Vikings don’t have an answer from Favre

Vikings vice president of player personnel Rick Spielman said the club is still waiting on a decision from Brett Favre and they are just going about their business.

And the wait continues.

Last year at this time, Rick Spielman was working on a trade to bring Sage Rosenfels to the Vikings. This year, the team is waiting on a retirement decision from Brett Favre.

The Vikings vice president of player personnel said Thursday that the team has no idea which way Favre is leaning on his decision to continue playing or retire.

“Our focus now is basically doing what we normally do and going through our normal process and procedures. Trying to get prepared for everything that’s coming ahead and try to add players to our roster that can help us win,” Spielman said.

While the team doesn’t have many options in free agency because of their status as a final-four playoff team, which means they can’t sign an unrestricted free agent until they lose one of equal or greater value, Spielman and his personnel department are just going to continue to go about their player evaluation process, both with the draft and free agency.

“I don’t think it’s tough. I think everybody feels comfortable with T-Jack (Tarvaris Jackson) and with Sage,” Spielman said. “We have stated that Brett Favre, we’d love to have him back, but we’ll just keep on going on about our normal business and continue building our team as we go through these processes over the next six months and then see where we end up.”

Last year, Favre signed with the Vikings on Aug. 18 after months of speculation about his decision and after healing from surgery in late May to release a partially torn biceps tendon in his throwing arm.

Jackson is a restricted free agent and the team has decided what it will do with each of its restricted free agents, although they aren’t disclosing those decisions to the public or even the players until shortly before free agency opens on March 5.

“I don’t want to get into what we’re committed to and not committed to because I think this time of year everything is in flux. Everything is etched in oatmeal,” Spielman said.

And there is no feeling from the team that the longer Favre waits on his decision the more likely it is he will come back.

“You just go on, day to day, and you plan and you try to build your roster. Brett will make his decision when he makes his decision,” Spielman said.

Favre is scheduled to appear on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno next Thursday, but it doesn’t sound like Spielman expects any revelations then.

“I’m usually not up that late. I’m an early riser and early to bed guy,” he said. “I’ll TiVo it.”

---

Tim Yotter is the publisher of Viking Update. Follow Viking Update on Twitter and discuss this topic on our message boards. To become a subscriber to the Viking Update web site or magazine, click here.

---