Former Indianapolis City-County Council President Beurt SerVaas apparently wasn’t too happy that the Colts decided to rest key starters in the second half of their loss to the Jets on Sunday.  The Colts led the Jets 15-10 with about 10 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter when Colts’ coach Jim Caldwell, who had led the Colts to a 14-0 start to the season, decided to pull them.

The Jets came back to win 29-15, and Caldwell and the Colts have been taking heat ever since, including a Yahoo! Sports reporter ridiculously calling it a bigger mistake than Marty Mornhinweg taking the wind rather than the ball to start overtime.

But none of the criticism appears to be more ridiculous than that of SerVaas, who has said he will petition the council to ask for refunds for all fans upset about the loss (he hasn’t found anyone on the council to sponsor his proposal).

“They came to see a game played honestly. It was not played honestly, ” he said.

Umm, you may not like it–some fans may not like it–even some sports reporters may not like it–but it most certainly was played honestly.  While Curtis Painter is definitely not Peyton Manning–hell, I didn’t even realize he was the Colts’ backup–he is an NFL player, with an NFL contract, that goes to NFL practices every day, meaning he was out there playing honestly, doing his best to win the game (even if his best isn’t very good).

Would you ask for a refund if Manning got hurt, forcing Painter into a game?

Should Vikings fans get a refund for games earlier in the season when Tarvaris Jackson replaced Brett Favre in several lopsided wins earlier this season?  Surely some fans would have liked to see the scores run up even more.

Do baseball fans get refunds when they find out that Joe Mauer or Alex Rodriguez or Albert Pujols aren’t playing?

Do basketball fans get a refund when LeBron James comes off the court for a breather?  Maybe Pittsburgh Penguin fans should get a pro-rated refund for every minute that Sid Crosby isn’t on the ice?

Peter King even addressed it in his weekly column:

Tweet of the Week

“How would we look at a team that threw away a game to get a higher draft pick? How is that dif than the Colts game today?”
– alvaradoangel, Angel Alvarado, late in the Colts’ 29-15 loss to the Jets, ruining Indy’s chance for a perfect season.

Good question, Angel. Very good question.

No, it isn’t a very good question–there’s a big difference between tanking entire portions of a season to get a better draft pick (common in the NBA, very rare in the NFL in my opinion) and resting (and protecting from injury) several star players for the last third of a game as you prepare for a run at the Super Bowl–the much bigger objective for the Colts season.

Does it suck for the fans not to get to see Peyton Manning for the whole game?

Sure.

Would those fans trade missing him for the last part of a game and losing to the Jets for a Super Bowl victory?

I’m guessing most would–even if there’s no guarantee that resting him means winning the Super Bowl, nor that he would have gotten hurt playing the last quarter of the game (just like there’s no guarantee that they would have beaten the Jets if he had stayed in).

Just a thought, but maybe SerVaas should stick to politics–heck, unless I’ve missed an update, the city has even bigger fish to fry even with the Colts–maybe SerVaas can come up with a way for the Capital Improvement Board to actually afford to run Lucas Oil Stadium for the Colts’ 2010 season.

In a move that will likely be seen by many Jets fans as a move towards taking the AFC East division title, the New York Jets traded for Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards this morning.

At first glance, the move would appear to make sense for the Jets–they’ve lacked a big name wide receiver this season, who can stretch the field and take some pressure off of the running game.  Led by a defense that is ranked 3rd in points allowed and 4th in yardage allowed in the NFL and the effective (if not spectacular, for a rookie) play of QB Mark Sanchez, the team started 3-0.

But the Jets passing game is also ranked 27th in the NFL after four games, and Sanchez looked more like a rookie QB last week against the Saints, a team that, while improved defensively, has not had a reputation for having a stout defense in recent years.  And while the running game is currently ranked 9th in the NFL by yardage, that can’t be expected to continue if the team can’t effectively move the ball through the air, as teams will start to put 8-9 guys in the box regularly to stop Thomas Jones and Leon Washington.

Edwards brings to the Jets a rare combination of size and speed, and the pedigree of being a #3 overall pick, in the  2005 draft.  But to be honest, that’s about all the positivity that he brings to the table for the Jets.

He also brings a reputation for dropping passes (tied with Brandon Marshall for the most in the NFL over the last 2+ seasons), and a reputation for being a bit of a head case.  Just in the last week, he failed to catch a pass in the Browns overtime loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, and was the accused of punching a friend of NBA star LeBron James, who claims that Edwards has always been jealous of him.

