MANKATO, Minn. -- John Sullivan faced reporters on Thursday outside the Minnesota Vikings' training-camp headquarters and delivered the company line without hesitation.

No, Brett Favre isn't here. No, we're not worrying about it. And no, this team won't miss a beat if Favre decides to stay retired.

"There's been a lot of talk about players being treated differently," said Sullivan, the Vikings' starting center. "Well, guys aren't the same. Brett's been playing for 20 years, he's earned some leeway, and we know that if he comes back he'll be a hundred percent committed to the team.

"So, we'd love to have him. Everybody knows that, and I think I speak for myself and I speak for most of the guys when I say nobody's upset that Brett's in the situation that he's in."

Sullivan didn't have to explain further. Neither did the other Vikings veterans who paused as they moved into the dorm rooms here on campus at Minnesota State University, Mankato, to utter many of the same refrains they have the past two summers.

As veteran defensive tackle Pat Williams put it, "We ain't stressing about Brett."

And with good reason -- because no matter what Favre says, how much his ankle hurts or how badly he wants everyone to believe he's undecided on playing a 20th NFL season, his Vikings teammates believe the same thing everyone else does.

Brett Favre, the legend, the guy who helped almost this exact same team within yards of the Super Bowl a little more than six months ago, will come back for (at least) one more shot.

But ... what if he doesn't?

What if, after two or three weeks working with presumed No. 2 Tarvaris Jackson, one day Favre calls and says he's hanging it up for real?

It's an unlikely scenario, to be sure. But the more everyone from coach Brad Childress on down professes trust in Jackson, Sage Rosenfels and rookie Joe Webb -- "We have to win with what's here," defensive tackle Kevin Williams said -- the more it sounds like offering a million-dollar reward to the person who can completely calculate pi.

In other words, it's easy to have faith in Jackson as the starting quarterback when there's no chance in hell Jackson will be the starting quarterback.

Maybe everyone's words are genuine, but they're all spoken within the context Favre probably-likely-almost surely will come back.

"If he doesn't -- boy, watch out," a scout for another NFC team said late Thursday. "I think it's going to be a huge letdown for the whole team. I don't know how you can really open up and say it is a competition, because we all know in the back of our minds what it is, and we aren't even in that locker room."

It was one thing when Favre called Childress on the day players reported last summer and said he was staying retired. That set up a competition -- albeit one that ended up deciding the No. 2 job -- between Jackson and Rosenfels, who both struggled early in camp.

There has to be at least some concern about the quality of practice this time, with both men rather obviously resigned to their seat-warming status.

Jackson made two trips to and from his car on Thursday afternoon and didn't say a word to reporters. Rosenfels breezed by and later was spotted pedaling away on a bicycle.

Asked if he would have preferred the situation were resolved before camp, Kevin Williams said, "It doesn't matter either way. I'm going to be here. That's one thing I do know, so that's what I focus on."

Of course, he does. Everyone does.

Because it's a lot easier to focus on the present when you have a damn good idea the future holds something better.

Tom Pelissero is Senior Editor and columnist for 1500ESPN.com. He hosts from 6 to 8 p.m. weeknights and co-hosts from 10 a.m. to noon Sundays on 1500 ESPN Twin Cities.
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