Favre spin begins, and Falcons will unseat Saints in South

No one has offered me another $7 million this morning, but we plow forward nonetheless ...

First some Favre.

. Ah, it's already begun. After telling Vikings personnel that he's going to retire, the Brett Favre camp has masterfully begun to spin it around to make this whole mess the media's fault. The Favre camp is very good at this, too. Brett doesn't get a lot of football practice, but he does get a lot of manipulation practice. After stirring the pot on a team that was calmly marching toward what should be a Super Bowl, Favre apparently told Steve Mariucci, one his personal bobos former coaches, that he hasn't made a decision.

"He's aware of this media frenzy right now," Mariucci said. "He's not quite sure where it all came from. I mean, he spoke to some people. ... He may have mentioned to somebody that he's leaning that way, because his ankle is not perfect. But right now, he hasn't retired. He's still trying to get healthy. He doesn't know if he's going to be able to be healthy in time. That's the question mark right now."

So Favre gets to stir the pot, say nothing publicly, make a call or two and have his lap dogs insiders clean it up. In the meantime, the Vikings apparently have no choice but to pony up another $7 million to the $13 million they already owe Favre.

The last part is interesting because now if Favre comes back he looks like it's all about the money and not just out there having fun and smacking butts and signing "Pants on the Ground" and throwing snowballs, etc., etc.

It's a mess. It'll pass and the Vikings and Favre will go on and have a fine season. But when we're all looking back on it in September, we should remember that this was not the media's fault.

First down:

. The Falcons will win the division that never re-crowns the previous year's champion. Usually, it's a worst-to-first deal in the South. But have ya seen the Bucs lately? I could be crazy, but I like the Falcons. Like all teams, health or lack thereof determines everything. I like that Michael Turner apparently seems healthy. There's a strong, young foundation, a quarterback entering his prime and a nice offseason pickup in Dunta Robinson.

. The Saints just don't seem like a back-to-back Super Bowl champion. That's OK. There haven't been many of them. The last one to do it was Belichick's team of the 2000s dynasty. The Saints have the quarterback to make it happen. Great leader. But as outstanding as defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is, I can't see that unit coming up with as many turnovers and touchdowns as it did last season.

. John Fox is working in the last year of his contract. He's spent just about every other season on the hot seat. He usually escapes. He won't this time. With inexperience at QB and their best pass rusher in Chicago, the Panthers will miss the playoffs and start the Jimmy Clausen era.