Die-hard fan made bet on Favre’s return

After Brett Favre made a bet with his alumni baseball team the Golden Eagles that he would return to NFL if the team returns to College World Series, a die-hard Favre fan made a bet to his friend that he would quit his job to watch Vikings games if Favre wears back his purple and gold No.4 Favre jersey.

Tomilick Hernandez, a magazine editor, is a long-time Vikings fan and has been a supporter for Favre since his arrival to Minnesota in last August. Hernandez missed quite a few games last season because of his limited spare time, but was still excited on the victories Favre led his beloved team to. Despite disappointment on the failure to win a Super Bowl appearance, the fan still believes that Favre is able to lead the Vikings back into playoffs if he returns for the 2010 season. However, some of his friends totally disagree with him and said that Favre was too old to win games.

In order to show his support for Favre, Hernandez bet that he would be a full-time audience for the NFL season if Favre makes official announcement on his return. He said that he would record all the victories Favre and Vikings achieve during the season and let his friend know why a legend is a legend.

Vikings offensive coordinator Bevell believes in Favre’s return

Among the many people who believe that Brett Favre will return to play for the Minnesota Vikings in 2010 season, Vikings offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell has his belief become a special one because it is considered to be evidence.

Bevell could be the one Favre was most familiar with in Minnesota when arriving as new member of the Vikings. They got to know each other in the early 1990s, when Bevell was still a quarterback with the University of Wisconsin and Favre was already playing with the Green Bay Packers. The relationship continued after Bevell joined the Packers to become Favre’s position coach. Bevell was the one left Packers first and he found new job as offensive coordinator with the Vikings, and Favre reunited with his long-time friend in 2009 offseason. So if Bevell said that Favre was very likely to return, more people would be convinced the quarterback would really wear back the Vikings style of Favre jersey.

Bevell indeed expressed his confidence in Favre’s return last week. Although he insisted that he had not been told about the quarterback’s decision, he believed that Favre would pick up the starting job anytime when he returns. When he was asked about possible impact of the NFC loss to the New Orleans Saints, Bevell’s answer was somehow encouraging, as he said Favre never make decision based on one play. Instead, as Favre took the 2009 season as his career best, the return is simply more likely to happen than retirement.

Why is Favre necessary for Vikings’ Super Bowl win?

Many people now believe that Brett Favre will return to the Minnesota Vikings to finish his NFL career with a 20th full season. I also believe that is very likely to happen in near future, but I just can’t help wondering, why is Brett Favre just so important to the Vikings and their plan for a Super Bowl winning season?

I read through a lot of articles about Favre and Vikings, and found that the belief of Favre leading Vikings to Super Bowl victory majorly came from people’s worship of the legendary quarterback. At age 40, what Favre can still do is nothing different from other 40-year-old man, but his very existence just can bring confidence back into our minds. We all believe that Favre was a greatest quarterback and the belief was solidified after Favre had his best season in 2009. The Vikings were so near to the Super Bowl with a starting quarterback in No. 4 Brett Favre jersey that their fans can’t help believing that the same quarterback could bring them the long-wanted Super Bowl championship as long as he is good health condition.

Then we came to the news of Favre’s surgery. According to reports, the surgery was had successfully and will allow Favre to move in larger range. That means Favre will be able to avoid attacks from opponent players with more smartness. What a exciting sign! Now I also believe that Favre will at least led the Vikings to a Super Bowl appearance in 2010 season.

Two-year contract indicates Favre’s 2010 return

The Minnesota Vikings have been confident that their starting quarterback Brett Favre, who has not made his final decision on his playing status in 2010 season, will return to play his 20th NFL season. The confidence is nothing about any underground contacts, but simply because the team signed a two-year contract with Favre in 2009 offseason.

