More photos » by Tom Olmscheid - AP

"Can you believe that there are actually people that think that you won't know all this stuff by the time we get to Cleveland in three weeks, Brett?" (AP Photo/Tom Olmscheid)

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It wasn't terribly long ago that every major media outlet in America was fully and thoroughly in love with Brett Lorenzo Favre.  ESPN, NBC, Sports Illustrated. . .from 1992 to 2007, there was no excuse too big, no stretch too long, and no platitude too sweet to lay at the feet of #4.

Throw six interceptions in a playoff game?  "Well, his receivers, you know. . .they ran the wrong routes.  Yes, all six times."

Pushing Bill Schroeder in front of the proverbial bus in the subsequent press conference?  "That's because nobody loves the game more than Brett Favre."

Toss a ball 30 yards over Javon Walker's head in a playoff game against the Eagles?  "Hey, Walker should have caught that ball!"

Underhand a ball into the end zone when you're five yards over the line of scrimmage?  "That's just Brett Favre having fun playing football."

All of that came to a huge, screeching halt on Tuesday morning when it was announced that the Minnesota Vikings had signed Brett Favre to a contract to quarterback them in 2009.  The signing brought together two huge, undeniably powerful forces.  On one side, you had the media's openly professed love for Brett Favre, a love that they had been extolling for sixteen NFL seasons.  On the other side sat the obvious disdain. . .if not outright hatred. . .that the national media has for Minnesota sports teams and, by extension, Minnesota sports fans.

Guess which side won?

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If you're like me, you'd see Pro Football Talk's headline, "Partial tear in Favre's cuff likely to worsen," and you'd get worried.  It's an aspect of the Favre storyline that's gone under the radar: Dr. James Andrews, while operating on Favre's arm in the spring, found a small tear in the quarterback's rotator cuff.  Tom Curran spoke with a doctor about the injury and was told something that could make Vikings fans concerned about Favre's health:

"Cleared to play does not mean 'cleared to play well'," said the medical source.  "He's at high risk [for greater tearing] both because of trauma and his style of play in which he will go downfield or throw with a lot of velocity.  He's going to stress his cuff."

But wait a second.  While this doctor was essentially saying that it's hardly a safe bet that Favre can make it through a complete season, keep in mind that this person has neither operated on Favre nor examined the tear.  Dr. Andrews has done both and was more reassuring about Favre's arm.

On Friday, Andrews called Cook to say that if Favre wanted to play, he should.

"He can’t promise that it won’t get worse, but Dr. Andrews basically said it should be OK to get through the season. Basically, he said, ‘Hey, if you want to play, go do it,’ " Cook said.

I'll trust Andrews' word over the anonymous doctor's.  There's no getting around the fact that the rotator cuff tear is a valid question mark heading into the season, but it shouldn't be overlooked that Andrews trusts Favre's ability to make it through the season. Fears about his health could very well be overblown.

None of this changes my opinion that Favre's health remains the biggest obstacle between this team and championship contention.  But that's a significant improvement over where this team stood on Monday, when the overall performance from the quarterback position was the biggest obstacle.  Now it's just the durability of the guy under center.  It's something the Vikings need to be cautious about, but hopefully Andrews' assessment is right.

It was a topic that got several mentions here at Daily Norseman back in June and July: How would Brett Favre fit in with the rest of the locker room?  We'd heard the reports that Favre spent quite a bit of time in a private locker room when he was with the Jets last year, raising concerns about how he would affect the Vikings' team chemistry.

Obviously, there isn't a locker room in the league that he'd fit in perfectly with, just because of the fact that the vast majority of NFL players are over a decade younger than him.  But according to a report from Rick Alonzo, things are off to a good start between Favre and the rest of the team.  Chilly apparently asks new players to stand in front of the team and state their name, hometown, and an interesting fact about themselves.  Here's what Favre said:

He said his name and his hometown of Hattiesburg, Miss. Then came the punch line: "I'm the only one on this team born in the '60s."

"That's the kind of the guy he is," Longwell said. "He's a jokester and a prankster."

