For what has been way too long a time, we've been wondering if Brett Favre really wants to play football again. After all, numerous people have said he's coming back, while Favre has said he's retired.

Well, we can end all that speculation now. Favre definitively wants to play again.

How do I know? Because Peter King wrote about it today at SI. And he didn't mince his words.

what I can tell you for sure is this: No. 4 wants to play football again, and the Green Bay Packers desperately do not want him to.

Will he play? I don't know. I don't think he knows. He has, however, told coach Mike McCarthy he wants to return.

Now, let's be straight here. Peter King is the world's biggest Favre fan, even ahead of John Madden. So, in other words, there's no possible way that King would jeopardize his relationship with Favre by making up rumors.  Favre wants to return, and obviously he's using King to help fuel that.

The interesting thing here though is that the Packers don't want him back. And can you blame them? This team has lived with this crap from Favre for the past few seasons. As I've said time and time again, if any other player in the NFL did this to their team, they'd be killed by the media. And in all honesty, Favre's even starting to push the envelope too far. Pretty soon he's going to start getting crushed by sports columnists, and deservingly so.

You simply can't do to a team what Favre has been doing to the Packers. A team has to make a commitment to prepare for the future. Favre apparently didn't want a part of that future when he retired last season, so he shouldn't expect to be a part of it now.

According to King, just because Favre wants to play, doesn't mean he will. But King expects "the most accomplished statistical quarterback ever" (careful there King, you're drolling) to ask his agent to send a letter to the Packers within the next 10 days, stating that Favre wants to be taken off the National Football League's reserve/retired list, which the Packers will have to do. The Packers can then either hang on to him (and pay him over $12 million), trade him, or release him.

The most logical thing to do would be to trade him, since there are a ton of desperate teams out there who need quarterbacks. But because trading Brett Favre out of Green Bay would be considered an affront to God Almighty, they'll probably just release him.

I guess then we'll find out how much he really wants to play. I know the Bears and Vikings could use a good quarterback.

Brett Favre saga far from over [SI] via [Fanhouse]