NFL Capsules - League and Player News: Teammates say Favre texted them of plans to retire

MANKATO, Minn. (AP) — With everyone assuming Brett Favre was returning for a 20th NFL season, the Minnesota Vikings were enjoying a relatively calm and quiet training camp as they started preparations for another run at the Super Bowl.

All that tranquillity, and certainty, is out the window now.

Favre has told some teammates and Vikings officials that his surgically repaired left ankle is not healing the way he would like it to and that he will not return to Minnesota this season.

"He told a couple guys on our team he's going to retire," tight end Visanthe Shiancoe said after practice on Tuesday. "He hasn't told me yet. I'm going to check my phone right now, but it hasn't been said publicly yet so I don't know what to believe."

Even with Favre's history of flip-flopping, the revelations came as a surprise to most surrounding the Vikings. They reported to training camp last week confident that after they wrapped things up in Mankato on Aug. 12, Favre would join them in the Twin Cities — just as he did last season.

But Favre's messages to teammates turned things upside down on a sweltering day. Owner Zygi Wilf, vice president of player personnel Rick Spielman and vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski were seen huddling during practice in long discussions.

Head coach Brad Childress said after the morning practice that he had not been directly contacted by Favre and called the 40-year-old quarterback's status with the team "fluid." Childress has shown a great deal of patience with Favre, saying he would not set a deadline for a decision and allowing him to skip training camp for a second straight year.

"It wouldn't surprise me one way or the other, whether he elects to play or whether he elects to retire," Childress said. "I think all of us can live with it either way. The big thing is that he is at peace with it."

With Favre, of course, there is always the chance that he changes his mind, and that's what the Vikings are hoping for yet again. He told the Vikings last year he wouldn't play, but ultimately ended up joining them after they broke training camp. Childress even drove to the airport to pick him up for his 19th NFL season.

Favre and his agent, Bus Cook, did not return messages from The Associated Press, and most players aren't taking Favre's messages as definitive just yet.

"I love Brett and he reserves the right to do what he wants to do," defensive end Jared Allen said. "We obviously love him as a teammate. We'd like to have him back. But until it's official, I'll believe it when I see it."

Star running back Adrian Peterson said his gut feeling was that Favre would be handing him the ball in the Sept. 9 opener against New Orleans, and that is what Saints receiver Lance Moore expects to see as well.

"I don't believe it," Moore said at Saints camp in Metaire, La. "As competitive as he is, I would be shocked if he wasn't here for opening night."

Favre has considered retiring every summer since 2002. It led to an ugly parting with the Packers that got him traded from Green Bay to the Jets in 2008. After a so-so season in New York, he announced his retirement in early 2009 for the second time, then reconsidered and signed with the Vikings.

He had one of his best seasons last year, with career bests in completion percentage (68.4), quarterback rating (107.2) and fewest interceptions (7), while throwing for 33 TDs and 4,202 yards to lead the Vikings to an NFC North title. He hurt his left ankle in the NFC championship loss to the New Orleans Saints and had arthroscopic surgery in May.

Favre was under contract for $13 million this season, but only if he plays.

With unproven Tarvaris Jackson in line to start at quarterback if Favre does retire, the Vikings know they need him back.

"It definitely will be a blow to the team (if he retires)," Shiancoe said. "Be real. It will be a setback to the team. It's just something that I'm pretty sure the reason has to be a strong reason."

Favre has been working out at Oak Grove High School in Hattiesburg, Miss., to see if the ankle can handle another year in the NFL. He will turn 41 in October.

There are plenty of guys in purple who think the NFL's iron man has one more season left in him.

"I'm going to try to get him here every chance I get," Shiancoe said. "I'm going to try to send him texts or something. But at the same time, I know he made a decision for a reason and hopefully that reason transforms or gets better."

If this is indeed the end for Favre, what a career.

A three-time league MVP (1995-97), Favre won the Super Bowl in 1997 with the Packers. His 11 Pro Bowl appearances are the most ever by a quarterback. He holds most major NFL records for a quarterback, including career touchdowns (497), yards passing (69,329); wins (181); and seasons with at least 3,000 yards passing (18).