Man, he's both a jokester and a prankster.  Anyway, my opinion on this subject has gradually shifted over the past couple months.  At first, I was concerned the Vikings would be in for a repeat of last season's distant, disengaged Favre -- but I think it's clear this is the team he wanted to be with all along when he came out of retirement last summer.  If his locker room presence with the Jets was lacking, I'd attribute that to the fact that he didn't really want to be there, he didn't want to deal with the New York media, and he would have preferred another team.

I think things will be fine.  Favre's coming into a locker room that already has strong chemistry -- and from the diminished spotlight in Minnesota versus New York, to the lessened media pressure now that he's in the Twin Cities, to this team's ability to compete, he is in a much better situation than he was last year.

More photos » by Hannah Foslien - AP

T-Jack and Favre at Tuesday's practice.

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Charley Walters thinks T-Jack will be traded or released by Friday -- he thinks a seventh-rounder is the best the Vikings could receive in a trade.  Not that I consider Walters the least bit credible, but it's interesting that Jason La Canfora talked to some league personnel executives and reached the same conclusion: Jackson is the odd man out.  La Canfora sees a fifth-rounder as the most compensation a T-Jack deal could get for the Vikings.

"There’s not a lot of quarterbacks available," one exec said. "A fifth (round pick) might be too high for him, because he has a ways to go. But there will be a market for him."

None of this is based on any rumors from within the Vikings organization.  But I'm in agreement with Walters' and La Canfora's speculation: Sage Rosenfels and John David Booty will likely stay, T-Jack will likely go.

I'm inclined to believe that the rumors of Jackson desiring a trade if Favre joined the team were true -- despite his denial yesterday that he ever said such a thing.  Indeed, I'm inclined to believe that a demotion from the 2008 starter to the 2009 third-stringer is enough for T-Jack to want out of Minnesota and seek to start fresh elsewhere.

If he wants to leave, the Vikings should let him go.  Try to trade him out of the conference (or at the very least out of the division) and get whatever late-round draft pick they can.  Looking beyond the Brett Favre era at the quarterback position, it's time to start over -- whether that be with Rosenfels, a draft pick, or someone else.

There are teams out there that ought to be interested in T-Jack.  Sure, it's awfully late in the ballgame to be adding quarterbacks not named Brett Favre, but Jackson is a guy who has a significant amount of experience as a starter, has the athleticism and physical tools to contribute, and could ultimately settle in as a career backup.

In short, I think it's in the Vikings' best interest to cut the cord.  I've questioned why Jackson would want to leave a team that has committed so much to him and would seemingly give him another chance once Favre is gone, but the demotion might be too much for him to handle.  The T-Jack experiment might finally be coming to an end.

Straight from the Vikings Locker Room store at Rosedale Mall...

Skol Vikings!  And welcome, Brett, to your first full day in purple!

EDIT by Gonzo:  I added our latest poll to this post so that everybody can see it and/or vote on it.  Enjoy!

More photos » by Elizabeth Flores - AP

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Once again, delving into the huge amount of Brett Favre news out there:

• Want to see some footage of Brett Favre on the practice field yesterday?  Vikings.com has you covered.  The selected highlights make Favre's performance look very impressive, but remember: You're only seeing what the team wants you to see.  Still, Favre had just hopped off a plane and briefly stopped in the Vikings facility to sign a contract before running out to the practice field.  Considering that, he looked good.
• Tuesday was a big day at the box office for the Vikings.  By yesterday afternoon, the team had sold 6,000 single game tickets and 2,000 season tickets.  Just what the Wilfs wanted.
• When asked if he wants to remain with the Vikings, Sage Rosenfels was evasive.  The fact that he told the media "I haven't really thought about that" set off some alarms for me, but a league source told Mike Florio that Rosenfels will be a "good soldier."  I sure hope so.  With Favre's questionable health, the Vikings need a solid backup behind Favre.  Not to mention that Sage is currently next in line for the starting job.
• And on that note, I see little question that the quarterback least likely to be a "good soldier" is Tarvaris Jackson.  Sure, Rosenfels came into yesterday morning as the odds-on starter, so this has to be a blow for him.  But can T-Jack handle becoming a third-stringer?  That remains to be seen.
• Deadspin looks at what the intellectuals on Green Bay's Craigslist think of Favre coming to Minnesota.
• Robert Francois' claim to fame?  The rookie linebacker was released to make roster space for Favre.  Happy trails, Robert -- you might be bummed out now, but this is something you can tell your grandkids about.
  
