INDIANAPOLIS -- Vikings coach Brad Childress just conducted several interviews at the NFL Scouting Combine. I'm about to do some major transcription and will post more blogs throughout the day, but here is what Childress had to say about Brett Favre while talking to the media at the podium. (Childress said he spoke with the quarterback on Monday and Tuesday, his first conversations with Favre since the veteran departed the Vikings facility after the loss to New Orleans in the NFC title game.)

Q. Do you have any sense of what direction Favre might go as far as returning?

A. "I wouldn't really characterize it either way. I spoke to him a couple of times earlier this week, Monday and Tuesday, and he's more fixated on getting some crushed limestone down on the road to his mother-in-law's house on his property. They have a water issue down there. I think he's got other things on his mind right now and certainly I couldn't give him any landscape, architecture ideas or anything of that nature. So the conversation didn't last very long. He needed to get back to work."

Q. Would you like a decision from him?

A. "I'm not going to put him in any box. I said that after the year. Four weeks and change, he's still healing up from that [loss to the Saints]. He's kind of earned that latitude. I think you kind of define things a different way where everybody would have said, 'Well, he had to be here for OTAs. He had to be here for the mandatory minicamp. He was trying to get out of training camp.' I think it's just important to manage a guy's resources, particularly a 40- or 41-year old and there's really not a manual on that. Just like there's not a manual for raising kids, there's not a manual for 40, 41 [year old quarterbacks]. So for him to have probably one of his best years, I think you just have to be mindful of that."

Q. Everything that transpired with the timeline last year in terms of Favre, is that something that you would be OK with this year?

A. "It is. I think every year is a little bit different. He was rehabbing a significant offseason surgery. And obviously in a throwing arm. ... [I] hope he doesn't jackhammer his foot or something like that while he's out there cracking limestone. I'm pretty good with that. I think the thing is that our team understands that as well. You know the old not knowing, not knowing, not knowing. You can question guys on our team and say, 'Would it be nice to know sooner than later?' Yeah. But you have to be able to deal with uncertainty and ambiguity in this business. Whether you're a player, whether you're a coach and deal with it well. I think our players get that, understand that. I think they'll be fine."

Q. Do you have a plan in place at quarterback if Favre does not return?

A. "Well, we have two guys that are currently on the roster in Tarvaris [Jackson] and Sage [Rosenfels]. As I mentioned last year, we were going to be a good football team with Brett and a good team without him. As it stands right now, those guys will be able to ably main the position."