In his career, he has also accused Cleveland fans of not appreciating him because of his Michigan roots, gotten into a sideline altercation with quarterback Charlie Frye, and was late to at least one team meeting due to attending the famed Michigan-Ohio State game, after being advised by team veterans not to.  He was also fined $150 and given 30 hours of community service last November after being found guilty of driving 120 MPH, and was partying in Miami with fellow Browns WR Donte Stallworth the night that Stallworth struck and killed a man while driving drunk (although Edwards was not with Stallworth at the time).

Playing in Cleveland, Edwards is used to playing in front of fans that are rabid, and will be on his case for dropping passes–although, I don’t ever remember the Dawg Pound cheering as one of their own players crawled off the field injured before.

Added to the fans will be the increased media scrutiny–even as the red-headed step-child to the Giants in New York, it’s likely that Edwards never faced the type of media criticism in the media hot beds of Cleveland and Ann Arbor that he will face in New York.

Edwards is also in a contract season–the time of a career when many players step up their games.  So far this season, Edwards has failed to do so–will that continue in New York, or will he finally regain his 2007 season form?  And will the Jets make an effort to resign him before the end of the season, or will they risk letting the player they just traded for walk away?

Finally, one must also take into consideration that Edwards will be going to a new team–while the offense may be similar to the one run in Cleveland (as much of Cleveland’s staff was in New York last year), he hasn’t really proven that he’s great in that offense yet–and he’ll be trying to establish a rhythm with a new quarterback–just ask Roy Williams, who had an even better track record than Edwards in the NFL, and struggled mightily when he was traded to the Cowboys last season.

In the end, the Jets clearly felt they had to make a move to compete over the full season in the AFC–with New England in their division, Baltimore and Indianapolis playing at extremely high levels, Pittsburgh and San Diego still talented but struggling a bit, and Denver…well, playing so far above what anyone expected it’s ridiculous, even making the playoffs could be a struggle.

The question now is whether this move is one that will actually help the Jets, or whether it will actually set them back even further.

They stole the Dodgers from Brooklyn, the Lakers from Minneapolis, and the Clippers from San Diego.  They stole the Rams from Cleveland, before losing them to St. Louis, and they stole the Raiders…well, ok, Al Davis did most of the stealing in that one, before eventually taking his ball and going back to Oakland.

In fact, only two major pro sports teams have ever been formed in Los Angeles–the Angels, who moved to Anaheim (before Los Angeles “stole” them back, without even needing them to move), and of course the Los Angeles Kings–because when you think Southern California, you think hockey.

So, despite not really showing that they could support one (or two) NFL franchises in the 1990′s, ever since the Rams and Raiders packed up and left, there has been speculation about who Los Angeles would steal to put a team back in the #2 television market in the United States.

Frequently mentioned have been the New Orleans Saints, who recently re-upped their lease at the Superdome, and the Minnesota Vikings, who are looking for a new stadium, but have an iron clad lease at the Metrodome through 2011.  The Buffalo Bills, San Diego Chargers, Rams, Raiders, San Francisco 49ers, and Jacksonville Jaguars have also been mentioned.

But now, the Jaguars may quickly move to the top of that list–and a possible move may happen even sooner than anticipated, with the annoucement that all 10 of the Jaguars home games in 2009 will be blacked out.

Given that there is typically a 72-hour deadline before each game that determines whether or not the game is blacked out, I’m not sure how they can announce all 10 games are blacked out this far in advance–but apparently ticket sales are that dreadful.

And that’s with over 9,700 seats covered with tarps to reduce the overall capacity of the stadium–a move that was made back when the team was actually pretty good.  Now that they’re struggling, maybe they need to buy some bigger tarps?

While it appears the on-again, off-again love-fest between Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings front office is on again, hopefully Vikings fans recognize that this move alone doesn’t guarantee a trip to Miami.

Assuming Favre’s bicep is sound, does he provide an upgrade at quarterback for the purple? Most likely yes.

But is this the Brett Favre of a few years ago who could seemingly at will pull rabbits from his helmet to produce victories for the Green and Gold? Not even close.

Let’s look at the game logs from the 2008 season. Everyone talks about the five game stretch that closed Favre’s campaign. It was a gross display of football, which reportedly coincided with the injured arm everyone is banking on being fixed.

Starting with the November 30 game against Denver, his last five games produced two touchdowns and nine interceptions, barely 1,000 yards passing, and four losses in five games.