Of course, he also has thrown the most interceptions (317) and been sacked 503 times — a long, long history of wear and tear.

"It's like believing in Santa Claus. You get gifts, but you ain't seen Santa Claus," said linebacker Nick Barnett, whose Packers will be challenging the Vikings for the NFC North title this year. "We'll see what happens ... If he does retire, congratulations. It's a well-deserved retirement. But if he does come back, we'll be gunning for him the same way."

Commentary: Favre's finale? Don't be so sure

Favre sure has waffled on the decision before, and it's difficult to believe his latest "see ya" will stick.

A source with knowledge of the situation has told The Associated Press that the NFL's most prolific passer is citing his injured left ankle as the reason he won't return for a second season with Minnesota. But the Vikings aren't taking his latest pronouncement as gospel, even after Favre texted some players to explain why he is MIA and won't BRB during a training camp that is in full swing.

Coach Brad Childress, who not only orchestrated the Vikings' acquisition of Favre last year but picked up his new/old quarterback at the airport, wasn't fully swallowing this news.

"I gotta hear it from the horse's mouth," Childress said.

The old warhorse — Favre is 40 — has used the retirement gambit often enough that there are as many doubters today as there are folks wearing purple No. 4 jerseys in Minnesota.

"I don't know. It's like believing in Santa Claus," former teammate Nick Barnett of the Packers said. "You get gifts, but you ain't seen Santa Claus. So we don't know whether it's true or not. We'll see what happens."

Dolphins coach Tony Sparano was just as skeptical.

"Well, I'll believe it when the season starts and he's ... somewhere out there in (Mississippi). All I know is we're going to Minnesota in Week 2, so I'm hoping (he's retired).

"We'll see," a chuckling Sparano added.

And Jaguars safety Gerald Alexander even tweeted his skepticism:

"Favre's coming back people cmon don't believe the hype."

All along, most people have dismissed retirement talk, figuring the past is indeed prologue with Favre. He gave it up after the 2007 season and left the Packers in March 2008. By June, he was itching to play again, and when the Packers said the job Favre held for every game from 1992-2007 belonged to Aaron Rodgers, he was only reinstated to their active roster by order of the NFL in August.

A few days later, he was traded to the Jets.

Favre's Meadowlands career lasted through one 9-7 season during which he had right arm problems as the Jets were dropping four of their last five games. Five weeks after that season, he said his shoulder was too sore to keep playing and he waved goodbye to the Big Apple.

By May, he was talking with the Vikings about another return, only to announce in late July that was staying put on the farm.

"It was the hardest decision I've ever made," Favre said then. "I didn't feel like physically I could play at a level that was acceptable. I would like to thank everyone, including the Packers, Jets and Vikings — but, most importantly, the fans."

Three weeks later, Favre signed with the Vikings.

If, at age 39, his shoulder healed enough for him to come back and lead Minnesota to a 12-4 record, a division title and nearly to a Super Bowl berth after he turned 40, why can't the ankle come around, as well? Who's to say once training camp breaks on Aug. 12, or after the Vikings' second exhibition game 10 days later, that Favre won't add another No. 4 to his resume — a fourth unretirement?

"Nah, I'm not buying it all, man," Cowboys receiver Patrick Crayton said. "They've still got, what, a month left in training camp? Give him about a week and a half, he'll change his mind.

"Is that big news? It's every year. It's like Groundhog Day with him, isn't it?"

Should Favre stick to this apparent farewell, he'll leave the NFL holding virtually every record a quarterback can own, from the good (touchdown passes, yards passing, victories) to the bad (interceptions and sacks) to the sublime (285 straight starts). He'll also leave the Vikings holding out hope that Tarvaris Jackson can finally prove himself at the position.

"It's always back and forth with Brett," Jackson said. "It's his decision. He deserves the opportunity to decide when he's going to retire or not, whether he wants to retire or not."

Today, the decision is to call it quits. Tomorrow?

Stay tuned.