You may think that Favre can choose not to finish that last year on the contract, but if he intended to do that, why did he still sign a two-year deal instead of a single-year one? Favre must have made the plan to play for his last two NFL seasons before retiring. Frustration after the NFC loss to the New Orleans Saints caused him to say that he was unlikely to play again in 2010, but self-esteem will anyway push him back to finish his last season. Favre is not a coward man fearing challenges. At age 40, he still managed to have one of his best seasons, so we still have reasons to believe that he could make a Super Bowl appearance at age 41.

No matter what reasons caused Favre to sign a two-year contract with the Vikings, the deal itself just showed the quarterback’s willingness to work with the team for as long as he could. That willingness would also bring Favre back into his No.4 Vikings jersey before the 2010 regular season.

Terry Bradshaw apologized to Favre fans for criticism

Shortly after the Minnesota Vikings finally managed to add Brett Favre to their roster, former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw made public comments that he got fed up with the Favre’s retirement drama. Inevitably his words offended a lot of Favre fans.

Realizing that the group of Favre fans has the power to force him out of Fox, Bradshaw eventually made apology to Favre fans, an even larger group after the quarterback led the Vikings to a long winning streak, for what he said a few months ago. He admitted that he underrated Favre simply because of his age and was convinced by Favre’s great performance in 2009 regular season. Bradshaw even made a bet that if Favre led the Vikings to playoffs, he would customize a Vikings style of Terry Bradshaw jersey to become a Favre fan himself.

While most people do not take Favre’s retirement decision seriously now, more people take Bradshaw’s comments on current star quarterbacks even less reliable. If Favre likes being discussed, than the ex-NFL quarterback simply likes seeing his name appear together with big names on headlines.

Vikings begin boring part of offseason

There has been nothing new about the Minnesota Vikings for quite a few days, and I do not feel like writing anything about anyone of the team now. It seems that Brett Favre, new stadium and the Williamses lawsuit are all parts of the team’s updates in offseason. This is a strange moment, new play of Favre drams is not ready, no new progress of the new stadium bill, and the Williamses are almost sure to take the four-game suspension. Anything else is available for real news? Hardly.

Apparently, all other Vikings players have been concentrating on their own improvement during the offseason and have little to say about themselves or their family or their personal life. No violations, no decision to make, to happy events to celebrate for, no contract issue to complain for. Oh, sorry, I miss Ray Edwards, who is still struggling to get a long-term contract. Actually, I don’t think there is anything to talk about Edwards’ contract, and I bet he will finally wear back his Vikings jersey for workouts with a slender contract. If he doesn’t, the Vikings still have a few other options on roster and can still go well without him.

I like the team in regular season as they always bring enough excitement to you by winning out of expectation or losing out of expectation. I like reading discussions about Brett Favre. But even if he returns this season, he may not return for next year. Will that mean the Vikings 2011 offseason is to be more boring? If so, it’s just fine. Concentration is also important, and silence may finally take the team cross the final step to a Super Bowl win.

There is little change to Vikings after the draft

While most of other teams tried to make the best use of their draft picks and acquire the most help to improve team, the Minnesota Vikings remained almost the same 12-4 team of last season when the 2010 NFL draft ended on Saturday afternoon. The addition of new players did not change the starting line much at all.

The Vikings even did not pick a quarterback at all although there were pretty good choices when it turned to them for choice. It seemed that they are determined to wait until Brett Favre makes his final decision to set the starting quarterback of 2010 season. They added cornerback, running back, defensive end, guard, linebacker, wide receiver, tight end and linebacker, none of which seemed to be the team’s urgent need. Even though the selection of cornerback Chris Cook and running back Toby Gerhart was taken as smart move, they are just not likely to play import roles as the team already has a group of cornerbacks with Antoine Winfield, Cedric Griffin and Lito Sheppard, and one of the best running backs in league with Adrian Peterson.

What makes some more sense than other picks is the addition of a rookie running back as the Vikings just lost backup running back Chester Taylor, who took off his No. 29 Vikings jersey and joined the Chicago Bears earlier this month. So Gerhart probably will have a good chance to play as a secondary running back behind Peterson and obtain some starting experience in case Peterson has to be out with injury or something.

