Vikings owner Zygi Wilf isn’t the only NFL owner who will benefit from the buzz created by last week’s signing of Brett Favre.

Last Tuesday, the day Favre signed, the Lions sold more than 2,500 tickets to their Sept. 20 home opener against the Vikings. They also sold about 100 three-game ticket packages that includes the Vikings game. According to the Lions, the tickets were sold to Michigan residents.

Not bad for a team that’s on a 17-game skid.

Meanwhile, in Cleveland, the Browns might need the Favre factor to pump some life back into a fan base that’s still deflated by last year’s disappointing season. The Browns dodged their first local TV blackout since 1995 when they split the cost of about 4,500 tickets with their local TV affiliate before the home preseason opener against the Lions.

Veteran reporters in Cleveland say attendance for Browns training camp is the worst in more than 20 years.

The Vikings, of course, likely said good-bye to the possibility of blackouts when they signed Favre. Other teams won’t be so fortunate.

In Jacksonville, the Jaguars had their preseason home opener blacked out. They head into a season with the possibility of having all home games blacked out.

Meanwhile, around the NFL …

. At a time when several teams are switching to the 3-4 defense as their base attack, it’s looking more and more like the Patriots will switch from the 3-4 they’ve used for years under Bill Belichick to a 4-3 alignment as their base. Leave it to Belichick to be one step ahead of the league-wide trend. By the time the 3-4 is finished spreading thoughout the league, Belichick probably will have an advantage with the 4-3. The one drawback to a 4-3 in New England is it would likely make veteran linebacker Tedy Bruschi a backup to Jerod Mayo.

. Chiefs coach Todd Haley had a good line when asked for his reaction to the Favre signing last week. “I’m just worried about this house,” he said. “It’s on fire and I’m trying to keep it from burning down.” Actually, it burned down last year, Todd. You’re rebuilding it.

. And how would you like to be Cowboys rookie safety DeAngelo Smith? He’s the guy who got into a trash-talking bout with fellow rookie David Buehler. The two went back and forth about who was faster than whom. Finally, they settled it with a  50-yard dash after practice. Buehler, A KICKER, won. “He beat me fair and square, man,” Smith said. “I got no excuse.” By the way, that’s one reason former Vikings receiver Cris Carter never raced teammate Randall McDaniel. McDaniel, who was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame earlier this month, was one of the fastest players on the team despite being a guard. McDaniel would routinely beat unsuspecting young teammates — mostly the cockier defensive backs — in a foot race. Carter was too smart. He always felt he could beat McDaniel, but knew it was a no-win situation for a receiver to race a guard.  Â

I’ve always said Tarvaris Jackson isn’t good enough to trust as the starter or bad enough to give up on. He proved the latter Friday night when he completed 12 of 15 passes for 202 yards, two TDs, no picks and a perfect passer rating of 158.3.

Yeah, it’s a preseason game. But given the choice between releasing Jackson and John David Booty, why in the world would the Vikings release Jackson? They have more than three years invested in Jackson. That’s three times more than they have invested in Booty.

Jackson was a second-round draft pick. Booty was a fifth-rounder. Jackson is more athletic and has the better arm strength.

Plus, if anyone can learn by playing a year or two (or three?) behind Brett Favre, it’s T-Jack.

The two things T-Jack lacks most are toughness and a feel for the game. He doesn’t make quick decisions and he holds the ball too long. Well, Favre is the toughest, most durable QB in NFL history, and he has a great feel for every situation he’s in on the field. Favre makes quick decisions and lets the ball fly (sometimes too quickly).

Those who say get rid of Jackson now because the Vikings are just going to lose him as a free agent anyway need to keep this season in mind. It’s no slam dunk that Favre will last the entire season. Keeping Sage Rosenfels AND Jackson makes the most sense, assuming Jackson remains a professional about this and doesn’t cause a big stink. Sorry, JD.

Meanwhile, Favre played Friday like a guy who showed up on Tuesday. It’s not a big deal that he completed only 1 of 4 passes for 4 yards. Heck, I’d be more concerned that the Vikings’ offensive line got shoved backward, allowing Adrian Peterson to be dropped for a loss on fourth-and-1.

