Article:Brett Favre Stays Retired

It's been reported that Brett Favre has let the Minnesota Vikings know that he won't be playing football this season.

"It was the hardest decision I've ever made," Favre told ESPN. "I didn't feel like physically I could play at a level that was acceptable."

The news came as a blow to the Viking organization and to those sports bettors who had put money on the Minnesota to win their division, the NFC and/or the Super Bowl. The future odds on the Vikings at most online sportsbooks jumped once news broke that they were chasing Favre. The team opened around +2200 at most online betting outs, but the money started to pour in on Minny, dropping the odds to as low as +1500.

At respected sportsbook online SPORTSBETTING.com the Vikings were sitting at 16-1 Tuesday evening, hours after the report he was not going to suit up.

This is a NFL betting team with one of the best defences in the league and on the other side of the ball, they have one of the top running backs in the game, Adrian Peterson. The glaring weakness has been, and apparently will continue to be at the QB spot. If Favre stepped in to this offense, despite being 39 years old and clearly not as effective as he had been several seasons ago, he made this team a legitimate Super Bowl contender.

Minnesota won the NFC North division last year despite the lack of production at QB and there is every indication they could be better this year, with or without a chance behind center.

Heading into camp the QB battle will now be left to Tarvaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels. Look for Rosenfels to win that battle, but he still needs to prove he can be an effective, consistent starter.

The NFC North division is wide open, particularly now that the Chicago Bears have a starting QB who might actually be able to move the offense. The future odds on the Bears to win the Super Bowl is currently 20-1, with odds of 15-8 to win the division.