Former Vikings wide receiver Cris Carter recently told those in attendance at the NFL's rookie symposium that he was 100 percent sure Brett Favre would return as the Vikings quarterback in 2010.

Carter, who was helping at the workouts organized by Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald Jr., on Thursday on the University of Minnesota campus, elaborated on why he feels so confident that Favre will be back.

"I feel like if he wants to play he should play," Carter said. "I feel like everybody else, their opinion doesn't matter. When you've reached the height that he has and you make the sacrifices and you've put it down on that field. I mean 20 years, never missed a game. Being 41, 42 and being in the locker room with these kids, that's a lot of work.

"OTAs and all that stuff, they are overrated. It's really hard to decide if you're going to play this game, like how long you are going to play? There is a strategy for how to get in this league, there ain't no strategy how to get out. … He's one of the rarest of rares in a rare group. That he can still at this age, play at a level that we saw him play 15 years ago ..."

Asked about when Favre might show up for training camp, Carter said "What difference does it make to you?" Told "none" by the reporter, Carter said, "Why doesn't somebody write that?

"You play 20 years in the National Football League, you know what training camp [is about and] you know how to get through the season. Do you think somebody is going to teach him something new at Mankato? Now you do need to be there a certain part for his teammates. Last year he was there. [Actually Favre did not show up until the Vikings had broken training camp in Mankato.] Football players, we have a great understanding to realize that it's not a square peg, it's not a round hole, it's somewhere in between and we adapt to it. And we're going to adapt to Brett Favre.

"It's a commodities business and he's a commodity and we're going to wait for him to get here before we decide to play. I don't care if people like it, they don't like it. That's the deal. You're going to have to live with it. I'm glad Brett Favre is in a position where he can make a good decision for him, he and his family, where he's not rushed because you don't want a quarterback out there that's double-minded. You don't want a guy out there that wished he had stayed away. "If he decides to come [back] -- which he's going to definitely come [back] -- his mind will be ready to play some football and that's all you've got to concentrate on. That's really the deal. Most people try to make this more complicated. But he's a 20-year vet. This [would be] his 20th year. Nineteen years in the league. I mean he knows what he's doing and he's in the same system."