Public seems weary as Brett Favre plays same waiting game

All the odds, though, are that Favre jersey will give it a go for another year.

At age 40, there's no guarantee he won't suddenly lose it. He can't go on forever.

"What are the odds that I have another season like that, even if I play real well?" he said.

Favre did make one good point, though.

Hey, Favre threw the ball when he could have run the ball to get closer to a field-goal attempt or even for a first down.

Favre said, "This time, when I let go of it, I'm thinking he's going to come back to me. As he drifted farther and farther away, I could see the corner come in from the other side. ... As a player you've got to pull the trigger. You can't say, 'Well, is he going to do what I think he's going to do? He wasn't wrong, and in some ways, I wasn't either.' "

He said the pass that Tracy Porter intercepted had worked for a 20-yard gain in the playoffs against Dallas when Sidney Rice came back to the ball.

Favre also added some insight on his killer interception in the playoff loss to the Saints last January.

He said the Packers jerseys were smart to release the news, so he believed he couldn't back out.

He said he flew back home and when he got off the plane, his agent told him the Packers had traded him to the Jets.

Favre said he replied, "Fine, trade me to Tampa. I'll whip your butts in Week 4. Maybe that was a mistake [to predict he'd beat the Packers]."

When he changed his mind after announcing his retirement, the Packers told him they had moved on with Aaron Rodgers. So he asked to be traded to a team in the division. The Packers first refused, but then said maybe they'd consider Tampa Bay.

He also provided some insight on his controversial departure from Green Bay two years ago.

Of his waffling, he told the magazine, "You'd think I'd know better by now. I've learned a lot through the years. What I haven't learned is what I'll do and when I'll do it."

This is the same Favre who said in an earlier interview with Men's Journal that "Playing another year probably isn't going to make a difference [for his body]. The damage has already been done."

Of his ankle, he said, "This coming Friday will be eight weeks [since the surgery], and I had hoped it would be a little bit better at this point. I can walk fine, but you don't walk in football. If you wake up in the morning and your feet hurt, it kinds of makes the rest of your body hurt, and if you've been sacked 700 times, that usually adds to it."

The decision may have been easier last year, but Favre still dragged it out into training camp last year.

Although he said he'd "love to play" for the new Vikings jerseys, he added, "I still have a little bit of time, and believe it or not, [it's] not completely healthy. I guess at age 40, I may never be. I'm not getting any younger, but I am working hard trying to feel as best as I can. Last year, I felt great. My arm was totally different than it was the year before [in 2008 with the Jets], and that made my decision a little bit easier. But we will see."

But then he made an appearance at the ESPY award show in Los Angeles on Wednesday night and said the ankle is still giving him problems so he can't commit to playing.

When he was practicing at a high school in Hattiesburg, Miss., last week, an Associated Press reporter showed up at his workout and said he appeared to be getting along just fine on his surgically repaired last ankle. Favre declined to talk to reporters that day.

Still, he's very good at sending conflicting signals.

Especially now that he has found a team like Minnesota that hasn't made much of an attempt to groom a new quarterback and is willing to let him skip the offseason program and training camp every year.

Not surprisingly, he is doing the same thing this year. His act has become old, and it hasn't gotten as much attention as it has in the past because it is now taken for granted by the pro football world that Favre will play.

Favre has spent the offseason the last few years debating about whether or not he plans to play.

If it's July, it must be time for the latest chapter in Brett Favre's annual soap opera.