MINNEAPOLIS _ Minnesota sports history is filled with extreme highs, crushing lows, colorful personalities, amazing moments and haunting questions of "what if ..."
But you would be hard pressed to find a bigger story _ one that combines all those aforementioned elements _ than the arrival of Brett Lorenzo Favre with the Vikings.
The quarterback swoops into town on a gorgeous summer Tuesday, setting off a frenzy, and signs with his longtime rival _ in the year he turns 40, after being cut, no less. And then he takes the Vikings within a whisper of the Super Bowl? Then it all falls apart, and his old team wins the Super Bowl without him? You couldn't write a more compelling script, and that barely scratches the surface of what happened.
It's the 10-year anniversary of the day Favre arrived at the Vikings' former training facility in Eden Prairie, with a helicopter, media members, fans and even a guy in a parrot suit giving chase. Yes, it really has been 10 years.
The Star Tribune's Michael Rand spent the summer constructing an oral history of Favre's arrival, and all that came before and after that day unlike any other. All interviews were conducted either in person or on the phone except with Favre himself, who responded to questions via email.
Hold on tight. It's a bumpy ride.
