ShareThisLogic says Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre might have suffered the injury that will end his record streak of consecutive starts.
A magnetic resonance imaging exam Monday confirmed Favre sprained the sternoclavicular joint in his throwing shoulder on his first pass attempt Sunday. He wasn't able to return to the Vikings' 38-14 victory over Buffalo and later admitted he couldn't have even thrown a football.
This type of damage to a quarterback's throwing arm ordinarily would qualify as grim news. It looks even more bleak when that player is 41.
But we learned long ago that logic does not apply when it comes to Favre and injuries. Perhaps that's why Vikings interim coach Leslie Frazier did not hesitate to answer when he was asked if he expected that Favre would be able to make his 298th consecutive NFL start Sunday against the visiting Giants.
"No question," Frazier said. "Someone asked me that same question yesterday. I really thought he'd come back in the game (against Buffalo), just knowing Brett. As hard as I saw him get hit, I've seen him take harder hits and bounce back and come back and play. There's nobody tougher than Brett Favre to ever play the quarterback position. I was a little surprised he wasn't able to make it back, and I'd be surprised if he's not able to play this weekend."
Frazier said the injury is "not something that can surgically be attended to," and added that doctors did not give him any type of degree on a sprain that affects Favre's neck and sternum area. Favre made a brief appearance in the Vikings locker room Monday but declined to comment about how the shoulder was feeling. He then ducked into the training room to receive treatment.
"If the doctors say he is fine and he is functional and not at risk and Brett feels good about it, it won't be a hard decision," Frazier said. "The only thing that makes it difficult is if the doctors say he is fine and he says, 'I'm not ready to go.' ... Between the two, between what the medical people tell me and what Brett tells me, we will make a decision based on that."
Favre will spend much of this week receiving treatment, and Frazier acknowledged rest will be a key, so it's likely Favre will do little to no work in practice. That means backup Tarvaris Jackson will get the majority of the reps with the first team after playing most of Sunday's game.
"It will probably be a day-to-day thing, I would assume, as we are going through this," Frazier said. "Just to see how (Favre) responds on Wednesday and that will determine what happens on Thursday."
Favre was injured when he was hit in the back by Bills linebacker Arthur Moats as he rolled out to pass. "I don't want to see anybody hurting and not playing any more. If he plays, that would be a good thing," Moats told reporters Monday. "... I didn't want to hurt him, but it just happened. During the play, you're not thinking like, 'Oh man, that's Brett Favre.' You're just thinking, 'That's a quarterback. My job is to sack him.' "
Favre has battled numerous injuries in what he says will be his final season. He has been on the injury report every week -- his Week 1 ankle listing was the result of offseason surgery -- and was marked as questionable (50 percent chance of playing) before games against Dallas in Week 6 and New England in Week 8.
It appeared Favre was in real jeopardy of missing the game against the Patriots Oct. 31 after he suffered a stress fracture in his left ankle and another fracture in his left heel the prior week, but he played in Foxboro, Mass., until the fourth quarter, when he suffered a gash on his chin that required 10 stitches.
Favre has sat out four of six Wednesday practices since Oct. 27 and been a full participant in only four of 18 sessions overall. All of those came in Friday practices, which are the lightest ones of the week.
Frazier, much like Brad Childress before him, said the streak wouldn't play a factor in the final decision for Sunday, at least from the coach's end.
"The streak really doesn't come into play," Frazier said. "Brett is going to be honest about where he is. I really trust him in that regard. If he can play, he'll tell us. If he can't play, he'll tell us."
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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