The pain! Make it stop!

It's like a disease that just won't go away.

ESPN is also reporting that Brett Favre's agent, Bus Cook, says that Favre still has no intention of going to the Vikings and that the Vikings' front office hasn't made any offers to Favre since breaking off talks a few months ago. So, in all likelihood, this is just a few players spreading rumors after being dissatisfied with the team's quarterbacking in Friday's preseason game against Indianapolis, despite Sage Rosenfels looking solid and Tarvaris Jackson slightly less so.

Chris Mortensen also reports that, according to some Vikings players, that Favre would have joined the team if he could have avoided training camp, which is sticking with his M.O. of doing as little work as possible to play on Sundays. His legendary status as a classic improviser has been so ingrained in him by the media and fans that he doesn't believe he needs to practice or learn a playbook, he'll just do something wacky when a play breaks down and, even if he throws a left-handed interception, people will just shake their heads at him and smile. It's just "Brett bring Brett," after all.

What is needed is for that paragon of discipline, Brad Childress, to speak to his team (and, only somewhat less importantly, the media) and say this to them: "Brett Favre is not joining this team. Our quarterbacks are Sage Rosenfels, Tarvaris Jackson, and John David Booty. That is not going to change. End of story. Deal with it." Of course, that will only be effective if Vikings' management takes the same stance, which, at least for the moment, appears to be the case. But, as always with Brett Favre, things can change at any time, and we won't know anything for sure until the first regular-season game, against Cleveland, on Sept. 13.