The "will he or won't he" game Brett Favre played with the Vikings and their fans last spring and summer created plenty of suspense about whether the quarterback would ever really play for the team.

There was the issue of whether Favre would have surgery on his partially torn biceps and then, after he had gone through with the procedure, whether he would feel comfortable returning. We all know now that things worked out pretty well for the Vikings, who narrowly missed a Super Bowl berth.

The Vikings' overtime loss to the Saints in late January could have started a whole new round of speculation on Favre's future and it did to a certain degree. The reality, however, is that few (if any) have ever believed that Favre was going to retire for a third consecutive offseason. Favre played too well last season and he's far too competitive to go out with a loss like the one Minnesota suffered at New Orleans.

That's why Vikings coach Brad Childress and other team officials haven't seemed overly concerned about what Favre will do. Have they been told 100 percent he will be back? It doesn't appear that way. But, like everyone else, they figure there is no way Favre can walk away from the situation in which he currently finds himself.

Thus, it wasn't really a surprise to learn Friday night that Favre had undergone arthroscopic surgery on his left ankle in Florida to clean up scar tissue and provide what amounts to a tune-up to that ankle for the third time in Favre's soon-to-be 20-year NFL career. Childress knows that by giving Favre his room that the veteran will make the decisions the Vikings want him to make and so far he has been right.

About the only surprise in the Favre story that appeared on ESPN's website was a paragraph that explained he would likely need four to six weeks of rehabilitation before beginning a running program that would put him on schedule to report to training camp "either at the beginning of camp or shortly thereafter."

Anyone who has followed the dealings between Favre and the Vikings probably got a laugh out of this. There are no indications that Favre will show up at the beginning of camp or even shortly thereafter. Remember, last season Favre did not join the Vikings until they had broken camp in Mankato and played a preseason game. There is no reason to believe Childress is going to demand anything different from Favre this time.

Favre might be willing to give the Vikings an arrival date -- a bit after mid-August would not be a shock -- but no one expects that he will ever set foot in Mankato.

This type of treatment is a key reason the Packers decided they had had enough of Favre, it didn't hurt that Aaron Rodgers was on the roster, but the Vikings approach clearly is going to be much different and Vikings players appear to be OK with this.

After having this surgery, Favre now will have plenty of time to get his ankle right before he makes the return trip to Minnesota. About the only real question left in Favre Watch '10 is not if but when that trip will be made.