Vikings Just Can’t Say No to Favre

It was hard to miss the symbolism of the final moments Monday night, when the Chicago Bears, so comfortable in their 40-14 blowout, already had their division champion hats on. The only parting gifts the Minnesota Vikings received Monday night were a few snowballs hurled at them by furious and freezing fans and the sobering sight of their quarterback, who had strangely thrust himself back into a season that had melted down faster than the snow drifts, looking like a punch-drunk fighter who had finally taken one too many walks into the ring.
The Vikings had owned the National Football Conference North for two years but their all-in strategy to win the Super Bowl this season has collapsed as surely as the roof of the Metrodome did last week. They have had all kinds of crazy this season — nobody, including the caterers, was immune — but, fittingly, the weirdest moments came Monday night, in the final home game forced into a small outdoor stadium to preserve a celebration for the 50th anniversary of the team in Minnesota.



The Bears were furious with what they suspected was chicanery with the injury report, but the N.F.L. said the move was allowed. That cleared the way for Favre to make one more night all about him, in a pattern of either single-minded toughness or self-absorption that has produced some of the most thrilling moments in football history. As that pattern has evolved this season, however, it has threatened to overshadow his extraordinary career.

When Favre’s starting streak came to an end last week, it seemed his career would come to a graceful close, with Favre on the sideline watching the younger quarterbacks who hope to carry the Vikings into their future. Instead, it was his stumble off a college field, concussed when his head was slammed into the frozen turf after a sack, that will be remembered as the moment when it all ended. Or when it should end.

Nobody has ruled Favre out for the final two games of the season. Commissioner Roger Goodell is expected to decide before the end of the regular season whether to discipline Favre after a league investigation into suggestive text messages and graphic photos he allegedly sent to a woman when both were employed by the Jets in 2008.

In his postgame news conference he sounded as if he had decided he wanted to play this one last game because it was at home.

“Why I would even consider playing, I have no idea,” Favre said. “I knew it was my last home game.

“And as crazy as it sounds, I was looking forward to playing in a blizzard,” he continued.

“I think my stubbornness, hard-headedness and stupidity is what has allowed me to play for 20 years.”

Favre has hijacked games before, often with dazzling results. At 41, with his body breaking down, it was a stretch to think he could craft another moment to burnish his legend.

This was an alternate universe of the Vikings’ own creation. Leslie Frazier is coaching to have his interim tag removed, but, like many other coaches, he did not say no to Favre, who had not taken a practice snap in two weeks. Frazier said Favre told him he wanted the fans to see him play again.

Favre insists he will retire after this season, and maybe he really means it this time. And the Vikings will begin a long, probably painful rebuilding process. Both went all-in and the bottom dropped out. There are worse ways for seasons and careers to end — the Vikings need look only to the way the Cowboys quit on Wade Phillips to find solace in the fact that at least they never stopped playing. For that, Favre deserves substantial credit.

The Vikings will go on next year, probably devoid of the drama and sizzle that Favre brought them, and almost certainly without the success he instilled in 2009. And Favre will go home to discover, again, what life after football is like.

“Is there?” he said late Monday night. “I don’t know exactly what that means.”