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.