Since the Vikings are on their bye this week, and since this story bears more than a passing resemblence to what the Beloved Purple had to go through this off-season, I think that a look at this story is warranted.

For those of you that haven't been following the story, there's word going around the NFL (having been started by Fox Sports' Jay Glazer) that prior to Green Bay's game against the Detroit Lions, former Packers QB Brett Favre called the Detroit Lions to discuss with them the intricacies of the Green Bay offense, presumably to help Detroit knock off his former team.

Now, ignore for a moment the fact that the Lions still lost to the Packers, and gave up 48 points in the process (though they did stage a decent comeback to take the lead before Jon Kitna forgot what color uniforms his teammates were wearing).  There are a couple main lessons to be gleaned from this ordeal to this point.

1) Brett Favre is a galactic-level douchenozzle, and we should be incredibly happy that he's not on our team

Yeah, yeah, yeah. . .our quarterbacks are average on their best day and all that good stuff, and the almighty Favre would have the Vikings sitting pretty right now.

Not so fast.  Here's a comparison:

Gus Frerotte has averaged more yards/game and more yards/attempt than Favre has to this point in the season.  Throw in the fact that six of Favre's passing TDs came in one game against an Arizona team that turned the ball over six times, and the discrepancy really isn't as great as one might think.  Yes, Frerotte isn't our long-term answer by any stretch. . .Favre wouldn't be, either, if he was here.

But that's the smaller point here.  Frankly, I don't care how bad our quarterbacks are. . .I'd take a QB depth chart of Sean Salisbury, Tarvaris Jackson, and Spergon Wynn over having a guy that would pull this kind of crap on the team.  Yes, I realize that everyone will say that Favre didn't break any rules and didn't do anything illegal.  Well, you know, screwing your best friend's girl isn't illegal, either. . .but it sure as hell isn't right.

With this move, Brett Favre has once again proven that he's all about Brett Favre.  Everybody outside of the state of Wisconsin that has the ability to see through the "gunslinger/he's having so much fun/he just loves the game" garbage that some media outlets would like us to buy into have known this for a long time.  It's going to be interesting to see how Green Bay fans will react to the fact that the butt that they kissed for so long just took an opportunity to crap all over them.  All that talk about how Brett Favre loved the city of Green Bay and would always be a Packer and yadda yadda yadda. . .all seems a bit disingenuous now, doesn't it?

And, speaking of the media. . .

2) Get up. . .get, get, get down. . .ESPN is a joke in your town

This story has been all over the media for the past couple of days, with the notable exception of the folks at the four-letter up in Bristol.  Why is that?

Well, if the folks over at Pro Football Talk are to be believed, it's because the higher-ups at ESPN specifically ordered their personnel not to talk about the matter.  They told their people that they had "examined the story" and determined it not to be true.  (If you hit PFT, they've got a story about Jay Glazer being livid over ESPN's conclusion, and so he should be.)

Now, why would ESPN order their people not to talk about this?  Are you kidding me?  Did you watch the Vikings/Packers Monday night game opening week?  Brett Favre was two thousand miles from Wisconsin, and Tony freaking Kornheiser couldn't go 10 seconds without throwing the guy's name out there.  Apparently, the guys in the booth failed to realize that NOBODY WATCHING THE GAME THAT NIGHT GAVE A DAMN ABOUT BRETT FAVRE.  The man plays for the Jets now.  The Jets weren't playing that Monday night.  So why in the blue hell did we have to keep hearing about him?  ESPN has been in the tank for #4 for years, and probably couldn't stand to bear the thought of their great hero being exposed as a liar and a fraud.

Also. . .does anyone else find it a bit curious that ESPN had absolutely no qualms about reporting the obviously false, obviously fabricated, and obviously stupid tampering claims brought forth by Ted Thompson against the Vikings during the pre-season, but when this case comes along they magically find some standards?  Oh, well. . .it's nice to know that the only thing worth tuning into ESPN for now is World Series of Poker coverage.

What do you guys all think of this whole thing?  Still wish we could have found a way to get Brett Favre to Minnesota?  Go ahead and discuss it here, and hopefully we'll see you all later this afternoon with more good stuff.