Childress says he has no illusions about when Favre will arrive
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"I still don't know," Childress said after the first practice of the Vikings' rookie minicamp.
"That's my story and I'm sticking to it, from the way back when."
The day began with an ESPN report saying Favre is considering whether to retire or have surgery on his left ankle that would allow him to play a 20th NFL season. Hours later, Favre acknowledged in a post on his Web site that he needs surgery but downplayed the injury's significance, as well as its impact on his decision about returning to the Vikings this year.
"That's been ongoing," Childress said. "That's a life issue for him, and whether he gets things fixed now or later or has to have an elbow cleaned out now or later or a shoulder cleaned out now or later -- those are kind of ongoing. That's something that he's going to definitely have a grease oil filter later on down the line here."
Childress dismissed the notion Favre is using the injury as an excuse to skip training camp -- "I don't have a lot of illusions about the timing of the thing," Childress said -- and said team doctors have seen the MRI of the injury.
In Favre's statement, he pointed out he injured the ankle before January's NFC championship game.
"It didn't have any bearing at the end of the (2009) season," Childress said. "We were aware of it and in fact spoke about it at the end of the season. It was just a matter of whether he was gonna or not gonna address it or not.
"We all are familiar with his aversion to surgery -- that's no surprise. So, it's just (a matter of) if you want to live with it and whether you want to live with it your whole lifetime or you want to fix it. Fix it now, fix it again later -- I don't know. I'm not a doctor."