The next preseason game will be much more important for Favre. That will be his only real warmup before the season opener. If Favre had committed to the Vikings a month ago, like he should have, the Vikings would be right on schedule. Now, it’s a rush job to get him in sync with the rest of the offense.Â

To everyone who says NFL players always receive preferential treatment, clip and save the Plaxico Burress articles and file them next to the M. Vick folder.

Burress was an idiot for not registering his gun. He was Three Stooges-Stupid for tucking them into a pair of sweats and accidently shooting himself in the leg. He’s no criminal.

But, apparently, being stupid gets you two years in the slammer. Burress pled guilty to one count of attempted criminal possession of a weapon. I won’t even pretend to know what that means. But I know it’s going overboard to make an example of a celebrity NFL player. And that’s not right.

Plaxico didn’t stick that gun in someone’s face. He didn’t try to rob anyone. He made a dumb mistake and he’s the one who got shot.

If Burress gets out in time for the 2012 season, here’s hoping the Los Angeles Vikings sign him. He’d make quite a target for the then soon-to-be 43-year-old Brett Favre.

Brett Favre insists he didn’t join the Vikings just to stick it to the Packers and GM Ted Thompson.

While that’s probably true, you know it’s fairly high on his To-Do List. 

Thompson, of course, is the scoundrel who had the audacity to draft Favre’s heir apparent, groom him for three years and make him the starter after Brett boo-hooed through a retirement press conference, saying he had “nothing left to give.”

The nerve of that guy Ted! Turning to a 25-year-old former first round draft pick and asking him to complete about 64 percent of his passes for 28 TDs, 13 INTs and more than 4,000 yards in his first year as a starter. What was Ted THINKING!?

Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy were the underhanded rats who had the audacity to say the Packers’ franchise was bigger than any one individual. You mean the franchise of Lambeau, Lombardi, Starr and Nitschke is bigger than ESPN’s favorite athlete?!

The nerve of those guys! What is this, a team sport? How 1950s of them.

Now we have two showdowns between the Packers and Favre. Oct. 5 will almost certainly be the highest-rated Monday Night Football game in history when the Packers visit the Metrodome. Nov. 1 at Green Bay will definitely be the strangest game in NFL history when Favre plays against the Packers.

We know Packers fans want the Packers to win. We know Vikings fans want the Vikings to win.

But where will the sympathy lie outside those camps? It’d make a good poll question.

Personally, I’d have to believe the casual fan wouldn’t mind about 15 Packers executing a successful and quite painful blindside bullrush on the first play of the game.

Not that it matters, but for the sake of something to argue about before Oct. 5, I think the Packers become more likeable and Favre and the Vikings less likeable. The Packers put their franchise above the individual ego. The Vikings not only did the opposite, they resorted to begging by the head coach after training camp had started and the ego had already turned him down.

That’s not saying Brad Childress was wrong. The missteps at the QB position the past three-plus years forced him to throw this hail mary. But you have to admit Favre’s buddy Chili had to surrender a little self-respect and control of his team along the way.

Upon hearing the news Tuesday, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Michael Hunt wrote, “The Ego has Landed.”  Somehow, I don’t think Vikings Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton is the only person outside Minnesota who wants this marriage to fail miserably.

Brad Childress and the Vikings threw the hail mary they had no other choice to throw when they signed Brett Favre.

And like many a Favre pass, the result could be really good, really bad or really ugly.  

Packers fans are upset that the Vikings’ Super Bowl hopes now rest on the legend they idolized for 16 years. It’s an understandable reaction.

But Packer fans can take some comfort in their team’s current starting quarterback situation. The Packers didn’t have to throw the Hail Mary. They selected Aaron Rodgers in the first round and then spent three years grooming him.

Three years. That’s called planning ahead.

In his fourth year, 2008, Rodgers became the starter. Not only was he comfortable, confident and ready, he was one of the better QBs in the league with a 63.6 percent completion percentage, 28 TDs, 13 INTs, 4,038 yards and a 93.8 passer rating.

