenbaum $25,000 apiece.

It was a three-word text that, if true, will lead to countless four-letter words among Minnesota Vikings fans. "This is it." That's what quarterback Brett Favre reportedly texted to teammates this week, indicating he will not be returning to the NFL this season, reportedly because his surgically repaired ankle is not sufficiently responding to rehabilitation. It's a reasonable possibility, considering the league's three-time most valuable player and serial retiree will turn 41 in October.

The end is near. Or so it appears. Then again, with Brett Favre it's always hard to tell. But with the news Monday that the Minnesota Vikings quarterback has two small fractures in his left ankle, it seems likely that his NFL-record streak of 291 consecutive starts soon will be coming to an end. Favre has not been ruled out for the Week 8 game at New England but was clearly in pain during Sunday night's 28-24 loss at Green Bay. He...