While it appears the on-again, off-again love-fest between Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings front office is on again, hopefully Vikings fans recognize that this move alone doesn’t guarantee a trip to Miami.

Assuming Favre’s bicep is sound, does he provide an upgrade at quarterback for the purple? Most likely yes.

But is this the Brett Favre of a few years ago who could seemingly at will pull rabbits from his helmet to produce victories for the Green and Gold? Not even close.

Let’s look at the game logs from the 2008 season. Everyone talks about the five game stretch that closed Favre’s campaign. It was a gross display of football, which reportedly coincided with the injured arm everyone is banking on being fixed.

Starting with the November 30 game against Denver, his last five games produced two touchdowns and nine interceptions, barely 1,000 yards passing, and four losses in five games.

So lets give him the benefit of the doubt on that final third of the season – it’s not like the rest of his season was stellar.

In fact, after a solid-to-sterling first four games, he spent the second quarter of the season playing almost as poorly as he did in the last five – before any reports surfaced of arm issues.

From October 12 through November 2, he again tossed eight picks against three touchdowns. That stretch produced home wins against dreg-like Cincinnati and Kansas City and a putrid road loss to Oakland.

Furthermore, if you take out a fantastic, blast-from-the-past six touchdown performance against Arizona, where he produced more than a quarter of his season’s 22 touchdowns, he averaged barely a TD pass per game for the entire year.

To summarize, one out-of-this-world game. Nine putrid games, five of which he gets a semi-pass for because of the arm issue. And six that ranged somewhere from decent to good.

Now again, this isn’t to say Favre isn’t an upgrade from the Booty/Rosenfels/Jackson trio. But it does indicate to me that Vikings fans need to temper their expectations for Favre.

Will he help open up the run for Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor like he did for Thomas Jones’ career year in New York last season? Undoubtedly.

Does he bring veteran leadership and proven late-game heroics? Yes.

Does this guy have enough left in the tank to be enough of his former self to make the big difference hoped for by Vikings fans? Questionable.

Is it a guarantee that his presence is all the Vikings need to make it to the promised land that is Miami in February?

I highly, highly doubt it.

And if he’s as bad in nine games for the Vikings last year as he was in nine games for the Jets, who laughs last? Favre and the Vikings fans who are looking to stick it to their neighbors from the east?

Or Green Bay Packers fans, whom long ago thanked Favre for the two Super Bowl appearances and one Lombardi trophy that came on Number Four’s watch, then moved on to the Aaron Rodgers Era.

My money is on the latter.