Favre could learn from coeval NHL player Lidstrom

With the NFL season coming in three months and the new NHL season is much farther away, the Detroit Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom, however, made decision much earlier than Minnesota Vikings starting quarterback Brett Favre, who is expected to return for his 20th NFL season but still keeps things intriguing.

Also at age 40, Lidstrom announced yesterday that he was returning for his 19th NHL season, eliminating a lot of doubts on his capability, while Favre is still playing around by releasing pieces of information now and then but never giving a whole version of what he is thinking about or whether he is to wear back the No.4 Favre jersey. On this point, he really needs to look at the reports on Lidstrom, who is as famous in NHL as Favre is in NFL. Fans for the Red Wings cheered for Lidstrom’s return and were happy that their beloved players did not hold them to wait for long. By comparison, the Vikings fans have been making efforts to force a fast decision from Favre but never received any positive response.

Favre should also learn from Lidstrom on what attitude he should hold toward the team he is playing for. While Lidstrom described himself as only a tiny feather of a giant Red Wing, Favre takes the Vikings a good team that could help him win a second Super Bowl ring.

Packers’ veteran CB Harris is eager to return

Even suffering a major knee injury in his thirteenth NFL career, the Green Bay Packers veteran cornerback AI Harris still has no plan to quit football. Actually he is planning to achieve what Brett Favre has managed to do and would play football for a few more years.

Harris had to end the 2009 season abruptly because of the injury suffered during a game against the San Francisco 49ers. A season-ending surgery was operated a few days later and a lot of people doubted that the 35-year-old cornerback could not return to play his fourteenth NFL season. However, Harris appeared for the Packers’ offseason workouts last month with great confidence that he is still able to do his job better after the surgery.

The veteran said that he did not like watching his beloved teem be defeated and would try his best to help the Packers win more games in 2010 season. He also expressed his eagerness to see Favre back in the Vikings style of Favre jersey so that he could help the Packers revenge on the betrayer quarterback and his current team Vikings, who beat the Packers twice during 2009 season.

Favre’s possible return caused twitter fight between Saints and Vikings

Brett Favre’s surgery on his left ankle turns out to be more than a process to repair some parts of his own body, but also a sign to possible power ranking changes to two teams, the Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints. As the surgery indicated the possible return of the quarterback in No.4 Favre jersey, the Saints will reschedule their defense to stop the quarterback from passing, and the Vikings will have to get a better plan to protect Favre from attacks.

But it’s still three months before the real rematch happens, and players from the rival teams are already fighting, through twitter talks, for their respective own teams’ scheme. Saints safety Darren Sharper began the quarrel by saying that Favre’s ankle is already a marked target of Saints’ defensive men. That reminded the Vikings of the hits Favre received from Saints defensive players in last season’s NFC championship game. They surely won’t allow the same thing to happen in rematch, and Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe responded soon to say that Sharper should take care of his own knee as the recently surgically repaired part of Sharper’s body is also a marked target of Vikings’ offensive men.

The fight continued with Sharper’s tweet back and other Vikings’ counterattacks. We may predict that more Saints players would join the trash talk to keep it going on unless officials think it inappropriate and call for a stop.

Favre’s ankle now allows him to play

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre recently had a surgery on his left ankle and is planning to spend the whole offseason on testing the ankle’s workability. Actually, according to reporters who contacted Favre’s doctor, the surgery was had successfully and Favre’s ankle will allow him to play football in four to six weeks.

Favre got the injury during last season’s NFC championship game against the New Orleans Saints. Some defensive players of opponent team gave Favre’s several heavy blows and caused him to fumble and have an interception during the overtime. Consequently, the Vikings did not score first to win the NFC championship, and Saints made it in next session and went on to the Super Bowl XLIV and returned home with finale champion title. With frustration and aches on body, Favre initially told reporters that he was unlikely to play again for 2010 season.

However, Favre never made official announcement on his retirement during the offseason and never told anyone he would go to undergo the surgery to repair his injured ankle. So when people got to know the news the day following the surgery, they were surprised and took it as a Favre’s confirmation for return. If the repaired ankle recovers well enough to allow the 41-year-old quarterback to play on field again, we surely have more reasons to believe that we will see the man in No. 4 Favre jersey leading the Vikings to another winning season.

Vikings will give QB Favre heavier protection this season

After knowing that the Minnesota Vikings pending starting quarterback Brett Favre had a surgery to repair his injured ankle, the New Orleans Saints safety Darren Sharper, who formerly also played in Minnesota Vikings jersey, said that the Vikings will have to protect Favre better than last season as his knee is already a target of Saints defensive players.

The Saints defensive men attacked Favre heavily during last season’s NFC championship game. As the result of the attacks, Favre failed to complete a pass to running back Chester Taylor and lost the chance to score first in overtime. No punishment was called after the attack, and the league admitted the mistake a few days later and fined the Saints $25,000 for hits on Favre, and Saints defensive linemen Bobby McCray and Remi Ayodele also had to pay $20, 000 and $5, 0000 respectively for what they did to Favre during the critical game. The fine did not mean much to the Vikings as they still did not get their chance back to win the Super Bowl XLIV.

