Brett Favre said during the ESPY awards show on Wednesday night in Los Angeles that he would “love to play” for the Vikings this season but still hasn’t decided if he will return because his surgically repaired left ankle continues to give him problems.
“I still have a little bit of time, and believe it or not, [I’m] not completely healthy,” Favre said during a backstage interview at the Nokia Theatre that was aired on the ESPN3 website after the show ended. “I guess at 40 I may never be. I’m not getting any younger, but I am working hard trying to feel as best I can. Last year, I felt great. My arm was totally different than it was the year before [in 2008 with the Jets] and that made my decision a little bit easier. But we’ll see.”
Favre, who was honored with the “Best Play” award for his last-second touchdown pass to Greg Lewis that lifted the Vikings over San Francisco in Week 3 last season, underwent surgery to repair a partially torn biceps in May 2009 and eventually decided to end his retirement and sign a two-year contract with the Vikings. This spring, Favre underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left ankle and has been throwing with receivers at Oak Grove High School in Hattiesburg, Miss., as he tries to decide whether to play a 20th season.
Favre made it clear in his interview that he has the desire to play but wants to make sure physically he feels all right.
“It starts with the ankle,” he said. “This coming Friday will be eight weeks [since the surgery], and I had hoped it would be a little bit better at this point. I can walk fine, but you don’t walk in football.
“Then it kind of works from there up. If you wake up in the morning and your feet hurt, it kind of makes the rest of your body hurt, and if you’ve been sacked 700 times, that usually adds to it.”
Favre did not mention his future while making two appearances on stage during the program, once to present the Arthur Ashe Courage award and the other time to receive the “Best Play” honor.
In addition to his appearance at the ESPYs, Favre also will be in the spotlight for a wide-ranging interview he did that will appear in the upcoming edition of Men’s Journal. Favre talked to the reporter from the magazine in April.
Included was Favre’s first in-depth explanation about the interception he threw late in the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship Game in New Orleans. The pass — on which Favre said receiver Sidney Rice didn’t do what he expected — ended the Vikings’ drive in Saints territory with the score tied. New Orleans won 31-28 in overtime.
“Playing another year probably isn’t going to make a difference [for his body]; the damage has already been done,” Favre told Stephen Rodrick of Men’s Journal.
Favre talked about how much fun he had during a season in which he threw 33 touchdowns and a career-low seven interceptions and the Vikings went 12-4. But Favre also questioned whether he can repeat that performance, saying, “What are the odds that I have another season like that, even if I play real well?”
As for that crucial interception, which occurred with the Vikings at the Saints 38-yard line with 19 seconds left when Favre forced the ball back into the middle of the field and was picked off by Tracy Porter, Favre explained that the same pass had worked in a postseason victory over Dallas the previous week.
“[Rice] came back to me on a broken play, and we got 20 yards,” Favre said of the play against the Cowboys. “This time, when I let it go, I’m thinking he’s going to come back to me. As he drifted farther and farther away, I could see the corner come in from the other side. … As a player you’ve got to pull the trigger. You can’t say, ‘Well, is he going to do what I think he’s going to do?’ He wasn’t wrong, and in some ways, I wasn’t either.”
according to http://www.startribune.com