So lets give him the benefit of the doubt on that final third of the season – it’s not like the rest of his season was stellar.

In fact, after a solid-to-sterling first four games, he spent the second quarter of the season playing almost as poorly as he did in the last five – before any reports surfaced of arm issues.

From October 12 through November 2, he again tossed eight picks against three touchdowns. That stretch produced home wins against dreg-like Cincinnati and Kansas City and a putrid road loss to Oakland.

Furthermore, if you take out a fantastic, blast-from-the-past six touchdown performance against Arizona, where he produced more than a quarter of his season’s 22 touchdowns, he averaged barely a TD pass per game for the entire year.

To summarize, one out-of-this-world game. Nine putrid games, five of which he gets a semi-pass for because of the arm issue. And six that ranged somewhere from decent to good.

Now again, this isn’t to say Favre isn’t an upgrade from the Booty/Rosenfels/Jackson trio. But it does indicate to me that Vikings fans need to temper their expectations for Favre.

Will he help open up the run for Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor like he did for Thomas Jones’ career year in New York last season? Undoubtedly.

Does he bring veteran leadership and proven late-game heroics? Yes.

Does this guy have enough left in the tank to be enough of his former self to make the big difference hoped for by Vikings fans? Questionable.

Is it a guarantee that his presence is all the Vikings need to make it to the promised land that is Miami in February?

I highly, highly doubt it.

And if he’s as bad in nine games for the Vikings last year as he was in nine games for the Jets, who laughs last? Favre and the Vikings fans who are looking to stick it to their neighbors from the east?

Or Green Bay Packers fans, whom long ago thanked Favre for the two Super Bowl appearances and one Lombardi trophy that came on Number Four’s watch, then moved on to the Aaron Rodgers Era.

My money is on the latter.

There are 21 coaches in the NFL Hall of Fame, all of whom were head coaches at some point in their careers.

There aren’t any who were known for their time as an assistant. But one could make a pretty strong argument that Philadelphia Eagles Defensive Coordinator Jim Johnson should be the first.

Johnson, who took a leave of absence from the team in May to fight a cancerous tumor on his spine, died, the team announced Tuesday. The 68-year-old coach designed an attacking defense that helped lead the Eagles to five NFC Championship games and a Super Bowl. They were generally among the league’s top defenses and he was considered among the top defensive minds in the league’s history.

According to ESPN, his 10-year tenure produced 26 Pro Bowl players and 390 sacks, good for second in the league during that time period. He was a master architect of blitzes and was revolutionary in his ability to keep offenses off balance. He never became a head coach in the NFL, but his proteges, John Harbaugh and Steve Spagnuolo, have head jobs right now.

The accolades for Johnson are pouring in from around the league at NFL.com and other locations.

“For 10 years, Jim Johnson was an exceptional coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, but more importantly he was an outstanding human being,” Eagles Owner Jeffrey Lurie told ESPN.”As an integral part of the Eagles family, Jim epitomized the traits of what a great coach should be – a teacher, a leader and a winner. … It was easy to feel close to him.”

“When people talk about the Andy Reid regime here, that wouldn’t have been possible without Jim,” Coach Reid said, according to CBSSportsline.com. “I think we all understand that. He really represented everything this city is about – toughness and grit. And that’s the way he fought this cancer.”

Safety Brian Dawkins played 10 years under Johnson with the Eagles. “He was a tough coach who wasn’t afraid to let you know how he was feeling,” Dawkins said in a statement quoted by CBSSportsline.com. “At the same time, he cared about us deeply.”

Baltimore Coach John Harbaugh: “I loved Jim Johnson. This is a sad day for so many people who were touched by this great man. … Jim was a tremendous teacher of football and life. He had a special ability to bring out the best in people while getting you to see the best in yourself. He saw potential and developed it. … For me, he was a father-type mentor and above all, a cherished friend. He belongs in the Hall of Fame. I will miss him so much.”

There are a number of coaches – head and assistant – who can make a case for the Hall. Don Coryell. Dick LeBeau. Perhaps Dick Rauch of the Pottsville Maroons. But Jim Johnson made a strong case for himself as well.

Fans of the Philadelphia Eagles should feel lucky to have had him for a decade.

ESPN.com is reporting that Michael Vick, fresh off being released from house arrest, will meet with Commissioner Roger Goodell soon and that its likely he’ll receive some sort of “conditional reinstatement” that will allow him to attend training camp while the commish reserves the right to impose future penalties.