The Vikings took Tarvaris Jackson in the second round in 2006. His first three years of grooming were such a disappointment that the Vikings had no choice but to throw the hail mary and essentially beg Favre out of retirement on the eve of his 40th birthday.

Here’s how I would rank the starting quarterback situations in the NFC North. This is based on the situations RIGHT NOW. I know some won’t grasp that and will start reciting Favre’s career achievements. But this is, again, RIGHT NOW.

1, Packers

Rodgers is 25. He’s comfortable, confident, efficient and will only improve over a good first year as a starter.

2, Vikings

For all the excitement that’s been generated about this “final piece” to the puzzle, do we really know what the Vikings are getting in Favre? No. Again, it’s a move the Vikings had to make because nothing else they’ve done at the position in the past four years has worked. But Favre is on the verge of 40, fell apart physically down the stretch a year ago and is coming off arm surgery.

I’M NOT SAYING IT WON’T WORK OUT, but going into the season, I’d feel more comfortable with Rodgers as the starter than Favre. I’d also like the fact that I wouldn’t have to be scrounging around for another starting QB next spring. 

3, Bears

Jay Cutler was a good acquisition for a franchise that hasn’t had many good QBs the last century or so. But it will take him longer than Favre to adjust to the system. Plus, he doesn’t have the same weapons Favre has.

4, Lions

The choice is an aging Daunte Culpepper or a green-as-grass Matthew Stafford. And whoever starts will be playing for a team that went 0-16 a year ago.

What a mixture of emotions Brett Favre’s signing creates today.

It should be a positive feeling. After all, he’s better than anything the Vikings already have on the current roster. He knows the offense well enough to teach it.

But …

A glance at the calendar says it’s Aug. 18. In Mike McCarthy’s well-phrased green-and-gold (or is it yellow?) world, that’s long after “the train has left the station.”

It’s AFTER training camp has broken. It’s AFTER the first preseason game has been played. It’s AFTER the other 52 players were told to move on by their head coach and owner.

This should have happened in June or at least BEFORE training camp. The timing now leaves a sour taste for everybody, including some of Favre’s new teammates.

Obviously, this could end up being a positive and productive move. But one has to at least acknowledge the gamble considering the timing and the team’s 180-degree shift from just a few weeks ago.

The timing definitely could have a negative effect on this team. Despite what Brett may think, there are 52 other players who will play for the Vikings this season.

All of them went through the offseason. They went through Mankato. They were jerked around all offseason by Favre, the team and the media frenzy that follows Favre’s every move.

The players were told Favre signing was a possibility. Then they were told it’s a probability. Then they were told by their head coach and owner about three weeks ago that it was O-V-E-R. Done. Won’t happen. The team has moved on. We’re still a championship-caliber team. Have fun on the tractor, Brett. Blah, blah, blah. 

As usual, what an NFL team said wasn’t what an NFL team actually meant. 

After all the heavy lifting had ended in Mankato and the first preseason game was put in the can, here comes Brett to sign and save the day.

If that’s not a stick in the eye to the co-workers, then what is? If that’s not the spoiled baby getting his way over everybody else, then what is?

Waiting until after training camp to join a new team is Favre at his most selfish best, or worst. He’d rather throw footballs to teenagers in Mississippi than be a teammate in Mankato.

Favre knows the offense, but the Vikings needed him here on time. He could have lowered himself for a couple of weeks to help the team instead of thinking of himself. He could have taught the rest of the guys what he knows about the offense.  He could have used the extra time to teach them what he’s thinking and what to look for in certain situations.

Yeah, there’s still three more preseason games to go through that. But now it becomes a rush job.

And if it doesn’t go perfectly, dontcha think the guys in that locker room have a right to get a little ticked that Favre got to come to Winter Park whenever he darn well felt like it? Dontcha think there will be some guys in that locker room who will think “Let’s ditch the old prima donna and go with the guy who was sweating with us back in March”?

In the end, Favre got his way. He’s in control. Brad Childress is the co-pilot now. Will the Vikings end up landing in Miami for the Super Bowl? Or will they crash next to Eric Mangini’s Jets coaching career?

