It's Done: Brett Favre Has Signed With The Minnesota Vikings

Holy Hell. What in the name of Davy Jones' Locker is going on this week?

Let's reset here. On Thursday at 7:30 PM ET, the big story in the NFL was that Tom Brady was making his NFL return after suffering a season-ending knee injury Week 1 of the regular season. Everyone knew about it. By the end of that night, if you told them that Brady returned that night most people would have been like, "What?? Tom Brady returned as well? Damn, what a night!"

The story that was alluded to above was the fact that Vick joined the Eagles. Well now, by the end of the night, I think when told of the fact that Vick is now an Eagle, people will be like "What??? Vick joined the Eagles????? When???? I need to protest!" (that last line pertains to animal lovers and PETA members, and angry Eagles fans only). So what story is it? As 49er16 talked about below, Brett Favre was flying to Minnesota to sign with the contracts, well now it is done and Brett Favre is now once again out of retirement. Who saw this one coming? Oh, wait, I, and I think every other person who has been watching the end of Favre's career over the past few years. Via NFL.com

The Minnesota Vikings have signed three-time NFL MVP Brett Favre, the team announced on its website Tuesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Sporting a red No. 4 practice jersey, Favre joined his new teammates on the field. John David Booty, who formerly wore No. 4 for the Vikings, had changed to jersey No. 9.

"We believe adding a player such as Brett Favre to our mix will be a strong positive for this football team," Vikings coach Brad Childress said. "As we have conveyed before, his unique knowledge of our system, the NFC North and his innate skills make this a rare opportunity. We felt there was a brief window to reconsider the possibility and we owed it to the organization to evaluate our options. After thorough discussion, the same variables that made this a unique and positive situation previously, still exist. Now, our attention turns to getting to work as a team, our next practice and preparing for the season."

Entering his 19th year in the NFL, Favre has started 269 consecutive games (291 including playoffs) for the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets, the longest stretch ever by an NFL quarterback and the second-longest streak in NFL history, behind only former Minnesota Viking Jim Marshall (270). The 10-time Pro Bowler is the league's all-time leader in touchdown passes (464), completions (5,720), attempts (9,280), yards (65,127) and victories as a starting QB (169).

"I am excited about the opportunity to join this football team," Favre said. "From ownership, to coaching to the players, it is evident that everyone in the Vikings organization is committed to bringing the fans of Minnesota a Championship. I am eager to join my new teammates and get to work towards that goal."

Ugh. Just ugh. I actually have a unique perspective of this as my brother is pretty much a die-hard Vikings fan (I have yet to figure out to this day how that came about). Back when Favre was a Packer, and even last year as a Jet, he HATED him more than any NFL player. But now that he has signed with the Vikings, although he is not happy about all of his contradictions and the way it went down, he is happy that Favre is with the Vikings. And I think the same can be said for most Viking fans out there. 3 years ago, who would have thought that this would have been the case. To sum my thoughts up best: Despite the retirement announcement a few weeks ago, I still knew that this day was coming, but at the same time, I never thought I would see the day when Brett Favre would put on a Vikings helmet and jersey.

The circus has just left Philadelphia and is currently stationed right outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Update: Holy crap! It just dawned on me that Week 1 will now feature a match-up between Brett Favre and Eric Mangini. Seeing as Brennaman/Billick is the highest team on the depth chart to not have a game assigned, they would seem like a lock to call that game over Rosen/Ryan unless there is a line-up shuffling. I'll keep you posted when more is revealed.