Plenty of sports figures to pass judgment on these days. Let's see, Plaxico Burress, Michael Vick, Donte' Stallworth, John Calipari.

Forgot anybody? (That hockey player who beat up a cab driver over a few pennies doesn't count—it might if we lived in a state with ice in places other than beer glasses.)

Oh, of course, Brett Favre.

He didn't shoot himself in a crowded night club, abuse dogs, kill a man while driving drunk or break all the furniture and throw up on the carpet at Memphis before leaving for a better party.

Nah, Favre committed the heinous crime of taking his sweet old time to decide upon his future.

Don't blame Favre for changing his mind more often than his Wrangler jeans; the non-story fatigue was more the fault of ESPN. Of course Favre's status was newsworthy, just not as much as the world's largest sports information entity would have us believe by its breathless reporting of Favre's retirements and unretirements over the past two years. The thing that bothered me about it was that it wasted my time.

IT HAS now become a great story: Can the aging gunslinger be the missing ingredient in a long-awaited Minnesota Vikings championship? The other necessities are there. They are great at running the ball and stopping the run. If Favre can remain healthy, manage the game most of the time and take it over when necessary, watch out NFC and maybe beyond.

The first thing he needs to do is win over the locker room of a team that went through training camp without him. His record as one of the best quarterbacks ever only goes so far, and that wasn't a very good preseason debut Friday. But judging from positive comments from Adrian Peterson—the real star of this team—Favre fits in and the Vikings are happy he's there. Peterson's endorsement is huge.

MOST OF us will get over it with Favre, even if he fails. Regardless what happens in the coming months he's still a Hall of Fame lock. But devout Packers fans probably never will. He brought them a Super Bowl, but now he's Benedict Arnold, only worse—an indecisive Benedict Arnold.

“;I hope he gets drilled!”;

That's from Russell Yamanoha, the color analyst for University of Hawaii football telecasts and one of Hawaii's most well-known Packer fans (up there with my P.E. teacher from Pearl City High, Joe Francis, who was Bart Starr's backup long ago).

Russ is a lifelong Packers fan because he was born when they were dominating and he was dressed up in Green Bay gear as a baby (that's why he likes the Chiefs, too).

“;I don't know if Favre cares or not, but at this point, he'll be remembered as the waffler. If he left Green Bay clean, he would've forever been held in such high regard with the likes of Hank Aaron, John Elway, Bill Russell, etc. Rival fans hated him, but in the general public he had the numbers to rank him as one of the best ever. Plus, he was tough, likable and one of us. Now, he's just that guy who could never make up his damn mind!”;

Brett Favre setting the record for retirements merely wasted a bit of my time—generally, a forgivable offense. And now it gets interesting. The broken hearts of cheeseheads? That's another matter entirely.