The rain is pounding the U.S. Open media tent, players have been pulled from the course until at least 1 p.m. Eastern time, and I’m wishing I had slept in.

But what better time to check out how many games Brett Favre will be scheduled to play as a 40 year old (How long after he turns 40 do we start calling him “soon-to-be 41-year-old Brett Favre?)?

Yeah, yeah. Favre is still deciding his future. (Wink, wink). Could go either way. (Wink, wink). We’ll see how the arm feels as training camp gets closer (Wink, wink). Stay tuned. (Wink, wink, gag).

For gosh sakes, just get it over with. Sign up Brett and let ESPN-ARVE start building its Eden Prairie compound.

Favre turns 40 on Oct. 10, meaning he will play four games as a spry 39-year-old before heading to St. Louis’ Edward Jones Dome as a 40-year-old on Oct. 11. The Rams stink, but they have a new coaching staff and the Vikings got some sort of jinx going on in that dome. 

Favre’s first home game as a 40-year-old will be Oct. 18 against the Ravens.

There isn’t much history to go by when it comes to 40-year-old QBs. Most of the great ones retired in their late 30s because it was time or they got hurt. Most of the bad ones didn’t have a chance to play until they were 40.

Only two players have started six or more games in a season after turning 40: Warren Moon and Vinny Testaverde. They did it three times each.

Moon, a Hall of Famer, was the Vikings’ starter as a 40-year-old in 1996. He went 4-4, broke his collarbone and was done for the year.

A year later, Moon went 7-7 as a starter in Seattle and remains the best over-40 quarterback in NFL history.

Testaverde went 9-19 as a starter after turning 40. Vinny was athletic and kept himself in great shape, but he was hardly a great quarterback, so it’s hard to compare him to Moon or Favre.

Favre certainly can break new ground as a 40-year-old. After all, he’s spent an entire career breaking just about every record this is for quarterbacks.

But looking at the history of the league, the odds definitely are against him.

Oh, and by the way, Favre’s last game as a 39-year-old will be Oct. 5 at home on Monday Night Football against that team from Green Bay.

Sitting in the media tent at the U.S. Open in New York. Getting ready to hit the course and go elbow-to-elbow with obnoxious New Yorkers who lack that basic filter between brain and mouth. But first, a couple of NFL thoughts …

. Maybe I’m missing something while covering golf this week, but where’s the uproar over Donte Stallworth getting only 30 days for pleading guilty to DUI manslaughter?

I know what Michael Vick did was awful. Only an idiot would say otherwise. But, sheesh, the guy spent two years in jail, this summer in house arrest and yet it seems most people still can’t forgive him for running a dog-fighting ring.

Then there’s Stallworth. He wasn’t involved in dog fighting. All he did was do something that resulted in a man — a human being – getting killed. Yet it seems from here that people just shrug their shoulders as if what Vick did was worse than what Stallworth did.

It’s very strange.

I would assume Stallworth will get booted from the league for awhile. His sentence comes with two years of house arrest. Commish Roger Goodell won’t rule on Vick’s NFL status until Vick’s house arrest ends later this summer. Does that mean the earliest Stallworth can get back into the league is 2011? 

Sure seems like it to me. Of course, for whatever reason, there won’t be as much public pressure on Goodell to put the screws to Stallworth. 

And ….

. As usual, Brett Favre talked in circles Monday when he appeared on HBO’s Joe Buck Live. But he still managed to confirm what all of us already knew: Unless his arm falls off between now and July 29, he’ll be a Viking. I don’t believe he slipped when he called the Vikings “we.” He knows he’s coming back. The Vikings know he’s coming back. ESPN-ARVE knows he’s coming back. My 4-year-old daughter knows he’s coming back (OK, maybe she doesn’t. She’s a Bears fan. The Berenstein Bears on Nickelodeon).

It’s a good move on the Vikings part. Like Favre said, he knows the offense so well, he could teach it.

