He's Back! Favre returns for 20th season

Football Betting Lines

08/18/2010 - Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brett Favre officially announced his return to the Minnesota Vikings for the 2010 season, his 20th as a professional in the NFL.

Favre has been on the brink of retirement for several years, but has chosen to return to Minnesota a season after leading the team to an overtime loss in the NFC Championship Game against the New Orleans Saints. It was initially reported that he was set to finally call it a career, but eventually decided to give it another go.

"It was very tough, obviously. I can make a case for both playing/not playing," Favre said at Wednesday's press conference. "It was really about the team. Believe me, when I left New Orleans, a big part of me was -- I don't want to say done, but the fact that we lost that game -- it's hard to make people understand."

In each of the last two offseasons, a major injury nearly forced Favre to retire. After 2008 with the Jets, Favre needed surgery on the biceps of his throwing arm, but came back to throw for 4,202 yards with 33 touchdowns for the Vikings last season. He needed surgery to remove scar tissue and bone spurs in his ankle this offseason, and, although the surgery wasn't as successful, he decided it was healthy enough to play.

"I needed surgery three years ago on my ankle. It's a chronic ankle," Favre said. "I had a visit with Dr. (James) Andrews last Thursday. Surprisingly, a new spur had already surfaced in the new X-ray. Fact is, it's just something I have to deal with. There is a little bit more range of motion since the surgery, but we're not talking about a lot."

Favre practiced for the first time on Wednesday and said he hopes to play in Minnesota's next preseason game against San Francisco on Sunday.

"I would like to (play Sunday). I took a lot of reps today," Favre said. "I'm not real excited about getting hit anytime soon, but that's part of it. I think there's no substitute for calling plays in the huddle in a real game environment, and the only way I'm going to get the speed of the game down is being in games."

Head coach Brad Childress was non-committal on whether or not Favre would play Sunday, but he was excited to have him back in the fold.

"(Favre) said, 'It's taken me 19 years to get to this point,' and I said, 'Maybe you finally got it.' I think the sky's the limit," Childress said. "Everybody always has to play around a quarterback, but he's got a good team around him, and he doesn't have to do it himself."

Additionally, the chance to win was something Favre couldn't pass up.

"The expectations are high here, as they should be," Favre said. "From my standpoint, I can't make any guarantees. I'm going to do everything I can. Whatever it takes for us to win. The bottom line -- I'm not here to set any records -- I've done it all, there's nothing left to prove. So, once again, it's really about these guys.

"I don't want to fail. I'm just being honest."

He also added that this year, the last of his contract, will be the final year of his professional career.

"After this year, I'm done. This is the last year of my contract," Favre said. "It was obviously a tough decision to come back. I can't say I'm going to do anything different than I did last year. I'd love to think that I'll play better. I'll do everything I can to help this team win."

The long-time Packers great who holds the NFL record for touchdown passes with 497, Favre has been the lone mainstay at signal-caller over the last 1 1/2 decades. Since the 1993 season, Favre has been under center for all 16 games every year, leading his teams to 10 seasons of 10 wins or more, including a Super Bowl title with Green Bay in 1996. Including playoffs, Favre has started 309 consecutive games, by far a record.

In what has surely been a Hall of Fame career up to this point, Favre has a 181-104 regular season record as a starter. The 181 wins are an NFL record, as are his 69,329 regular season passing yards and 5,855 playoff passing yards.

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Two playoff teams from 2007 take center stage on the NFL Network Sunday night in a Week 2 NFL betting match-up when the (0-1) New England Patriots betting head south to Florida for a contest with the (1-0) Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

New England HC Bill Belichick couldn’t care less about the way his team plays in the preseason. With a chance to tie last week’s game with the Baltimore Ravens betting, He elected to go for the two-point conversion and outright victory. The conversion failed, and the Pats ended up falling to the Ravens by a 16-15 final count.

New England rolled off twelve unanswered points to give it a chance at securing the victory, but it never threatened to cover the 3.5-point spread. NFL bettors saw this one coming, as they bet the Ravens down from +6 to +3.5 as the week progressed. QB Tom Brady didn’t take part in the Patriots first preseason clash, but could see action this weekend.

His three replacements all put up embarrassing numbers. They went a combined 17 for 33, and threw three interceptions and no touchdowns. The New England defense was encouraging, as they held the Ravens to 2/12 third down conversions and surrendered just ten first downs. That ‘D’ should be bolstered with the addition of former Bucs and Denver Broncos betting safety John Lynch, who could make his Patriots debut on Sunday against his former mates.

HC Jon Gruden had to be impressed with the way his Bucs played on both sides of the ball in their dominating 17-6 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Week 1’s NFL pre-season betting action. Bucs bettors were quite happy with the effort, as they made a mockery of the fact that they were underdogs in the game.

The logjam at the quarterback position didn’t get any easier to separate for Gruden, as all four of his QBs had positive experiences in the first exhibition of 2008. The four combined to complete 28 of their 40 passes for 204 yards and a touchdown, and that was without starting QB Jeff Garcia in the lineup.

RB Michael Bennett had 19 carries and four receptions, totaling 90 yards and a touchdown. Expect to see more of Bennett, Kenneth Darby, and Earnest Graham, as they all compete for playing time with Warrick Dunn in the backfield this season. Defensively, the Bucs recorded four sacks and held the Fins offense in check all day.

First round draft pick Aqib Talib was impressive in the secondary, recording a tackle and two pass defenses in his debut. Don’t be surprised to see Talib in the starting lineup opposite Ronde Barber for the Bucs in ’08.

The betting trends suggest that NFL bettors should be backing the Bucs in this intra-conference exhibition.

These two teams hooked up last year in Tampa Bay, with the Bucs winning that game 13-10. The Buccaneers have only lost one preseason game at home dating back to the beginning of the ’05 preseason. The Patriots have had a mixed bag of results in their recent exhibitions. They have gone 2-2 ATS and SU each of the last three years.

New England currently sits as modest 1-point favorites in this preseason showdown with the ‘total’ now sitting at 34.5.

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