Mangini never controlled Favre, and Childress is off to the same start. It was great in New York when Brett’s arm was OK. But when the arm went south, Coach Brett refused to bench QB Brett and the Jets crashed short of the playoffs.

The Vikings shouldn’t feel any obligation to the Favre legacy. If Favre hurts his arm again or plays like most 40-year-olds play, he should be benched or released, not kept in the lineup to preserve the Favre mystique.

You’d like to think the Vikings are in charge of the situation. You’d like to think that if Favre doesn’t work out, they’ll have the guts to take him out. But after seeing Favre get his way by skipping training camp, we all know who’s in charge now.

Judd has a post over on Access Vikings about former Vikings employee Randy Hanson getting cracked in the jaw during an altercation with a fellow Raiders coach. It allegedly was Raiders head coach Tom Cable. For those who didn’t see it, here’s the link to the National Football Post story. (I guess I could have linked to Judd’s link to the link, but …)

The Raiders are nuts. We all know it. They know it. But that being said, I don’t have sympathy for Hanson or especially our guy Lane Kiffin — who really milked public sympathy last year – when all heck breaks loose on them when they get out there. Everyone understands the chaos they’re in for when they sell their football soul to work for the Raiders.

Meanwhile, anyone who has covered the NFL long enough to cross paths with the Raiders has a story to tell about the Raider Way. Mine came the summer after Randy Moss was traded there.

We decided to travel to Napa Valley for Raiders camp. I called ahead to try and set it up. I was told I’d be wasting my time. We decided I’d go anyway.

Before I left, I had questioned some of the Raiders’ access policies to make sure of what I could expect when I got out there. An email I sent to the president of the Pro Football Writers Association made it to someone in the NFL office, who then talked to the Raiders. 

When I got out there, I was invited to sit down in a makeshift office at the Napa Valley Mariott, which serves as the Raiders’ training camp headquarters. The intimidation level had a certain Godfather feel to it. I thought maybe this was the part where the dude slips the piano wire around my neck.

Later, practice started behind a 10-foot ivy-covered wall. Local media went through the gate. Some national media went through the gate. I wasn’t allowed through the gate and was told it was open to local media and “Friends of the Raiders.” I was given full access after practice ended, I must say.

The Raiders played across the Bay in San Francisco in a preseason game later in the week. I approached Moss in the ridiculously cramped locker room after the game. As he was telling me he would talk, a Raiders’ official was tugging on my arm, trying to pull me away. It was Moss who had to step in and tell the guy it was OK. 

The fact Hanson got cracked doesn’t surprise me. Or the fact the Raiders became a YouTube sensation last year when a team official berated a sports writer at a press conference.

I’m surprised stuff like this doesn’t happen every day out there.

A quick look at the Bears while thinking, “You know, if Y.E. Yang can beat Tiger Woods mano-a-mano, maybe my dream of a Lions-Browns Super Bowl isn’t so far-fetched … ”

Vikings fans have to be enjoying what could be the opening acts of quite a soap opera in Chicago in 2009.

Even though the Bears have played only one preseason game, a loss to the Bills, new QB Jay Cutler and alleged No. 1 receiver Devin Hester were beyond awful. Cutler threw to Hester six times in his 10 attempts. The results made you wonder if the Bears forgot to start training camp.

Since Brett Favre backed out on the Vikings, Cutler was the marquee addition to the NFC North. If any team has reason to hope this season will be much better than last season, it’s the Bears (Unless, of course, you consider one or two wins a great improvement over the Lions’ zero wins in 2008).

The Bears were “out of sync” offensively against the Bills, said offensive coordinator Ron Turner. In the locker room after the game, Cutler acted like the guy who sometimes rubs teammates the wrong way when he deflected blame for an interception by throwing Hester under the proverbial bus. He called Hester a “go-and-get-it” guy, not a “jump-and-go-get-it” guy, meaning Hester should have done more to prevent the pick.