• Wait, you mean there's stuff happening at Winter Park not related to Favre?  Ah, that's right -- Jared Allen hobbled off the practice field on Monday after injuring his right ankle.  Thankfully, it's not serious.

More photos » by Hannah Foslien - AP

There's weird, there's surreal. . .and then there's pictures of Brett Favre strapping on a Minnesota Vikings helmet. (AP Photo/Hannah Foslien)

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And here I thought that getting published in the Washington Post would be the biggest thing I'd have to write about today.

Oops.

Yes, Brett Favre, in his dual role as savior and Anti-Christ, is officially a member of the Minnesota Vikings.  In all these years, I never, ever thought that those words would cross my keyboard, but there they are.  As I told the folks over at the Post in the quick little thing I typed up for them a bit ago, you would think that I would have my reaction all sorted out and everything by this point.  But you'd be wrong.

Latter-day American philosopher Mike Tyson once eloquently stated, "Everybody's got plans. . .until they get hit."  After weeks of not having to think about Brett Favre or any of the circus that we dealt with all off-season, this was the equivalent of an old-school Tyson uppercut, and I'm honestly still sort of lying on the mat trying to figure out what day it is.  And, to be honest, I thought I was prepared for this to take place, despite the fact that everybody thought the whole situation was over.

But, when it comes to Brett Favre. . .nothing is over until he decides it is.

I wish I had something deeply profound or philosophical to say about this whole thing. . .but, to be honest, I really don't at the moment.  I have a lot of questions that are swirling around my head about this whole ordeal, and I'm sure we'll be looking at all of those over the course of the next few days.  But let me address the one thing that I know for sure as of right now.

Brad Childress and Zygi Wilf have, in poker terminology, gone all-in with this move.  The 2009 season won't end in a middle-of-the-road fashion for the Minnesota Vikings.  It's either going to end incredibly well. . .or incredibly badly.  The Beloved Purple are either going to the promised land, or Brad Childress is going to be looking for a job come next January and the Vikings will be looking to start the process of rebuilding the franchise around Adrian Peterson.

The Vikings are playing their 49th season of NFL football in 2009.  Yours truly has been a fan for 25 of those seasons.  I can't think of any season that started with more intrigue than this one, and it's all because of this one move.  And, honestly, that's all my mind can come up with at the moment.  Rest assured there will be more tomorrow and in the days to come, but for some reason it's taking me an inordinate amount of time to get my head wrapped around this.  Anthony and Eric have done an outstanding job thus far today on this story, including Anthony getting interviewed by Minnesota Public Radio, and it's great to know that I, quite frankly, have the two best damn co-bloggers a Viking fan could possibly hope for.  We'll continue to be all over this story leading up to #4's debut against the Kansas City Chiefs at the Metrodome on Friday night.

More photos » by Jerry Holt - AP

3 months ago: Quarterback Brett Favre smiles as he holds up a Minnesota Vikings jersey during a news conference at the NFL football team's training facility Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009, in Eden Prairie, Minn. From left are coach Brad Childress, team president Mark Wilf, and owner Zygi Wilf. (AP Photo/Star Tribune, Jerry Holt)

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At about 5:00p CT, the Minnesota Vikings will introduce the newest member of the roster: Brett Favre.  I've tried to find a player for the press conference that can be embedded here but haven't had any luck.  So, if you're planning to watch it online, you'll be able to view it at this page on Vikings.com.

This is a big moment for the Vikings and Favre.  And this is your open thread.

Update: In case you missed it...