Favre talked with Childress but did not tell decision

For those who need to know the quarterback’s decision as soon as possible so they can decide what kind of Brett Favre jersey to produce and sell or to buy and collect, they may have to wait for some more time. Although the Minnesota Vikings head coach Brad Childress says he has been in contact with Favre, even he still has no idea whether or when Favre could be back.

For both sides, they still have time to wait as the Vikings just signed back restricted free agent quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, who fell from starting quarterback to backup last season because of Favre’s sudden change in mind to put on Vikings jersey. For this season, Jackson’s expectation is limited in the backup, but his existence within the team just help prevent the team from worrying about quarterback problems whether Favre is back or not.

According to Childress, he had a conversation with the 40-year-old grandfather on Monday, and claimed he was only told that Favre was enjoying his family life while what he told Favre included the Vikings being scheduled to open the season in New Orleans against the Saints and weather in Minnesota being sunny and warm. It’s a bit hard to believe that Favre said nothing about at least his visit back to Minnesota after being told all of such things, but for fans, they may just keep hope alive that Favre could be thinking about return soon with the new motivations.

Vikings are patient with QB Favre

Whether it will take a month or an entire offseason for quarterback Brett Favre to make a decision on his return to NFL, the Minnesota Vikings are just willing to wait. Their patience seems the contrary to the enthusiasm of Vikings fans who used billboard and newspaper ad to urge Favre to make mind.

According to Vikings coach Brad Childress, the three-time MVP is still healing up from the injury he suffered in the NFC championship game and the team has no intension to press the issue. He had two conversations with Favre this week but did not mention much about football.

Not only to Vikings but also to all NFL fans, Favre’s decision is worth waiting. He can just also ways cause hot discussions by making decision to retire or not to retire. Two years ago, he announced retirement at the end of his 16th season with the Green Bay Packers but put on the New York Jets jersey for 2008 season. Then last year, he made all believe that he was determined to retire with a shoulder injury. What happened at the end was that he joined the Vikings after missing all of the offseason workouts and training camp. It’s really hard to say what decision the 41-year-old quarterback will make this year. So just wait like the Vikings.

Vikings was beaten for the third time

It seemed that Brett Favre’s best time has gone and the Minnesota Vikings have lost the power to keep a winning streak. Starting the season 6-0, they were firstly beaten by the Pittsburgh Steelers, then after a four-game streak, they lost the second game of the season to the Arizona Cardinals. As fans began to be optimistic again after the Vikings won last week’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, they were disappointed again this week as their beloved team lost the third game of the season, being beaten by the Carolina Panthers.

Steve Smith caught the go-ahead touchdown pass and his long catch and run set up the clinching score and the Panthers used a ferocious defense to stifle Favre, Adrian Peterson and the Vikings in a 26-7 victory. 40-year-old Favre was not the best quarterback on the field any more, instead Matt Moore, a rookie quarterback in Panthers jersey starting for the third game as replacement to injured Jake Delhomme, took the honor by throwing for a career-high 299 yards and three touchdown passes.

Smith caught nine passes for 157 yards and keyed Carolina’s 20-point fourth quarter, and Jonathan Steward added 109 yards rushing and a TD on 25 carries.

Brett Favre jersey is still best selling

According to sales records form the NFLShop.com, the Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre can still be considered to be the most popular football player as Brett Favre jersey remains No.1 in NFL player jersey sales ranking.

By helping the Vikings start at 10-1, Favre has proved that he is still in his best time despite the fact that he is at age 40. Partly because of his jersey being at the top of the jersey list, the Vikings are ranking third in team sales, following the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys. And Brett Favre is followed by Steelers safety Troy Polamalu and Vikings’ runningback Adrian Peterson in the top 3 best selling player jerseys.

Eight of the ten best selling jerseys are quarterback jerseys, including Favre jersey, Tom Brady jersey, Peyton Manning jersey, Jay Cutler Jersey, Ben Roethlisberger jersey, Eli Manning jersey, Tony Romo jersey and Mark Sanchez jersey. Polamalu and Peterson are respectively the only safety and running back whose jersey is among the top 10 best selling jerseys.

