Favre Reports Keep Coming

The Brett Favre saga seems to evolve every few hours and a recent flurry of reports has the tampering charges and the push for his reinstatement heating up.

As if the Brett Favre saga of “will he play or won’t he?” couldn’t get any stranger, it did Tuesday amid reports that Favre used a Packers-issued cell phone to make repeated calls to Vikings head coach Brad Childress and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell.

A report in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel claims that the evidence the Packers had to substantiate claims of tampering were repeated calls from a cell phone Favre used that was paid for by the team that not only included numerous calls to Bevell, a former Green Bay assistant coach, but directly to Childress.

The league is taking the matter seriously. Tuesday officials from the NFL were reportedly at Winter Park to interview Vikings personnel, thought to be Childress and Bevell, to get their version of the story. The NFL is moving quickly on the matter – an indication that if there is to be a punishment, it will likely come down quickly.

Amid the new information, media sources are scrambling to get the story. In a pair of reports on ESPN, one report said there was no chance that the Packers would trade Favre within the division, while another claims that Minnesota is clearly Favre’s No. 1 choice of the team he wants to play for – believed to be because of his long association with Bevell.

Other reports state that Commissioner Roger Goodell is pushing for Green Bay to resolve the Favre question before the team reports to training camp Sunday. The NFL Network stated Tuesday that the Packers have had preliminary discussions with several teams, including one from the NFC, thought to be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Favre has spent his entire career playing in the West Coast Offense, but no AFC teams currently run a similar WCO, while several NFC teams run a variant of it, including the Vikings.

Just when you thought the Favre controversy was going to die down, a little gasoline on the fire has changed all that.

WEDNESDAY NOTES

Disgruntled Bucs QB Chris Simms appears to be dropping dime on his own organization, telling reporters that General Manager Bruce Allen was asking him and others questions about how much time Favre would need to learn the Bucs playbook.

There is a Bucs-Packers connection, since head coach Jon Gruden was the wide receivers coach of the Packers from 1992-94 – the first three years that Favre played in Green Bay.

There is said to be some interest from the New York Jets in getting in Favre debate. The Jets currently have Chad Pennington and Kellen Clemens as their quarterbacks – neither of whom was overly impressive last year coming off a playoff run in 2006.

The Vikings could have all of their draft picks signed by later today. Yesterday, the team reached agreement with DT Letroy Guion and WR Jaymar Johnson on contracts, as well as reaching a verbal agreement with center John Sullivan. That leaves just safety Tyrell Johnson and QB John David Booty to sign deals. Word is that both deals are imminent.

Booty was in Los Angeles Tuesday for a football card photo shoot with Upper Deck. Despite being a late-round pick, Booty was one of 33 rookies that posed and did action stunts for the trading card photo shoot.

The Vikings don’t expect to have any players on the physically unable to perform list when training camp opens tomorrow.