But it’s only a good move if the Vikings maintain the upper hand on Favre. The Vikings don’t owe a darn thing to the Favre Legacy. Neither did the Jets, but coach Eric Mangini bowed to the Favre Legacy late last season when it was obvious that Favre’s shoulder was injured. Favre should have been benched. He wasn’t and Mangini was fired for it.

To me, Favre should make the Vikings better since he’s better than anything they already have. But if he can’t cut it because of age or his arm starts to fail, you bench him. If he doesn’t like that, you release him.   

In a rare interview with the Jacksonville media, former Vikings coach and current Jaguars assistant Mike Tice tells the Florida Times-Union he’s OK with the fact he may never get another NFL head coaching position.

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” said Tice, who was fired by the Vikings after going 9-7 in 2005. “I’d love to be a head coach again. But I think a switch went off when we got to the playoffs and played Pittsburgh [after the 2007 season] that it wasn’t going to be the end of the world if I never got one again, whereas when I got fired, it meant a lot to me to get a head coaching job.”

Tice, 50, is entering his 28th season in the NFL. He spent the first 14 as a player.

Tice has, for the most part, managed to keep a low profile as an assistant in Jacksonville. He’s given more interviews to those of us back here in the Twin Cities than he has to reporters in Jacksonville. According to today’s Times-Union story, this was the first “in-depth” interview Tice had given since joining the Jags in 2006.

Tice has made similar comments during interviews with the Star Tribune the last three years. In today’s Times-Union story, Tice again accepts blame for the ticket-scalping scandal in 2005, but not the Vikings’ Love Boat fiasco that same year.

“I got a very bad rap in the boat situation,” Tice said. “Hopefully, you don’t have ringleaders that are setting up bad situations and guys are following and, unfortunately, I had that.”

It’s hard to say whether Tice will get another shot at being an NFL head coach. He hasn’t had an interview since 2006.

He had an interview scheduled with the Lions last year, but the Lions backed out of it after a video of what appeared to be a drunken Tice singing “God Bless America!” with a group of drunken 20-somethings outside the Kentucky Derby.

Some have said Tice wasn’t drunk. The group recognized him, called him over and started signing, and, Tice being Tice, he joined in. Either way, so what? He’s of legal drinking age and he was simply singing, ironically, ”God Bless America!”

In two months, former Vikings guard Randall McDaniel will take a deep breath, walk across a stage in Canton, Ohio and give an acceptance speech in front of thousands of fans in attendance and millions more watching the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremonies on television in prime time.

“I don’t know how I’ll react,” McDaniel told me recently. “I hate public speaking. I could be the first guy to just step up there and pass out.”

Hopefully, that won’t happen because McDaniel has been working awfully hard on his speech in recent months. He thanks former Vikings teammate Gary Zimmerman for giving him a valuable tip on preparing his speech.

“Zim went in last year, and I remember sitting there thinking just how tough that speech would be,” McDaniel said. “I asked him about it after I was voted in, and he said not to start writing the speech too early. He said you’ll be talking to people and things will come up that you’ll want to put in your speech.”

McDaniel went out and bought a folder. Then he took a magic marker and wrote “Hall of Fame thoughts” on the folder.

He carries it around with him. He also spent eight straight days calling about 100 people he was close to from his youth through the end of his playing career.

“My wife does most of the organizing,” McDaniel said. “She made a lot of calls, but then she came to me with a list of about 100 people and said, `These are the people you have to call yourself.’ There were old high school basketball teammates, football teammates, old teachers, coaches, you name it. I felt I had to call and talk to them.

“I started thinking about how long it was going to take and it was overwhelming. But I’m so glad I did it. It was one of the best parts in all of this.” 

It’s always nice to see a guy truly appreciate the Hall of Fame. McDaniel said he never saw himself as a Hall of Famer. The fact he was All-Pro nine consecutive years and a 12-time Pro Bowler makes some wonder why it took three tries to get him into the Hall of Fame.

Having gone through the voting process for the first time this year, I can now understand why it sometimes takes awhile.

There’s a limit to how many people can get in each year, and it’s not negotiable during the years when a lot of guys are deserving.

