Childress visit echoes 2009 timeline

Brad Childress made a visit to Brett Favre in Mississippi on Monday, a scenario that played out in 2009 around this time as well.

It would seem like we’ve seen this scenario play itself out before. It’s a couple of weeks before the start of training camp and Vikings head coach Brad Childress is down in Mississippi visiting with Brett Favre about his professional future.

Last year, it appeared as though Childress’ efforts were in vain. He went to visit Favre in hopes of being stealthy about his visit to Hattiesburg. At first, it seemed like Childress’ visit was going to bring Favre to the Vikings, but, as training camp opened, Favre said he wasn’t going to come back. As we all know, he changed his mind and signed with the Vikings within hours of camp breaking in Mankato.

This time around, Favre has been told he doesn’t have to go to training camp, which is likely being re-affirmed by Childress on his visit to Favre’s home. Childress was spotted by a reporter from Hattiesburg TV station WDAM as he and Favre spent Monday morning at a 7-on-7 passing drill for high school players at the University of Southern Mississippi. When asked about his trip to Hattiesburg, Childress said simply, “You can fill in the blanks.”

If we’re filling in the blanks, it would be a matter of Childress screaming, “PLE-E-E-EASE!”

Will his trip pay off in the long run? It did last year and, given that just about everyone involved with the Vikings and both the local and national media is expecting Favre to come back for a 20th season, it would seem that Childress’ visit serves as insurance in case Favre is on the fence.

TUESDAY NOTES

While Adrian Peterson has claimed his contract wasn’t an issue with his missing time at the team’s mandatory minicamp earlier this summer, there was much talk of trouble with Chris Johnson, the NFL’s leading rusher last year, and his contract with the Titans. According to reports, Tennessee restructured Johnson’s deal, which was set to pay just a little over a half-million dollars this year. But no additional years were added to the contract.

Favre would seem to be almost the definition of the word “swagger,” but not according to the folks at Madden 11. The popular video game has created a new stat called “swagger rating” and it was anticipated Favre could rival guys like Chad Ochocinco for the highest possible swagger rating of 99. Instead, he came in with a rating of 87, which was behind Adrian Peterson (98), Jared Allen (96), Sidney Rice (88), Bryant McKinnie (88) and tied with Percy Harvin and Lito Sheppard (87). Here are the full numbers.

Former Vikings tight end Richard Owens was announced Monday as a graduate assistant to head coach Bobby Petrino at the University of Arkansas. Owens, who played for the Vikings from 2004-07, was recruited by Petrino when he was the head coach at Louisville.

Bus Cook, Favre’s agent, has remained largely silent, but in an interview with Men’s Journal about Favre, Cook called him a “drama queen” and said he would like to see him make up his mind one way or the other and quit flip-flopping. Under the bus with Bus.

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John Holler has been writing about the Vikings for more than a decade for 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.

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