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Quarterback Brett Favre has decided against playing a 19th NFL season.

He called Vikings coach Brad Childress on Tuesday to tell him he won’t be coming out of retirement to play for Minnesota.

“I wanted to play and I wanted to play for Minnesota,” Favre told the Sun Herald. “But my mind wasn’t there. That wouldn’t have been fair to Minnesota and to myself.”

Minnesota pursued Favre the entire offseason, believing he was the missing link to a Super Bowl championship. The Vikings have star running back Adrian Peterson and a stingy veteran defense that returns nearly intact from last year’s NFC North title team.

“It was a rare and unique opportunity to consider adding not only a future Hall of Fame quarterback but one that is very familiar with our system and division,” Vikings coach Brad Childress said in a prepared statement. “That does not detract from the team that we have.”

The decision, which was first reported by the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, is a stunning blow for the Vikings.

Last year, Favre tearfully retired from the Green Bay Packers after 17 seasons in the NFL and three MVP awards — then made an about-face and played for the New York Jets. He retired again, had surgery in May to alleviate a torn biceps tendon and then flirted with the idea of coming back again with the Vikings, the Packers’ NFC North rival.

“When I heard the news, I was probably as surprised and shocked as everybody else,” linebacker Ben Leber told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “The writing on the wall was as long as his arm was healthy he was going to play. I thought it was just a contractual deal that was taking so long and I really expected him to be at camp. So I was really surprised.”

After two months of rehab, Favre told Childress he didn’t think he had enough in him to get through a full season.

“I had to be careful not to commit for the wrong reasons,” Favre said. “They were telling me, ‘You went through all this, you had the surgery and you’ve got to finish it off.’ But I have legitimate reasons for my decision. I’m 39 with a lot of sacks to my name.”

Now Childress has some damage control to do with Tarvaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels, the two veterans who were expected to compete for the job before the latest Favre drama began.

Jackson and Rosenfels were peppered with questions about Favre during the team’s minicamps this summer. It already was a testy situation for them to deal with, and now they will likely face a whole new set of inquiries with the job up for grabs again.

Jackson’s agent, Joel Segal, said he spoke to his client shortly after the news broke.

“He was his usual cool, calm and collected self,” Segal said. “He said, ‘Great, let’s get ready for camp.”’

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Posted at www.sunherald.com on July 29, 2009

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