This time around, Brett Favre's following the correct process

ON FOOTBALL

So Brett Favre is considering playing again...

Blah, blah, blah.

Just give it up, dude.

You're tainting your legacy and creating a headache for another team.

I'm paraphrasing a bit, but that's what a lot of people in and outside of the NFL are saying of the 39-year-old Mississippian.

But hold on, dudes. Favre isn't Jose Lima, who — last I heard — was trying to play his way back to the majors from the lowest level of semi-pro baseball.

No, the Minnesota Vikings want Favre (if he's healthy). Not only that, they're giving him until the beginning of training camp July 30 to make up his mind.

That, coincidentally, is what Favre said he will do. He still isn't certain that his surgically-repaired arm is healthy enough to sling missiles all over a football field for 16 (or more) games. He wants to make certain that he can he be the old, soon-to-be-in-the-HOF Brett Favre before he commits to another season.

Sounds mature, wise, sage, like smart thinking. So what, exactly, is Favre doing wrong?

For a lot of football fans, he's simply been on the scene too long. He's played a ridiculous 18 seasons, which is probably about 15 more seasons than the average NFL player lasts.

Fans want to see new blood, want to watch the Matt Cassels of the league get all the focus.

To which I respond, You must be crazzzy.

Name me five NFL quarterbacks who generate more excitement than Favre, who throw improvised shovel passes like him, who throw into triple coverage ... and completes it (occasionally).

Yeah, give me another year of Favre, because dudes like him don't come around very often.

Plus, he can still play — if that arm is healthy. All anyone wants to remember about last year's Jets is how they flamed out, led by Favre, and missed the playoffs after having first place in the AFC East on lock.

Sure, Favre was terrible during those final four games. But he wasn't close to healthy, either. A year ago, when he was "unretiring," he thought he could go back out and do what he'd done his entire career without pain.

He learned that hard lesson last December.

Now, Favre is going through the correct process to assess whether he can endure a full season for the Vikings. It stinks for Minnesota that it has to wait until August to know about its possible starting quarterback, but that's a choice management made and is sticking to.

And a good one, at that.

I'm having a hard time thinking of the Vikings' alternatives at quarterback, so I'll go out on a limb and say Favre would be an upgrade. And he'd give them a legitimate shot to win the usually horrendous NFC North — and anything, as the Cardinals proved once again last January, can happen in the playoffs.

So go ahead, if you'd like, and boo and hiss Brett Favre.

But he's doing nothing wrong.

And I, for one, wouldn't mind watching him lead the Vikings onto the Frozen Tundra on the first day of November.

I'm sure the executives at FOX would be quite thrilled, as well.