The day before the Super Bowl, 44 members of the selection committee vote yes or no for two senior committee nominees. They also trim the pool of modern-era nominees from 15 to 10 to five. Then they vote yes or no on those five.

This year, the late Bob Hayes is going in as a seniors committee selection. He’s going in 34 years after he played, nine years after he was eligible as a modern-era player and seven years after he died.

The next Viking to enter the Hall probably will be either John Randle or Cris Carter, or both of them. They made the cut from 15 to 10 this year. That’s an indication that they’ll get in eventually.

I believe Randle has a better chance of getting in next year. I think Carter’s chances in 2010 will be hurt by the fact Jerry Rice will be on the ballot for the first time. Rice holds all the key receiving records in NFL history and will overshadow even Carter’s excellent career.

Also eligible for the first time is Emmitt Smith, the league’s career rushing leader. So, right there, two of the final five modern-era finalists are set.

That means only three spots are left. And Randle and Carter aren’t the only guys lined up waiting to get in. There’s also Shannon Sharpe, Dermontti Dawson, Richard Dent and Andre Reed, among many others. And that doesn’t even include the many other potential first-year finalists such as Tim Brown.

Chances are better than good that James Laurinaitis will end up starting for the Rams this season. But the former Wayzata High School and Ohio State star linebacker hasn’t gotten any reps with the first team during minicamp and OTAs this spring. 

How is he handling the situation?

“I think you need to just be quiet and learn,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

A simple response, but oh so refreshing in today’s sports world.

“It seems like he’s a very bright young man, has a passion for the game — all the qualities that we look for,” Rams defensive coordinator Ken Flajole said.

Meanwhile, in an unrelated note ….

Has anyone else noticed that …

. In May, ESPN was quick to shoot down someone else’s report that Brett Favre was going to have surgery … in May.

. In June, ESPN claims credit for saying that Brett Favre had surgery … in May.

Now that we’ve plowed through each division, we find ourselves still knee deep in what used to be called the offseason and/or the baseball/golf season. But, by gosh, let’s not waste a good June 5th without wondering, “Hey, who are five of the most unheralded players in the NFL?”

Oh, what the heck, since everyone should at least be allowed an opinion, this is one man’s Official Top 5 Unheralded NFL Players.

The top five in this list aren’t necessarily without their awards. In fact, three of them were All-Pro last year.

To make this top five, you have to be relatively unhyped, definitely overshadowed and must not appear on SportsCenter more than 650 times per day. The winners will receive a jersey with a circle around and a line through the No. 4. We will not refer to them by their initials, nor will we change their last names into the Spanish version of their jersey numbers.

Here goes:

5, Ahmad Bradshaw, Giants RB

If Brandon Jacobs gets hurt, this is the next Darren Sproles-type breakout player. Bradshaw is only 5-9, 198, but he’s got youth and great moves. With Derrick Ward now in Tampa, look for Bradshaw to turn a few more heads this year. He’s averaging 6.1 yards per carry in his two-year career.

4, Visanthe Shiancoe, Vikings TE

Yeah, it’s tough putting an unheralded tag on a guy who talks this much and has made YouTube for a malfunctioning towel. But how many people realize that in 2008 this guy topped 20 yards once every 3.5 receptions and scored once ever six receptions? And Peyton Manning wasn’t exactly throwing him the ball. Shank also makes our all-quote team.

3, Le’Ron McClain, Ravens FB

He was All-Pro last season, but you hardly ever hear the guy’s name mentioned. A 6-foot, 260-pound fullback who rushes for 902 yards, including an 82-yard TD?! He ran for 10 touchdowns and caught a pass for another. And he’s only 24.

2, Patrick Willis, 49ers LB

He was All-Pro in both of his NFL seasons, but how many people pick him as the top inside linebacker in the NFL. He goes overlooked because he’s quiet. He should be getting Ray Lewis/Brian Urlacher-type treatment. Willis has 315 tackles in two seasons! But, no, he doesn’t take five minutes to dance onto the field when he’s introduced before a game.

