The Favre saga still at a stalemate, the question is: Who'll crack first?

Ten nights ago, I sat in Brett Favre's Mississippi home, and a couple of times during our discussions he said he wanted Packers general manager Ted Thompson to release him. Folly, I thought, and I told him so. "Brett," I said, "the Packers will release you over Ted Thompson's dead body. They're not going to give you the chance to run through the tunnel opening night as a Viking." Favre was not moved. He heard me, but I don't think he believed me.

The next day, I was in Green Bay, sniffing around the Packers. At one point, I text-messaged Favre, telling him what I thought -- the team would rather pay him his 2008 salary and not have him play rather than cut him loose.

This text message came back from Favre's phone: "tell ted to release me."

We all thought this story had changed. We thought the Packers had softened their stance Sunday after prodding from commissioner Roger Goodell and that they had conceded a partial defeat. We thought they would let Favre compete with Aaron Rodgers for the starting job and that Favre was willing to give it a go.

Really, watching Favre leave the Packers facility Tuesday, nothing has changed in the past 10 days. Favre wants to choose his next team. The Packers, who have him under contract for three more years, will be damned if they let him because they're pretty sure the team he'll choose is Minnesota. For this story to have any kind of closure, one of them has to crack.

I don't know which one it will be. Favre has been on this "release me" kick for weeks. The Packers have been adamantly against it for months. They know Favre is a perfect fit for Minnesota, which has a Super Bowl defense and running game, but a neophyte quarterback in Tavaris Jackson. Furthermore, the Vikings have an offensive coordinator, Darrell Bevell, who runs the same offense on the same wavelength that Favre is accustomed. Plus, I've got to figure Favre would love sticking it to the team he feels hasn't been straight up with him in the past two months.

Favre has never said to me, "I want to play for the Vikings," but it's my strong feeling this is what he wants.

For the past 10 days, I've kept thinking Favre would relent and agree to go to the Bucs or Jets in trade, or he'd retire, or he'd try to make peace with the Packers and try to get his old job back. But now I think differently. Now I think he will press his case for a release or a trade to Minnesota, no matter how ugly this gets. He seems determined to play the kind of hardball that he believes is the only option to get what he wants.

This is a story that won't die, obviously. I'm not proud of the predictions I've made throughout because I've been wrong so many times about the endgame. But now we can see the two options for that endgame. Favre gets to go where he wants. Or he doesn't.

Now the question is, whose will is stronger -- Favre's or Thompson's? I don't have a feel for who will crack. But I'm at least entertaining the thought that Favre actually might win. It's something I've long thought was the impossible dream. But as we've seen in this story, nothing's impossible.