That’s quite a change from speculation over the last few months where most “experts” in the media seemed to think Vick would be subjected to some league-imposed suspension beyond his incarceration for issues surrounding his dog fighting.

Should he receive this conditional reinstatement, any further penalty would likely be imposed by Sept. 1, according to the ESPN story, which was attributed to “sources” and included several on-the-record no comments from Vick’s agent and league officials.

So, if Vick is going to get the okay to play in 2009 the question shifts to which team will give him a shot? He’s never been a good passer but he is a game-changing athlete with running skills. Or he was, anyway. What he’s got left now is complete speculation at this point. Assuming he’s retained most of the athletic abilities, where does he become a good fit?

The minimum salary for someone of his playing tenure appears to be $620,000, so salary cap issues are mitigated to some extent as long as Vick is willing to take that kind of cash. And it’s not like he’s got a lot of leverage.

So, team-by-team, here’s the Zoneblitz.com take:

AFC East
Buffalo – Trent Edwards hasn’t been great and wouldn’t it be interesting for one of the league’s smallest markets to have two of the league’s most interesting problem children in Vick and Terrell Owens. Actually, while it hasn’t ever been accurate, Vick does have a cannon for an arm. Tossing the pig to guys like Owens and Lee Evans could be interesting.

Miami – With Chad Pennington and Chad Henne, I think the Dolphins have their quarterbacks of the present and the future.

New England – Tom Brady’s coming back from injury and Matt Cassel has gone on to a new opportunity in Kansas City. Bill Belichick could conceivably take Vick on as a backup.

New York Jets – Mark Sanchez. Enough said.

AFC North
Baltimore – Joe Flacco has great upside and Troy Smith is an athletic backup. No need here.

Cincinnati – Carson Palmer is reportedly back to full strength. But backups J.T. O’Sullivan and Jordan Palmer are no great shakes. And the Bengals have never shied away from reclamation projects with legal issues. I could see this as a fit.

Cleveland – Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson are already fighting for the starting job with Eric Mangini-favorite Brett Ratliff also in camp. Doesn’t seem like a fit for Vick.

Pittsburgh – Ben Roethlisberger is apparently facing some sexual assault allegations in civil court, but it’s too early to say what will happen there. Charlie Batch is a decent backup. Pittsburgh wouldn’t be a top five guess for me, but I wouldn’t rule this out.

AFC South
Houston – Reunite Vick with Matt Schaub? I doubt it. Schaub is a better passer and Rex Grossman is fighting Dan Orlovsky for the backup job. Probably not a fit.

Indianapolis – Peyton Manning never misses games. And Jim Sorgi has mastered carrying the clipboard. Probably not a fit unless something catastrophic happens to Manning before the season starts.

Jacksonville – David Garrard is coming off of a sub-par season and the backups are uninspiring. But the Jags spent the offseason trying to improve team chemistry. Would Vick fit in with that strategy? I have doubts.

Tennessee – Kerry Collins is aging but solid. And the Titans already have an athletic backup with passing accuracy issues in Vince Young in the backup slot – and Young has more upside and less baggage – so adding Vick seems like a long shot.

AFC West
Denver – Brought in Kyle Orton and Chris Simms during the offseason. Not that they are superstars, but the team has gotten enough bad publicity from the Jay Cutler fiasco this offseason to make adding Vick less than desirable, I would think.

Kansas City – Added Matt Cassel via trade and signed him to a huge contract extension – can’t see them bringing in a quarterback that could potentially create a controversy if Cassel starts slowly.

Oakland – Probably the biggest wild card in the league. JaMarcus Russell is the starter and Jeff Garcia is the backup, but Al Davis not only never shies away from controversy, he almost revels in it. Plus he’s a huge advocate of speed and athleticism to an inordinate degree – just look at the 2009 draft. I’d put these guys in the top three.

San Diego – Philip Rivers. Billy Volek. No need here.

NFC East
Dallas – Tony Romo is the starter and Jon Kitna is a solid backup. But Jerry Jones is another guy who likes making headlines. It’s a long-shot, but I wouldn’t rule it out.

New York Giants – No chance for Vick to win the starting job from Eli Manning. Backup is David Carr. Rhett Bomar and Andre’ Woodson are developmental guys. Seems a long-shot – plus it might be best for Vick to avoid the major media market for awhile.