-- Barry Wilner

Should he play or should he go? Favre's follies

Brett Favre's retirements and unretirements:

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But Russ Grimm also belonged to another select group during his 11 NFL seasons, all with the Washington Redskins. He and his teammates would gather in a shed at the old Redskins Park as members of the "5 o'clock club," where choice beverages were consumed in a sort of counterculture to the straight-laced ways of coach Joe Gibbs.

Now Grimm is headed to the Hall of Fame, one of seven members to be inducted Saturday. The character who got up to so much mischief in his playing days is now a respected assistant head coach with the Arizona Cardinals, and he's the first among the NFL's most famous offensive line to be enshrined in Canton.

"He drove Joe nuts," said Bobby Beathard, the longtime Redskins general manager who assembled the Hogs. "We had some times there. Boy, it was funny. They could drive you to an early grave, that group. They were doing everything."

But, said Beathard, when it was game time: "They all knew they came to play. There was no messing around, no shortcuts. They were so smart, the smartest group of guys."

And Grimm is considered the best of them all, the left guard in a fivesome that punished defenses on the way to Super Bowl titles. They were the first offensive line to become glamorous, thanks to an unglamorous nickname that inspired T-shirts, slogans and those strangely dressed male fans. The NFL championships at the end of the 1982, 1987 and 1991 seasons wouldn't have been possible without the Hogs, and there's long been a case that their recognition by the Hall was well overdue.

"We've finally got that first step, where one of us is in now," Grimm said. "I think that'll put a little bit more light on some of the guys I played with."

A third-round draft pick from the University of Pittsburgh in 1981, Grimm became a starter as a rookie and anchored the Hogs for the next six years. There wasn't a more powerful left-side tandem than Grimm and left tackle Joe Jacoby. John Riggins always had room to run, and Redskins quarterbacks mostly lived in a cocoon of protection.

"You have to have good people playing beside you," Grimm said. "I could have been on a team that had losing seasons and didn't have the caliber of players that I had playing up front with me. Those guys are a part of it."

Grimm was a three-time All-Pro, went to four straight Pro Bowls and was named to the NFL's All-Decade team for the 1980s. Injuries began to hamper his career in 1987, and a new generation of Hogs gradually began to take over. Still, he was mostly a starter when healthy until his final season in 1991, when he earned a third Super Bowl ring in his last game.

"He was one of the hardest guys I got after," said Joe Bugel, the offensive line coach who gave the Hogs their nickname. "He was the leader, and I wanted other guys to see that Buges is going to go after the leader."

Given his reputation, it's easy to conjure up an image of Grimm finding ways to party after every win, but he actually would go to Bugel's house many Sunday nights after the games. They'd watch the tape, or just sit on the back porch and talk through everything that happened.

"We always said, 'Do you want to be good or great?' And he wanted to be great," Bugel said.

It's only natural that Bugel — the "Boss Hog" — will be Grimm's presenter at the induction ceremonies. The question remains: Will Bugel get to do it again? Will Jacoby or another member of this one-of-a-kind group get his due?

"The biggest thing about that, was holding that group together as long as we did," Grimm said. "That would be hard to do nowadays with the free agency, salary cap, things like that."

Being a member of the 5 o'clock club, of course, is not a prerequisite for a Hog to get in the Hall. Even so, Grimm said the guys in the shed had a positive effect on the team.

"The 5 o' clock thing — as much as it look like a bunch of guys going out in the shed and having a few beers — you solved a lot of problems," Grimm said. "There's a lot of different personalities on the football team. There are guys who would come out and (talk). It was a little bit of downtime."

It's hard to argue with the results.

-- Joseph White

Floyd Little would be eating dinner at one of his favorite haunts in Seattle or Denver or Syracuse, N.Y., and a well-meaning fan would come up to his table for an autograph and tell him he should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Another reminder that he was a forgotten man in the eyes of the voters.

It happened once at an Italian restaurant while Jim Brown, John Mackey and Little, who starred for the woeful Denver Broncos teams of the late 1960s and early '70s, were back at Syracuse to retire the number they shared with the late Ernie Davis.