Hester is a great returner, but the Bears’ insistence that he’s also a No. 1 receiver is misguided and hurting the team’s ability to develop an offense.

Cutler comes from Denver, where he made the Pro Bowl operating one of the best offenses in the league. He’s spoiled that way. He also isn’t a guy to hold his tongue or take blame he thinks belongs elsewhere.

All of that adds up to a potential mess that Vikings fans would enjoy from afar.Â

Let’s hope the commish steps up his goal of reducing the number of preseason games soon. VERY soon.

There’s never been another sport that’s so good in the regular season, great in the postseason and so completely awful and unwatchable in the preseason. 

It’s bad for business, insulting to fans who have to buy full-price tickets to this garbage as part of season-ticket deals and pretty much useless for judging what’s going to happen next month.

For example, the Lions beat Atlanta 27-26 Saturday night. Way to go Lions. Way to start the Jim Schwartz Era. Restore the Roar, baby!

Oh, wait. The Lions were 4-0 in the preseason last year. That makes their preseason winning streak five and keeps their regular season losing streak at 17.

I will say, however, that Vikings fans might be able to read a little something into the Browns’ 17-0 loss in Green Bay. Any team that cannot score a single point in a preseason game against vanilla defenses designed not to put anything good or creative on tape is terrible.

In other words, the Vikings should win at Cleveland in Week 1 regardless of how Sage Rosenfels plays in his debut as the starter (Yeah, I know. It hasn’t been decided, but I’m sticking with the notion that this alleged “competition” is really a smokescreen to keep T-Jack interested).

The Browns have their own issues at QB. Brady Quinn supposedly looked better against the Packers, but both he and Derek Anderson both threw interceptions.

I like Quinn a lot better than Anderson. Anderson reminds me in a way of T-Jack. Not good enough to trust, but not bad enough to ditch.Â

Nothing like a Vikings trip to Lucas Oil Stadium to remind Minnesotans and their state and local politicians that time is — as Marisa Tomei said “My Cousin Vinny” – tick, tick, ticking away!

The Vikings’ stadium situation needs to be decided. Yesterday. But here we sit, with the team’s Metrodome lease rapidly expiring, and … well … nothing.

If Indianapolis and just about every other NFL city can figure this thing out, why not the Twin Cities? I was at the opening game for Lucas Oil Stadium last year. It’s fantastic. It cost $720 million with $100 million of that coming from the Colts.

It was a tough decision. It was money better spent elsewhere. But it got done and Indianapolis didn’t have to go out of business to get it done. They’re still teaching their kids, arresting bad guys and putting out fires with a new stadium in Indy. Same goes for Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Denver and, well, just about everywhere.

The Vikings are ready to put up part of the money for a new stadium. That should help at least open the door to serious discussion about how in the heck to get this done. But it hasn’t so far.

I wonder if the politicians who are hiding from the Vikings’ stadium situation — covering their ears, closing their eyes and going “la, la, la” in hopes it goes away, which it won’t – will be there when the new Twins ballpark opens in the spring. Hopefully, they won’t mug for the cameras and declare what a great day it is for the Twin Cities.

I’m not from Minnesota. I’m not a Vikings fan or a Vikings hate-ah. Just an interested observer. So, personally, if they leave, it’s not a big deal to me. Professionally, there would be other assignments besides the NFL (I hope).

My perspective comes from growing up in a city (Cleveland) that did have an NFL team leave. (Actually, Cleveland has had two teams leave, including the Rams, but I wasn’t around for that one in 1945). The pain it caused that city and its fans can’t be described unless you lived it. (Start by imagining what it would be like to watch the Toronto Vikings open the 2012 season against the Packers). Fortunately for Cleveland, it got a team four seasons later. But it was an expansion team that’s still a mess 10 years later.

. As for the Vikings’ game on Friday, was there ever any real question that Sage is the starting quarterback. I mean, if T-Jack was the starter, I don’t think the team would have gone and signed Sage.

You can’t judge T-Jack’s poor performance against Sage’s good performance because T-Jack played with the scrubs. But, c’mon, the alleged QB competition was over the minute the Vikings signed Sage.