Vikings left guard Steve Hutchinson acknowledged Tuesday that his trip to Hattiesburg, Miss., with defensive end Jared Allen and kicker Ryan Longwell was pretty much a last ditch effort to either convince Brett Favre to play a 20th NFL season or to wish him well in retirement.
In an interview with NFL.com, Hutchinson said the Vikings asked the three to go see Favre. The trio arrived at Favre's house on Monday night and stayed overnight. Favre took everyone on a tour of his property Tuesday morning and the subject of his potential return or retirement was then brought up.
"We told him how much all the guys loved playing with him and that we would love to do it again," Hutchinson told Rich Eisen of the NFL Network. "We also told him that if he didn't want to do it, then congratulations, you deserve it. You've had an incredible career, but we've got to know one way or another."
Hutchinson said Favre spoke very little about his surgically repaired left ankle, which has been made out to be a major reason he hadn't decided to return. Instead, Favre talked about personal reasons about whether he would play. This is interesting because Vikings coach Brad Childress said when he went to see Favre in July that he also didn't think the ankle was that big of issue.
The fact that ankle really isn't that bad means that it would not be surprising if Favre plays a few series on Sunday night in San Francisco in the Vikings' second preseason game.
One thing Favre focused on in discussions, according to Hutchinson, was how much fun he had playing for the Vikings last season. Favre called it a "special bond," and it was at that time that Hutchinson told NFL.com that Favre simply said, "OK, let's do it."