"I guess the same anguish came over my face when that subject came up again and when the guy left the table, Jim Brown said, 'Floyd, let it go. Anybody that played with you or watched you play knew that you were a Hall of Famer, my friend. You don't need a bunch of guys to validate that,'" Little recounted.

When the great Jim Brown says you were a great football player, isn't that affirmation enough?

"I let it go that night," Little said. "I did let it go — to a degree."

It was hard to forget about football immortality when super-fan Tommy Mackie kept stumping for him, kept telling him what an injustice it was that he had never even been nominated.

Mackie works for a marketing corporation in New Jersey, but his real job for seven years was getting Little the recognition he felt his career deserved.

In 2003, his wife, Emily, asked what he wanted for his 40th birthday.

"To meet my childhood hero," Mackie replied. "No. 44."

She made it happen, getting in touch with Floyd at his car dealership in Seattle and setting up the meeting. Little took them to lunch and then they went back to his office, where Mackie mentioned how outraged he was that Little was overlooked by the Hall of Fame committee since his retirement in 1975 as the seventh-leading rusher in NFL history.

And so began the quest.

Mackie contacted all the voters, sent them a booklet he put together listing 44 reasons Little should be in the Hall of Fame.

He gathered testimonials from 44 Hall of Famers touting Little's credentials, including 42 from players who played against him, plus endorsements from John Elway and Stan Jones, a lineman for the Chicago Bears whose career was coming to a close just as Little was becoming the only three-time All-America running back to play for the Orangemen.

"I just felt it was a shame the way Floyd got swept under the carpet to the point he was forgotten," said Mackie, who would co-author a book with Little.

Elway called him "the greatest Bronco of us all," and John Mackey, his fellow Syracuse alum who later starred for the Baltimore Colts, wrote the Hall saying, "If you can't find a place for Floyd Little, please take me out of the Hall of Fame and put him in."

Like the words of Brown, these were occasional salves for all the torment Little shouldered through the years.

"It's hard to let it go when people keep introducing you — like a Frank Gifford or a Pete Rozelle — as a 'future Hall of Famer,' and you've always been called a 'future Hall of Famer,'" Little said. "Well, how far in the future are they talking about?"

Then, last August, Little was shocked to get the call from Hall vice president Joe Horrigan.

"I knew he wasn't calling to tell me I was passed over again," Little said.

At 67, a month after retiring from the car business by shuttering the dealership he'd run for 32 years, Little was finally a Hall of Fame nominee, something he has started to suspect he'd never see in his lifetime.

"I was running out of guys who had seen me play," said Little, whose career in Denver spanned the years 1967-75, lean times in the former AFL franchise's history.

But his friend Mackie was worried. In half of the six years since the Hall went from one to two senior nominees, one of the two had been rejected when the full membership met on the eve of the Super Bowl. So, he continued his campaign, sending his book and a handwritten letter to each of the voters, touting how Little had averaged over 100 yards of all-purpose offense per game in an era where defense ruled the day.

In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in February, Little was elected as the 256th member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He'll be inducted Saturday, more than 35 years after his career came to a close.

"Floyd has made immeasurable contributions to our franchise and to the NFL, on and off the field, and he deservedly takes his place in Canton among the greatest ever to play this game," team owner Pat Bowlen said.

Little's career statistics aren't as overpowering as he was. He rushed for 6,323 yards and 43 touchdowns — numbers that pale in comparison to fellow inductee Emmitt Smith, who had three times as many yards and reached the end zone four times as often.

But Little's legacy went beyond numbers or the five Pro Bowls for which he was chosen. He earned the nickname "The Franchise" in Denver because it was his signing that was credited with keeping the team from bolting to another city and helped persuade voters to approve funds for Mile High Stadium, which has been replaced by Invesco Field.

"Even though his playing career with the Broncos took place before my time with the team, I am well aware of what Floyd means to this franchise, city, and league," Bowlen said. "Aside from his stellar play on the field, he was instrumental in making the Broncos relevant in the NFL and strengthened the bond between this team and its fans.

"Floyd waited a long time for this honor, and I could not be happier for him."

For at long last, Little can go out for dinner now and smile when somebody brings up the Hall of Fame.

-- Arnie Stapleton

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