Favre had the surgery on Friday and the surgery was taken as a sign of his possible return. However, the Vikings have not confirmed any information about Favre’s decision, neither their plan for the starting quarterback in 2010 season. If they still rely on Favre to get the pass for Super Bowl XLV, they may really need a serious consideration of Sharper’s comments.

Injured ankle has nothing to do with Favre’s decision

When people began to guess whether the possible surgery Brett Favre needs to have will impact what decision the quarterback may make on his playing status, Favre himself made announcement that the surgery is only to be a minor one and he still remains undecided. Can you figure out the truth? There has been definitely a decision already, but he simply keeps it wrapped up so that we can keep guessing.

If Favre really has any intention to quit, he would not have caused so much discussion by coming out from time to time to release a piece of his mind or recent health condition. It’s obvious that he still enjoys being discussed rather than get prepared for retirement. While some people give reasons for Favre to return, some others are trying best to figure out whether he keeps telling us he is undecided. One of the opinions is that Favre simply wants to avoid offseason workout. If that’s true, he could simply tell the team about this and he surely won’t be refused. It’s not necessary for him to play all these tricks whether he decides to return to retire. At age 40 and having played professional football in NFL for 19 seasons, he has earned enough honor to have the freedom of making any decision he likes.

There is a most reasonable explanation for us to keep hearing of all kinds of things about Favre: they are all deliberately designed to attract attention. He will have a surgery and will wear back the No.4 Vikings jersey and it won’t be surprising even if the decision is made in the last hour before the season opener. Get over it, because we are in offseason.

Vikings surprised us with their choices in draft

Last offseason, the Minnesota Vikings successfully attracted enough attention from NFL fans by managing to sign Brett Favre, who previously announced retirement after an unhappy season with New York Jets. And on the point, they had success again by drafting new players beyond expectation and keeping it secret on whether Favre will put on Vikings jersey again.

The only choice that the Vikings made and did to confuse us was the pick of Virginia cornerback Chris Cook, who is 6-2 tall and had good playing skills and fine speed, all the elements necessary to a good cornerback. However, it was still a bit surprise when it turned out that the Vikings’ first choice in the draft was a cornerback. Previously people had guessed that the team could acquire help for other positions because they just signed former Jets cornerback Lito Sheppard. With addition of Cook, the Vikings now have at least four cornerbacks available for the new season.

The Vikings made their second choice with running back Toby Gerhart from Stanford, adding back up to running back Adrian Peterson. Then they drafted defensive end, guard, linebacker, wide receiver, tight end and linebacker, but no quarterback, even though the return of Brett Favre seemed more intriguing than even. Fans and analysts got confused and tried hard to find explanations for what Vikings did. Well, they did manage to find one, that is, the team does not want much change at all. They seem confident that the starters leading them to 12-4 last season are able to lead them an even better season this season.

Vikings still have chance to pick QB Jimmy Clausen

When everyone was expecting the Minnesota Vikings to use their 30th overall draft pick to get former Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen, the team surprised us by trading the first-round pick and a fourth-round pick to NFC North rival Detroit Lions to get a second-rounder and fourth-round and seventh-round picks.

What happened next was nothing we ever expected previously. The Lions did not use the 30th overall pick to draft Clausen, either, but took California running back Jahvid Best instead. Then Tim Tebow became the 25th pick drafted by the Denver Broncos, and Clausen still stayed in the draft waiting for an interested team. However, by the end of Thursday night’s first-round draft, the quarterback remained undrafted and was set to enter the second-round draft.

On the other side, the Vikings now have nine picks over the final six rounds of the draft, including eh second pick of the second round. That means Clausen still has chance to put on Vikings jersey if the team does have plan to draft someone on Friday night. What makes it more possible, the holder of the first pick in second round, the St. Louis Rams, has already taken quarterback Sam Bradford with the first overall pick and they are unlikely to add another quarterback in second round. What is going to happen really depends on what the Vikings plan to do with their quarterbacks.

Vikings signed QB Jackson while waiting for Favre’s decision

Now the Minnesota Vikings are more confident with their quarterback plan for the 2010 season. While last season’s starting quarterback Brett Favre still needs more time to think about his playing status in the new season, the Vikings had backup quarterback Tarvaris Jackson sign his tender offer to remain in Vikings jersey.

Being a restricted free agent when this offseason began, Jackson received the tender offer worth $1.176 million from Vikings so that he could stay with the team as a backup quarterback for Favre, or even as starting quarterback if Favre eventually decides not to wear back his No. 4 jersey. But I guess Jackson would not have that high expectation this time to avoid the heavy disappointment he experienced last offseason when his starting job was taken away after Favre changed his retiring plan to join the Vikings.

As the day of 2010 draft is coming close, there is higher and higher expectation that Favre will make his final decision soon to end the speculations. However, as the Vikings have made it clear that their main targets in the draft would be cornerbacks and now they re-signed Jackson, it is just less necessary for Favre to make a fast decision. So while he is taking his time to enjoy family life, we could just take our time to make more guesses.