Blame the enablers, not Brett Favre

On Tuesday, Brett Favre made it official that he was coming back to the National Football League by signing with the Minnesota Vikings. He retired in February after a single season with the New York Jets.

A few weeks ago, while being courted by the Vikings, Favre said he had decided to stay retired.

That all changed and, in the process, upset a Hall of Fame quarterback and former Viking: Fran Tarkenton.

Tarkenton, who graduated from the University of Georgia, said this past week that Favre's signing with the Vikings was "a circus."

During an interview on Sirius NFL Radio this past week, Tarkenton said he had no interest in what Favre does. Tarkenton is upset because Favre has retired and unretired twice and he thinks it's a farce. He's also fuming over the fact that Favre did not go through training camp and did not show up for offseason workouts.

Tarkenton played 13 years for the Vikings, losing three Super Bowls. He and his Viking teammates lost Super Bowl VIII to the Miami Dolphins, Super Bowl IX to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Super Bowl IX to the Oakland Raiders. He also spent five years with the New York Giants.

Tarkenton's blowing off at the mouth is nothing more than that. He is one of only two quarterbacks to have taken the Vikings to the Super Bowl -- Joe Kapp was the other, losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV.

Prior to Tuesday, when people talked about quarterbacks who played in the Twin Cities, Tarkenton was the main topic. That is about to change with Favre in town and it has gotten under Tarkenton's skin -- well, too bad.

The bottom line is this. If Favre wants to play football he should. If he wants to retire and unretire, he should.

If the Minnesota Vikings don't care whether Favre attended training camp, or offseason workouts, why should anyone else?

It boils down to this. People are upset Favre is in total control of his career. Yes, he has flip-flopped from time to time, but then again so have many of our most successful politicians.

Boxers retire and unretire all the time as well. So this is nothing new in the world of sports.

Friday night in his Vikings' debut, Favre was only 1 of 4 for 4 yards, completing a short pass to rookie wide receiver Percy Harvin.

Give Favre time to learn the offense, get acquainted with his receivers and get settled in with the overall scheme of the team and Minnesota could very well be the best team in the NFC.

With the wide receiver corps Minnsota has, along with running back Adrian Peterson, Favre will have the ability to keep defenses off-balance most of the time.

And when Favre has the upper hand, defenses end up on their tails and the quarterback's teammates end up in the end zone.

Jeff Christian is a freelance columnist and his column appears each Sunday in the News & Messenger. He can be reached at christianjeff@rocketmail.com.