Philadelphia – Like Vick, Donovan McNabb is an athletic quarterback. Unlike Vick, McNabb has a credible arm. Kevin Kolb seems to be the QB of the future. I don’t see Vick ending up here.

Washington – Dan Snyder seems to want to replace Jason Campbell and the backups on the roster are either developmental projects (Chase Daniel, Colt Brennan) or aging and best left as backups (Todd Collins). Might be one of the best shots Vick would have to come compete for playing time right away. And, like Jones and Davis, Snyder loves to see his name in the paper.

NFC North
Chicago – Just traded for Cutler in the offseason. Not going to happen.

Detroit – Just drafted Matt Stafford and Daunte Culpepper is there as the veteran punching bag. No need for Vick.

Green Bay – Aaron Rodgers is entrenched. Backups are uninspiring. Wouldn’t rule it out completely but would classify it as a long-shot.

Minnesota – Brett Favre seems just short of a sure thing, but still no long-term answer. Vick could actually be better than Sage Rosenfels, John David Booty and Tarvaris Jackson. Owner Zygi Wilf would have to weigh signing Vick against his “Culture of Accountability”. I would lean toward saying the Vikes won’t consider Vick, but this franchise has become a bit of a wild card.

NFC South
Atlanta – Vick’s original franchise has moved on with Matt Ryan. No chance.

Carolina – Made a large financial commitment to Jake Delhomme in the offseason. Vick throwing deep to Steve Smith is an interesting concept. Doesn’t seem like a fit on a John Fox-coached team though.

New Orleans – Drew Brees.

Tampa Bay – The Bucs drafted Josh Freeman and they have Josh Johnson, Luke McCown and Byron Leftwich on the roster.

NFC West
Arizona – Kurt Warner and Matt Leinert are already there.

St. Louis – Marc Bulger is fine when healthy, which is almost never. Kyle Boller was signed as a backup. Vick might be an interesting add here.

San Francisco – There is no clear-cut winner in this fight between Shaun Hill, Alex Smith, Damon Huard and rookie Nate Davis. Mike Singletary could be a good disciplinarian of a coach for Vick too.

Seattle – Matt Hasselbeck is back and reportedly healthy. Seneca Wallace’s results last season strongly indicate that while he might be able to handle filling in for a game or two, he doesn’t appear to have the goods to be a full-time starter in the NFL. This would allow Vick to get about as far away from Atlanta as possible and he’d reunite with Jim Mora. Would Mora want him?

So there aren’t a ton of great scenarios for Vick to go compete for immediate playing time. If I had to put money down, I’d say his best shots to do so are in Washington, San Francisco and Buffalo.

But at the end of the day I think he lands with either Oakland and Cincinnati. Undoubtedly someone will give him a shot, and those two teams have been among the most willing in recent years to shun public relations in favor of making a splash on the field.

It seems like Eli Manning is always following in big brother Peyton’s footsteps.  He chose to play quarterback, he chose to play in the SEC (following Peyton’s offensive coordinator at Tennessee to Ole Miss), and he was drafted into the NFL with the first overall pick in his class.

In 2008, just one year after Peyton led his Colts to a Super Bowl victory, nabbing the MVP trophy for his efforts, Eli led the Giants to Super Bowl glory–and nabbed an MVP trophy for his trophy case as well, making them the first (and so far only) brothers to play quarterback in the Super Bowl and win Super Bowl MVP awards.

Along the way, like brother Peyton, Eli has managed to whore himself for numerous products, even working with Peyton on spots for Oreo and ESPN–although at $5 million in endorsements, he still has a way to go to catch Peyton’s $13 million.

And now, as the 2009 season approaches, Eli looks to be following in Peyton’s footsteps again, as his rookie contract is set to close out–by requesting a potentially team crippling contract from the team that has turned him into a star.

In March of 2004, Peyton signed a then record seven-year, $99.2 million contract, which included a $34.5 million signing bonus.  The deal was supposedly done to be somewhat cap friendly, accounting for roughly 10% of the salary cap each season–but in the end, Manning had to restructure the deal in 2007 to free up cap space for the team–and coming into 2009, he was still carrying a cap number of $21.2 million.

Along the way, despite winning the one Super Bowl, the Colts struggled at times to put together a solid defense, were unable to keep their Super Bowl winning offensive line intact, and were forced (before the Super Bowl win) to let star RB Edgerrin James leave via free agency.