1, Andre Johnson, Texans WR

Again, this is a two-time All-Pro and a former No. 3 overall pick. But when is the last time you heard anyone outside of Houston talk about him? He doesn’t fit the SportsCenter persona, especially at his position, so how many people actually recognize him as the best receiver in the NFL? Probably none. Last year, he led the league in receptions (115) and receiving yards (1,575), but stood in the shadow of the league’s receiver divas because he’s quiet, unassuming and probably the hardest-working player the Texans have.

While wondering whatever happened to Rex Daniel Grossman III, let’s take the last look in our stroll through the eight divisions.

The NFC N…AVRE, er North.

The division winner could be determined based on what the old man in Mississippi decides to do.

Then again, if you really break down the division, the Vikings won it last year without father Favre. Why can’t they win it again without him?

Yeah, it’s a new year, but the Vikings, with or without Favre, should be good enough to win the NFC North. (As for being good enough to advance in the playoffs, we’ll leave that argument for another time).

Here’s why: 

. The Lions are awful and rebuilding everything, including their super scary new logo, so count them out. That’s an easy one.

. The Packers are coming off a 6-10 season and are rebuilding a bad defense with a completely new philosophy. Their best defensive player, Aaron Kampman, will be playing out of position, and two rookies, NT B.J. Raji and OLB Clay Matthews, will be counted on heavily.

. The Bears are coming off a 9-7 season and have their best quarterback in decades in Jay Cutler. But if a good quarterback has no one to play catch with, is he still a good quarterback? Plus, the NFL frowns on pass rushers using walkers, so Chicago’s old-timers might have to continue standing there and doing nothing, like they did all last season.

I know Brett needs to be coddled. He needs to be told he’s the greatest and Ted Thompson is the eternal enemy of all mankind. I do think the Vikings should sign Favre if he’s healthy enough to play. But for purposes of this discussion, I also think the Vikings should win the NFC North with or without him.

They have the league’s best running back (Adrian Peterson), not to mention crucial depth at that position; the best defensive line; a nice mixture of talent at receiver (Bernard Berrian and now Percy Harvin); and a now-underrated tight end (Vinsanthe Shiancoe). The offensive line is a question mark because of new faces at center and right tackle.

And, of course, QB has been the one massive issue since 2006. Sage Rosenfels and/or Tarvaris Jackson can succeed 80 percent of the time by just not messing up. But it’s that 20 percent when they’ll have to make a play that could determine the success or failure of the season.

The Vikings won the division last year with Gus Frerotte and T-Jack. And I’d consider Sage an upgrade over Gus because Sage can actually move his feet to avoid getting easily mugged.

Some other thoughts …

. In Chicago, coach Lovie Smith is taking control of the aging, 21st-ranked defense. Someone is getting a little nervous about being 16-16 and 0-0 in the playoffs since appearing in the Super Bowl. 

. Is it me or did the Bears take a great return man (Devin Hester) and make him an average return man who’s a below-average receiver? 

. Does anyone really think Daunte Culpepper is going to start more games than Matthew Stafford this season? Sorry, Daunte. It’s cool that you lost those 30 pounds, but how in the world do the Lions sell themselves to their fans without the hope that No. 1 overall pick Matthew Stafford provides. Several new faces were added on defense. To generate any kind of excitement for the team, the Lions have to get Stafford up and running with veteran WR Calvin Johnson and fellow first-round draft pick TE Brandon Pettigrew ASAP.

. Yeah, Cutler cost the Bears two first-rounders and a third-rounder. Yeah, he was a Pro Bowl player last year. But will he make an immediate impact with few weapons and a shaky offensive line?

. With that in mind, until I see Cutler in the Bears’ offense, I’d have to say the best quarterback in the division going into the season is Aaron Rodgers. Two years ago, the Packers were 13-3 and made the NFC title game with Favre. Last year, they were 6-10 without Favre, but nobody blamed the collapse on Rodgers. That tells you how well he played. He completed 63.6 percent of his passes for 4,038 yards, 28 TDs and 13 interceptions. He has a year of experience and good skill players around him. If the offensive line fills its many holes, Rodgers could have an even better season this year.