Vikings RT Loadholt skipped practice and was questionable for Sunday game

The Minnesota Vikings right tackle Phil Loadholt skipped the team’s Friday practice with an ankle injury and his playing status was questionable for this Sunday’s game against the Rams in St. Louis.

Loadholt was put on the injury report on Thursday. The rookie from Oklahoma is coming off probably his best game as a pro and contributed to the Vikings’ win over the Green Bay Packers without allowing a sack.

Left guard Steve Hutchinson and quarterback Brett Favre are listed as probable for Sunday’s game. Hutchinson was limited in practice, and Favre was out with injuries on foot, ankle and knee ailments.

Plus, punt returner Darius Reynaud was ruled out for Sunday’s game with injury on his left hamstring and some family matter to deal with. He also skipped the team’s last game against the Packers.

Vikings cut four players in move of reducing rosters to 75

Tuesday was the NFL’s deadline to reduce rosters to 75 players, so the Minnesota Vikings cut four players to trim their roster. The released included kicker Taylor Mehlhaff, cornerback Derrick Roberson, running back Antone Smith and guard Nick Urban.

That was not the end of trimming. By Saturday, teams must be down to the regular-season limit of 53 players. And for the Vikings, the most urgent to do is to decide which backup quarterbacks to keep, behind Brett Favre, who put on his No. 4 vikings jersey not long ago and became the team’s starting quarterback.

The Vikings won over the Houston Texans by 17-10 in Tuesday night’s preseason game. They will play their last preseason game on Friday against the Dallas Cowboys at home.

Hall of Famer Hornung: Favre will not win in Vikings

If you consider Paul Hornung and Brett Favre to be friends, do not believe that Hornung will keep saying good about Favre since he has turned will-he-or-won't-he retire into a cottage industry.

Unlike the quarterback, Hornung still bleeds green and gold at. He predicted that Favre will not win in the Vikings at the Marshview Conservation Club's 10th annual sports banquet. Obviously he was quite unhappy with the Favre's probably going to join Packers' bitter rival the Vikings.

“(Favre) ain’t going to win in Minnesota,” Hornung told the crowd on Tuesday night. “I’ll bet on it.”

That last line drew waves of laughs from the 300 people in attendance at the fundraiser. As any diehard Packers fan from the Glory Years knows, the "Golden Boy" was suspended from the NFL in 1963 for betting on games. He never wore saints jersey.

Hornung had a great time with those who attended the banquet. He told tales from his football playing days at Green Bay. It seemed that he was still charismatic and boastful even at the age of 73.

Bears LB Briggs considered Favre not a big threat

As the Vikings is talking with QB Brett Favre about a signing contract, a member of their rival team Bears said that he did not consider Favre a big threat.

Bears LB Lance Briggs said he'd love to see Favre become the Vikings' starting quarterback, because "he's going to hurt you, but he's also going to throw you a few," said Briggs. "He threw me the first interception I ever returned for a touchdown in the NFL."

Briggs still believes that Vikings are tough rival because they are the defending champions and their RB Adrian Peterson is a most dangerous weapon.

Vikings coach Childress answered questions about Favre cleverly

News about retired QB Brett Favre never stops. As the Vikings has been considered the most possible team Favre will choose, its coach Brad Childress alwasy has to face a lot of questions about Favre. On Thursday media session, Childress again faced these questions, and as usual he used his question-dodging skills sharply.

23 of the 24 questions are about Favre, and Childress just did not tell any detailed thing about Vikings and Favre. "I don’t get into that hypothetical-type of stuff." "I’m not going to speculate on that." These are the only answer reporters could get from him. He denied reports that the Vikings had given Favre a deadline to decide whether or not to come out of retirement. He refused to confirm any speculation on the story happening between the Vikings and Favre.

That's it. The public has to wait and continue to guess what will happen next day.