Now, brother Eli is looking to cash in, with his rookie contract expiring–supposedly asking for a salary in the $20 million/year range, and his agents pushing for him to be the highest-paid player in the game.

While many executives estimate Manning will end up in the $15 million/year range, the total contract could be worth as much as $120 million, with more than $40 million guaranteed.

While less of a risk than giving unproven rookie Matthew Stafford a guarantee of $42 million, one has to wonder if in the long run, signing Eli to that big of a deal will mean the Giants might be merely a decent team, rather than potentially a great one.

So far, the only quarterback that I can think of that has essentially turned down more money to make sure that his team could remain competitive–and with his three Super Bowl wins, two Super Bowl MVPs, an NFL MVP, $9 million in endorsements, and Gisele Bundchen waiting for him at home, I don’t think anyone would say that Tom Brady made the wrong call.

Yahoo Inc. has filed suit in Minnesota alleging that the NFL Players Association has no right to charge for player pictures, biographies and statistics used to drive its fantasy football games.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the NFLPA has argued in the past that such information is proprietary.

This isn’t the first time the issue has arisen. CBS Interactive and NFL Players have been fighting over the issue in court since September 2008. CBS filed suit in Minnesota while NFL Players filed a countersuit in Miami a week later.

Richard Berthelsen, acting chairman of the NFLPA at the time, said in a September 2008 press release announcing the lawsuit that “It is just wrong for companies to use the rights of NFL players to generate revenues for their own benefit without any compensation to the players. NFL PLAYERS will take all steps necessary to protect its rights, and the rights of NFL players generally.”

Last year CBSSports.com announced that it would proceed with a college fantasy football offering after Major League Baseball Advanced Media lost a suit in which it claimed ownership of statistics generated by baseball players.

The U.S. Supreme Court in June refused to hear its appeal.

Rodney Harrison is scheduled to make an announcement on his football future this afternoon, but the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald and Dan Patrick, on his Wednesday morning radio show, broke the news early.

The former Charger and Patriot safety will hang up his helmet and shoulder pads and join NBC’s Football Night in America.

I really like the move from a sports media standpoint. For a sport already short on good announcers that is already losing John Madden this season, Harrison can become one of the next generation of analysts. He’s well spoken, he’s a good analyst and I recall him bringing some humor along with his insights. This should be a very good move for him.

As a player he was a huge hitter, possibly the most intimidating safety of his era. He attempted to play one Super Bowl with a broken arm and yes, he was also injury prone through stretches of his career. He missed the last 10 games of his career with a thigh injury suffered last season.

He also had a reputation for being a dirty player and he was suspended at one point for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, after which he admitted to taking human growth hormone to help him recover from injury.

On the Patrick show this morning, he acknowledged the mistake and that he knew what he was doing was wrong. “I put football in front of my family and in front of my life,” he said.

So there’s the long and short of Harrison. That makes Harrison a Hall of Fame candidate starting in 2014. Does he make it?

It was reported earlier this week that the Minnesota Vikings had reached an impasse in talks on a contract extension for cornerback Antoine Winfield.

Not a huge issue, was my first thought. There’s plenty of time for both sides to meet in the middle and hammer something out – though the organization’s strategy in dealing with former center Matt Birk in a similar situation made me a bit squirmy.

But now Charley Walters at the St. Paul Pioneer Press is reporting that the Vikings may be struggling to decide between extending Winfield and signing Brett Favre.

Now, let’s breathe a minute first. Walters often gets some interesting tidbits but his column is also known for its speculative nature, especially regarding some of his efforts to establish players’ market values regarding salaries or trades.

Nonetheless, if the Vikings are having a hard time choosing between Winfield and Favre, I will attempt here to break it down for them. Winfield is a 31-year-old cornerback who is a tackling maven in run support coming off arguably his best season. Favre is a 39-year-old quarterback coming off a terrible five game slide to end the 2008 season – a season during which he played with an as of yet unfixed torn bicep muscle.

Can someone please, please explain why there is even a discussion here? If you can bring in Favre at a reasonable price (I would argue the $10 million mentioned in Walters’ column is perhaps too high) to run the offense for a year or two, I guess it’s a liveable deal if he is healthy. But if bringing in Favre in any way jeopardizes the team’s ability to keep Winfield, I’m sorry, it’s not a deal worth making.

Favre, if he’s not washed up already, is close. He’s perilously close to becoming one of “those guys” who hangs on too long at the end. Winfield, as evidenced by his play last season, still has a lot of good years left.