Last hurrah?

I hate to admit this. As a lifelong Minnesota Vikings fan, I really shouldn't admit this. But I will. Because it's time.

I'm a closet Brett Favre fan.

I have been for years. That doesn't make me any less of a Vikings fan. At least it shouldn't.

So what if he's the catalyst for the Vikings most-hated rival? So what if he has a Super Bowl ring when Fran Tarkenton, the first of my sports idols, does not? Or that he had a much-publicized addiction to painkillers?

He's a throwback kind of a player. The kind I grew up watching. The kind I most certainly would want to be if I had his athletic tools and moxie.

Skilled. Gritty. Determined.

A winner.

That's why it pains me to see him endure the sort of season his Packers are providing him with this year. Sure, he hasn't been at his best. Hasn't been for several years now. But he can still bring it.

Unfortunately, the team around him has disintegrated, largely because of a plethora of injuries to key offensive players. Seems like he's playing on an island now, alone, trying vainly to make something positive happen.

That's not the way it should be. Not now. Not in what is widely believed to be the twilight of his career. (How disturbing is this -- He's younger than me and people are practically eulogizing him?)

Now nobody takes more pleasure in the Packers' struggles than me. But I also know that the best rivalries are just that because both sides provide and maintain a certain degree of formidable competition. Clearly, the Packers aren't what they once were. They're on their way to their first losing season since 1990, two years before a young, virtually unknown Brett Favre arrived in Green Bay.

That this happening as Favre's career winds down bothers me. Kind of like it did when Michael Jordan came back to basketball. The second time, in a Wizards uniform, of all things.

We want to preserve our memories of the great ones as they were at their finest, not as they were when they maybe stayed at it a little too long. Like Unitas in San Diego. Or Namath in Los Angeles with the Rams.

That doesn't mean I don't want to see Favre play the rest of this season, as whispers grow louder that maybe this is the time to see what highly touted rookie quarterback Aaron Rodgers can do. Or that I don't want to see him come back for another season. And another. And maybe another after that.

Favre has provided fans, cheeseheads especially, with so many great moments. The great plays. The comeback victories. The Super Bowl appearances. The performance against the Raiders following the death of his father.

Through it all, he has been human. Not perfect, by any means. The Vicodin addiction proved as much, even if his interceptions didn't.

Maybe that's what I enjoy most about watching him play. That he's human. That he's endured myriad injuries throughout his career, only to start 230-plus consecutive games (including playoffs) and counting. That he isn't the cookie-cutter robot the NFL wants its players to be. That he still just loves the game. Smiles when he's knocked down. Gets in the faces of opposing players much bigger than him. Runs around the field with child-like jubilation when he orchestrates a touchdown.

I'm wise enough now to know when I'm seeing something or someone special. Whenever Favre steps on the field, I see just that. Maybe he isn't what he once was as a player. Maybe he can't elude oncoming defenders or successfully fire the ball into impossibly tight coverage like he once did. But he still represents something magical.

Packers fans will tell you that. No game ever seems out of reach with him at the helm. With him there, there is always hope.

As a Vikings fan, I can't tell you the number of times I've watched him lead his team back against my beloved Purple. After a while, it almost becomes sickening.

Twice this year, in fact, he has led the Packers to game-tying drives late in the fourth quarter against the Vikings. Twice, it wasn't enough. Both times he left too much time on the clock for the opposition to score. Just as teams so often have done for him.

So as Paul Edinger kicked another last-second game-winning field goal to dismiss the Packers on Monday night -- his 27-yarder gave the Vikings a 20-17 victory at Green Bay -- I had mixed feelings. Of course I was pleased with my team's win. At the same time, however, I wondered if this might be the last time my team has to worry about Brett Favre. I hope not.

Hating the Packers won't be the same without him.