Buck: What needs to happen for you to sign with Minnesota?

"I think first and foremost, I don't think you can go past anything more than the arm. If that's not up to par, and it's not up to par when the time comes, then I can't play. I went through it last year and I've gutted it out or whatever but it affected me and it affected our team and I don't want to do that again and I won't do it again. So that was why I went ahead and had the surgery. I didn't want to wait and wait for this tendon to pop or whatever and be mid-season, then it's too late. So I had the procedure done. As I rehab and continue to throw and things, if it ever gets to the point where it feels like it did before it started hurting, then that ... the biggest question mark is out of the way."

Buck: Was it true that the Vikings gave you a deadline?

"No. It's not like I've talked to those guys every day. They knew I had surgery. Coach Childress had asked if I would come to OTAs. Not that I would have to participate and I totally understood that side of it. I chose not to and you can pick sides on this and I think both sides are right. He wanted me to be there to be a part of the team and things like that, knowing that there's not guarantee my arm will be like it was before. I chose to stay away because I figured there would be a media frenzy if I was there and there would be a media frenzy if I couldn't play, if we had to say three weeks later, 'You know his arm is just not up to par, he can't play so we have to ...' I said, 'Why not just have one media frenzy?' And that would be later on. But it wasn't anything to do with practicing or anything like that. It's either all or nothing to me."

Buck: Are you worried about tarnishing your legacy?

"I think the 16 years that I spent in Green Bay speaks for itself. This whole process and what's happened in the last couple of years -- and I was talking to Chad [Johnson] backstage just a little while ago -- and I truly believe this. There are those people who are in your corner no matter what, you can't do any wrong, even when you do wrong. And then there are those people that no matter what you do they are going to dislike you and that's not going to change. And then there are the rest that don't give a shit. That's true. We get letters all the time at my house, my wife's telling me, she's like, 'Hey, we got this nice e-mail from such and such and wants you to come back.' She never shows me the bad ones. But I know there are. And then there are those people who you ask them on the street and they are like, 'Who gives a damn? I don't care if he comes back, if he goes to wherever.' I totally understand that. Once again, it is what it is. Whether it's right or it's wrong who is to say? I'm trying my best not to fuel the fire even though I am. This is the first time I've spoken."

Buck: Get a chance to play?

"I've had so many people tell me, one in particular, Coach (John) Madden. It's simple but it's true that when you're gone and you're away from this game you can't go back. Maybe as a coach you can but you just can't go back."

Buck: Are you talking about physically?

"At 40 years old, which I will be in October, we're not getting any younger. And believe me, I wake up every day and I go, 'Why am I even thinking about playing?' Obviously things that you think about at 39, you didn't think about at 25, even at 30. Obviously, I have a family and as much as I ask them what I should do, I get the same response, 'Whatever you want to do dad.' I'm like, 'That's not what I wanted to hear.'"

Buck: What would you say to Packers fans who think it would be a punch in the gut to see you wear a purple jersey in Lambeau Field?

"I don't know what to tell them. Vince Lombardi went to the Washington Redskins when he left. His name's on the [championship] trophy. We give that trophy out every year. I don't hear too many people saying, 'That damn traitor, he went to Washington.' Time heals a lot of things and I have nothing but the highest regard for Green Bay and I mean that sincerely. Did some things happen there that may have ruffled the feathers for both sides? Yes. But, once again, the 16 years I spent there you can't take away. I wouldn't change it for anything in the world. They chose to go in a different direction and that's OK. I chose to play again and that's OK. Just because I had former players, friends of mine, I had family, I had friends that said, 'I can't picture you playing anywhere but Green Bay. I can't do it.' It's football. It's not life or death."