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Brett Favre appears to be coming back to Minnesota after being absent from Vikings training camp for two weeks (as written by Sam Farmer at the Chicago Tribune):

???It looks like Brett Favre is headed for a career hat trick.

???The 40-year-old quarterback appears to be coming back for a third time since announcing his retirement in 2008. Favre flew to Minnesota on Tuesday aboard a private jet with three Vikings teammates dispatched to Hattiesburg, Miss., to plead for his return.???

Yes, no one is surprised. Most of us knew that Favre just didn???t want to come to training camp. But it still surprises me that all this elicits is a the collective yawn from fans and media.

Most people seem to accept that Favre has the Vikings over a barrel. And, rather than being annoyed by the fact that he???s taking advantage of it (and them), they seem to admire him for it. My own feelings are quite the opposite. The whole thing is a black eye for the NFL. I blame both the Vikings and Favre for it but only because I blame Vikings head coach Brad Childress for everything just out of principal.

Its true that Favre doesn???t need to be in training camp for the full duration anymore. He???s a veteran who knows the offense and knows how to quickly get into sync with his recievers. But Favre doesn???t seem to care about the effects his attitude has upon the team morale. There are players, particularly younger players, who do need training camp and who do need to be in Mankato where the Vikings train. But they see Favre absent and wonder why they should be there. Suddenly RB Adrian Peterson is missing mandatory off-season practices. WR Percy Harvin shows up two weeks late to camp. Yes, his grandmother died and yes he gets migraines. But one wonders if he wouldn???t have gotten back a lot quicker if the importance of training camp had been impressed upon him by the veteran presence of Favre as a team leader.

Being a member of a professional football team means more than showing up to do your own job. It means sacrifice for the team. It means sacrifice to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Its about working with others towards a common goal in the greatness and generosity of the human spirit.

Favre is well-known for sacrificing his body on the field and people (like myself) point to that and love it. Doing such things contribute to his own legend. But it makes one wonder when he???s asked to do something relatively small purely for the benefit of his teammates and refuses. One wonders if he ever thinks of anyone but himself. One wonders if he ever has. One wonders if, in the end, that won???t be his legacy.