The Favre interview with Joe Buck cleared up a surprising amount of loose ends in Favregeddon -- if he intends to come back, if a deal is shaping up to bring him to Minnesota, if he's committed to another season. At this point, then, I'm anxious to see the answers to these remaining unanswered questions: How much longer until it's official, how the Vikings organization will respond to the interview, what the contract will look like, and how his right shoulder will progress as his recovery continues (will there be any setbacks or just smooth sailing).
That second question, of the Vikings' response, is interesting to me -- it underscores the fact that Brett just put the ball in this team's court with his appearance on HBO Monday night. Brett did seek to downplay how advanced things were between him and the team but let's be honest: There's little reason to continue dodging the issue in public.
Ideally, then, I'd just like Childress/Wilf to echo what Brett said during the interview: It's looking like a pretty sure thing if the shoulder progresses to the point where he can be productive.
It'll be interesting to see what happens. I don't think there's really any point to continuing the secrecy that has dominated the team's public comments about Favre to this point, so hopefully we start getting some answers and some more openness. The cat's out of the bag, fellas -- let's just be honest about where things are at.
A couple other quick thoughts about the interview that come to mind:
- I was damn impressed with the job Joe Buck did. He asked all the questions I wanted him to ask without being too pushy -- he played that balancing act perfectly. The comedy bits he did throughout the show were absolutely terrible, but he was at least a great interviewer.
- From the video montage that introduced the interview, I was struck by the clips of an NFL Network reporter broadcasting from outside Brett Favre's house. As a semi-regular viewer of NFLN, I had no idea they had a reporter stationed there. Kinda sleazy, if you ask me.
- I appreciated Favre's acknowledgments of how tired people are of his continued indecision. He said his silence on the matter was meant to stop feeding into the frenzy -- which I thought was an ironic statement, because if anything, his silence has only made things more of a free-for-all.
- If part of his desire to do the interview was to improve his public image, I think he largely succeeded. I was struck by his sincerity throughout -- we've all seen many interviews with players who are simply BS-ing their way through it, but Brett was absolutely genuine throughout the 15 minute conversation.
- Did we get a specific timetable for the rest of the summer from Favre? Not really. He had the surgery two and a half weeks ago, his recovery is ongoing, but he didn't give a solid indication of when he'd know if he wants to come back, when he'd be joining the team, etc.
- Time and time again, people keep mentioning that Brett referred to himself and the team as "we." As I rewatched the interview, that continued to emerge as the surest sign he'll be a Viking.