Bevell Will Be Surprised If Favre Doesn't Play

Brett Favre left the Vikings walkthrough Thursday morning without the walking boot on his left ankle. Favre is not expected to practice Thursday and his status for Sunday's game remains in question.



Favre, who has two fractures in his left ankle, said Wednesday that he wants to play, and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said he will be surprised if Favre doesn't extend his NFL record for consecutive starts to 292 games.



"Surprising would probably be a good word," Bevell said during his weekly press conference. "He's never not been out there so it would probably be a surprise. I was there [in Green Bay] and he broke the thumb. Immediately the doctor said, 'Hey, we've got to pin it and you're going to be out six to eight weeks.' In his mind, he said, 'Well wait a minute, I just played really well.' We didn't know it was broken. He said, 'I'm going to give it a shot.' He played with that as well. It would surprise me if he wasn't able to be out there."



Bevell said the decision will rest with Favre and Coach Brad Childress. Childress criticized Favre's decision-making against Green Bay on Sunday after he threw three second-half interceptions. Favre now has 10 interceptions and 14 turnpovers on the season.



Bevell said the coaching staff always has candid conversations with Favre when evaluating each game.



"It's important for [quarterbacks coach Kevin Rogers] and myself as well to break it down like we would do with any other player," Bevell said. "We don't pull any punches with him. We tell him exactly how we feel it should be looked at. Actually to be honest, Brett is great about it. He sits there in the meetings and understands.



"Now the one thing you have to understand as well is how many years of experience he has of standing out there looking at it. Sometimes it's important to listen to him. He says, 'Here's what I saw, here's why I went over there.' You can either say, 'OK, I understand that' or you can say, 'OK, I know you have all these years of experience but that's not the way we want to look at it. We want you to look over here and go from there to there.'"