This is an expanded version of the story off Brad Childress’ interview on KFAN today. If you want to listen to it, click right here.

Vikings coach Brad Childress told a Twin Cities radio station on Friday that his understanding is that Brett Favre is “pain free” right now and that the key factors in whether the quarterback ends his retirement to play for the Vikings are endurance and stamina.

“Does he have the endurance and the stamina in that arm yet? He doesn’t know that yet,” Childress told KFAN Radio host Dan Barreiro. “It’s no different than grabbing a golf club for the first time during the year when you rip around 18 holes and you wake up the next day and your side hurts. You say, ‘Geez, I haven’t felt that muscle in a while.’ So he’s got to build some endurance in that and see if he thinks he can get it back to where he wants to get it to.”

Favre, who underwent arthroscopic surgery in late May to repair a partially torn biceps in his throwing (right) shoulder, has been testing the arm and threw to receivers from Oak Grove (Miss.) High School this week. Favre told a Hattiesburg television station that he ”threw the ball OK, but OK isn’t good enough in the National Football League.”

Childress said he isn’t getting daily reports from Mississippi, but the Vikings did send a trainer down south to meet with Favre on Sunday and show him exercises he could do to strengthen the shoulder. Childress also expects that Favre will meet again with Dr. James Andrews, who performed the surgery on the quarterback’s shoulder.

Favre said on Wednesday that both he and the Vikings need to know whether he feels he can play before training camp starts. The Vikings report to Mankato on July 29 and begin practicing two days later. “There is a little bit of time here so it’s not a foregone conclusion that he’ll be here,” Childress said. “It’ll just be something that you look at and evaluate and see if he can get to a point by the time we get to training camp.”

Favre retired in February after one season with the New York Jets and was released by the Jets in late April. Speculation immediately began that he would end up playing for the Vikings in 2009, but Favre did not address the matter until Monday when he appeared on Joe Buck’s new HBO program. Favre did not hold back, essentially saying that if his arm is good to go he will play in Minnesota this season. He even used the word “we” at one point in talking about the Vikings.

This clearly has given Childress a green light to also be more open about the topic. Childress and owner Zygi Wilf both talked about Favre during the Vikings’ first-ever “State of the Vikings” town hall meeting on Wednesday in downtown Minneapolis. But sitting on the deck of a restaurant in the western suburbs on Friday, Childress was more open than he has ever been when discussing Favre and sounded like a guy who thinks this thing is just about done.

Childress was even asked at one point how big of a letdown it will be if Favre decides to stay retired. 

“I don’t think it will be a letdown because, just like we talked the first day of OTAs and the offseason program, we’re going to have a good football team,” Childress said. “I think people are fond of saying, ‘Well, can Bernard Berrian be the final piece of the puzzle?’ Or, ‘Jared Allen, you needed a pass rusher, and he’ll be the final piece of the puzzle.’ Or, ‘Brett Favre, he’ll be the ….’ You know what? Success is never final. And we’re looking for good players every day and our players want to play with good players. There’s no downside to adding good players to your locker room and our players feel the very same way.”

One topic that came up was the fact that Favre is well-known for being a gunslinger at times and Childress is far more conserative in his offensive approach. Favre is very familiar with the Vikings’ West Coast offense – it’s a system he played in during his 16 seasons with the Packers — and said Monday that he could teach the offense. Given the Vikings offense revolves around Pro Bowl running back Adrian Peterson, would Favre realize he doesn’t need to be a gunslinger?

“I’m not worried about it because I think he understands what kind of football team this is and what we value,” Childress said. “We’ll sit down and talk about what we do value and how we’re set up here should he end up coming up here. But I think age does that for you and time in a system does that for you. Being able to spread the ball around and understand situational football. However, with that said, you want a guy that doesn’t play cautious. Because football is not a cautious game. You want him to play smart, but you want him to play wide open. It’s a fine line for a quarterback. You want him to have that ice water in his veins where he’s going to throw it in there. He’s not going to say, ‘Ahhh, I can’t, I’m going to go ahead and check it down.’”

Asked how Childress’ philosophy with how to run an offense will mesh with Favre’s, Childress said: “I’ll say this. Number one, he knows what system he’s playing in. It’s not like he’s going to drop back and play back yard ball. He knows where one, where two, where three, where four is. Can he ad-lib? At some point a quarterback always has to because those defensive linemen are just, in fact, better athletes than the offensive guys they’re playing against. So somewhere you’ve got to make a play with a broken pocket or side-stepping somebody and I think he’s still got those skills and ability. And you’ve got to be able to make those plays as well.”

Favre, who will turn 40 in October, retired in February in large part because of the arm injury. The Jets had lost four of their last five to fall out of the playoffs and Favre wasn’t effective near the end of the season because of the arm problem. Favre finished with an NFL-high 22 interceptions thrown. 

So how big of an impact can he have for the Vikings this season?

“I think you look at two things,” Childress said. “Number one, you look at him with a healthy arm. At least in the first five weeks of the season and you see a guy that was leading the National Football League in throwing in a completely different offense where he didn’t spend full time in training camp. I think you see there’s a point where he got injured. You never saw a difference in velocity.

“If you look at the beginning throws to the last game of the year that he played in, you didn’t see any problems with velocity. You saw an occasional problem with accuracy. You talk to a guy like a Jim Miller, who played quarterback with the Bears and has that spot on Sirius Radio, he has had that injury. And, really, that’s one of the things, the fine control. Being able to command a football like a yo-yo on a string. Being able to move it over from your back shoulder to your front shoulder.”

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