. Is Brad Childress’ job in jeopardy? Basically, all coaches are in danger every year. Just look at what has happened the past two years. Guys who have won Super Bowls (Mike Shanahan, Jon Gruden, Brian Billick) have all been fired. I DO NOT expect Childress to be fired. BUT … if he misses the playoffs with a relatively healthy team or goes one-and-done at home in the playoffs again, the pressure to fire him and start over with one of the many big-name coaches who are available will be strong. He knows that’s part of the job.

In talking, er, blogging yesterday, we mentioned how Tarvaris Jackson’s NFL career has progressed by leaps and bounds when compared to a real coaching-career-killer like 49ers QB Alex Smith. Yeah, I know, that’s not really a compliment considering Smith, a former No. 1 overall pick, is heading toward a career bust of Tim Couch-sized proportions.

Today, let’s compare T-Jack’s mental and emotional progress as a human being to that of fellow draftmate and No. 3 overall pick Vince Young.

For starters, T-Jack is a mature, hard-working young man. He’s also different from Young in that he never:

A, Essentially had a breakdown, disappeared, had family members call the team facilty and suggest someone track him down because he might do something not so good to himself.

B, Said he’s going to keep his mouth shut and work hard, then opened his mouth two weeks later, causing a major stink.

And, C, Had his agent respond a day later by saying, um, Vince basically misquoted himself.

It sounds ludicrous, but the agent, Major Adams, might not be completely off base.

I’ve noticed over the years that it’s harder to follow athletes as they respond to questions. Even simple questions. 

Take Young’s response to a Baltimore TV station. He starts out saying, I think, what he wanted to say. By the end of his answer, he’s standing on the opposite side of what he started out saying. Here’s the first part of the quote:  

“I’m still focused, staying focused. I’ve got a lot of people that look up to me. I’ve got a fans that love me and want to see me back out on the football field,” Young told the station. “Right now, I’m just taking it a day at a time, being very competitive, competing for the job and just let Coach Fish[er] make his own decision.”

Now, the uninterrupted quote begins to drift to the other side: 

“Definitely I want to be in there playing ball and picking up where I left off, winning games and having a good time with my teammates and fans.”

And now, like a tornado, the quote does a 180 and, oh boy, head for the cellar: 

“But at the same time if them guys don’t want me in there, it’s time for me to make a career change for myself. The fact is I’m ready to play ball, and if they’re not ready for me to play ball, somebody is.”

Chances are the last part is his true feeling, which, basically is, Play Me or Trade Me, Fellas.

But when athletes try to speak, there’s often gray area mixed with cliches, mixed with what the team tells them to say, mixed with what the agent tells them to say, mixed with the player’s own inability to articulate whatever the heck it is that he wants to say.

If I were teaching NFL players how to speak to the media, I’d offer eight words and one exclamation point:

“Say what you mean, mean what you say!”

If you do that, there’ll be less confusion, no need to blame the media, and your agent won’t have to come out and say you misquoted yourself. 

While mourning the end of Roderick (who?) Rogers’ Vikings career, let’s keep the chins up and take a look at the NFC West, a puzzling division that stunk right up until its champion went to Super Bowl 43 …

Raise your hand if you think, “Dude, the Cards easily win this wimpy division again.” Now, hop on one foot if you’re aware of the fact that seven of the past eight Super Bowls went on to MISS THE PLAYOFFS the next season.

Despite an amazing passing attack, the Cardinals seem like a perfect team to continue that dubious trend. They aren’t a dominant team by any stretch. They have holes, particularly running the ball and on defense. And they did lose four of their last six regular season games to finish a rather average 9-7.

In Seattle, the Seahawks went 4-12 and didn’t win the division for the first time in five years. But they also were destroyed by injuries. QB Matt Hasselbeck missed nine games, and every single starter on the offensive line ended up on injured reserve before the season had ended.

