Brett Favre … Do I Really Need to Say Anything Else?

Let me be clear: Brett Favre is the single most important athlete of my childhood.

Unlike everybody else on this blog — including those poor, sad Bears fans — I grew up a cheesehead-wearing, Favre-worshipping Packers fan. During my youth he won three MVP awards and went to two Super Bowls, winning one that I still remember all too clearly.

He also admitted an addiction to pain killers, which most of us choose to forget. But, in fact, it only made him more beloved. He admitted his problems, got help and was still the man.

But now it’s safe to say Favre makes me want to throw things at my television and curse all things having to do with Hattiesburg, Miss., and private jets.

I’m not going to get into the constant back-and-forth between retirement and the playing in his last few years in Green Bay. I’m not going to get into the teary-eyed press conference he held when he “retired” from the Packers. I’m not going to get into the return he made to New York.

I don’t even want to think about all that garbage anymore.

This latest saga in Minnesota, however, has put me on the brink insanity. Not only because Favre pulled the usual offseason ordeal, but because the Vikings played right along with it and lied to not only the public but their own players about it.

Brad Childress is a liar.

He supposedly closed the book on Brett Favre before training camp. It’s clear now that there’s no way that was true.

As Chris Carter just put it on SportsCenter, the reason football players stop is because they don’t want to go through training camp anymore. Favre didn’t want to go to camp — mostly because he’s a primadonna, although I suppose as a future Hall of Famer some would argue he’s earned it — and the Vikings played right along with him.

Don’t worry, Brett. You don’t have to come in for camp. We’ll continue a charade of a quarterback competition between Tarvaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels through camp. Then we’ll totally blindside those guys while you jump on a private plane once camp breaks and we’ll hand you the starting job. It will work out GREAT. We’ll all just lie about it and then try to explain it later.

So Favre gets what he wants. The Minnesota front office gets what it wants. The Vikings might just be the best team in the NFC North now. Great. I hope you’re all happy in your little NFL world of insanity.

Cause I can’t stand it.