In San Francisco, the 49ers won four of their last five games to finish 7-9 and erase coach Mike Singletary’s interim title. The 49ers haven’t made the playoffs in six years (If you remember the 1980s, that just sounds weird, doesn’t it?) and they have a quarterback situation that even the Vikings would pity. But one gets the feeling the 49ers are moving in the right direction.

And in St. Louis, the Rams went 2-14, flushed everybody, including the last pieces of “The Greatest Show on Turf” and are starting over with former Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. Will the Rams be better? Probably. Enough to win the division? Probably not.

Some other thoughts …

. The Cardinals had to be the strangest team to ever make the Super Bowl. Forget all the lopsided regular-season beatings and the late-season slide. How many Super Bowl teams finish last in rushing and fire their defensive coordinator after the season? I was shocked when they made the Super Bowl last year. I’d be more shocked if they make it this year.

. Can Beanie Wells stay healthy in the NFL? He better. The Cards got rid of Edgerrin James after he had a decent postseason run.

. CB Bryant McFadden was a nice free-agent acquisition for the Cardinals. But only if the former Steeler doesn’t pull out his Super Bowl ring and say, “You know, boys, there was a moment late in that game when, whew-wee!, I actually thought we might lose.”

. You get the feeling the Rams won’t be shoved around quite as much as they were the last couple of years. Center Jason Brown, a free agent from the Ravens, is the strongest and most physical center in the league. And we know how aggressive Spagnuolo likes the play on defense.

. Is Rams QB Mark Bulger finished or just the victim of a terrible and banged up supporting cast the past couple years? And if he is finished, will Kyle Boller really turn his career around with this team??

. Shaun Hill is 7-3 as a starter in San Francisco. He’ll probably beat out Alex Smith, the No. 1 overall pick in 2005. Smith already has cost one head coach his job. When compared to Alex Smith, ole T-Jack is progressing by leaps and bounds.

. If the 49ers had a quarterback, or if one of these two guys progresses, San Francisco could actually be an entertaining team to watch again. WR Michael Crabtree fell to them at No. 10 after the Raiders botched their first pick and didn’t take him. And San Francisco’s third-round pick, RB Glen Coffee, should be a great match with Frank Gore.

. Is Aaron Curry really the steal of the draft at No. 4? Should the Lions have taken him instead of Matthew Stafford? Curry went to Seattle and replaces Julian Peterson. He plays a position that he should be able to show immediately whether he’s going to be as great as some think he will.

. What was so special about Jim Mora that he was Mike Holmgren’s hand-picked replacement? Mora is 26-22 as a head coach, including 1-1 in the playoffs.    

. Is T.J. Houskskskla;lj;lkdjaf;lkj;lkja;kjfd;aj;fkl worth the $40 mill the Seahawks dished out for him? This will be something Vikings fans will want to watch. The Vikings wanted T.J. Housha;ljf;lfadkj;lja;jeio, but weren’t willing to pay as much.

. Can Seahawks LT Walter Jones make it back from microfracture surgery on his left knee? He is, after all, 35 years old.

. Logic rather than recent trends would suggest the Cardinals will win the division. At this point, I’d go with recent trends and suggest Seattle stays healthy enough to reclaim the division.

Those who wanted to see Matt Cassel in the Upper Midwest will get their wish on July 31. And those in the Twin Cities won’t have to drive all the way to Mankato to see the popular former Patriots backup quarterback.

Cassel will be in River Falls, Wis., with his new team, Kansas City. The Chiefs, who acquired Cassel and linebacker Mike Vrabel for the reasonable price of a second-round draft pick this offseason, report to training camp July 31 and will hold their first practices on Aug. 1.

Family Fun day is Aug. 8. Camp breaks after the Chiefs’ Aug. 21 preseason game against the Vikings at the Metrodome. 

The Chiefs haven’t announced their full training camp schedule, so it’s uncertain when or if the Vikings and Chiefs will conduct joint practice sessions.