It’s a story worth repeating: Brett Favre may be retiring

It was a three-word text that, if true, will lead to countless four-letter words among Minnesota Vikings fans.

“This is it.”

That’s what quarterback Brett Favre reportedly texted to teammates this week, indicating he will not be returning to the NFL this season, reportedly because his surgically repaired ankle is not sufficiently responding to rehabilitation. It’s a reasonable possibility, considering the league’s three-time most valuable player and serial retiree will turn 41 in October.

It also should be taken with a grain (or maybe a grain silo) of salt, because this has become an NFL rite of summer, Favre’s engaging in his retirement rumba.

If Favre is truly done — and Tuesday there were all sorts of mixed messages coming out of Minnesota on that front — the NFL’s traditional Thursday opener goes from tantalizing to … Tarvaris Jackson? From scintillating to … Sage Rosenfels?

“Clearly, if you have Brett Favre against Drew Brees, a rematch of the NFC championship game, you can’t get a better story line than that,” said NBC’s Al Michaels, play-by-play man for the opener. “If Brett isn’t there, then here comes Jackson or Rosenfels. Obviously, that doesn’t have the sizzle.”

But Michaels raises a good point: Even if Favre doesn’t feel good enough to play in the opener, does that mean he’s completely done? Or might he be ready for, say, the Green Bay games in Weeks 7 and 11? Does done really mean done?

That’s the thing about Favre: It’s impossible to predict with 100% certainty what he’s going to do, because even he doesn’t seem to know. For him to foreclose on the possibility of coming back at this point, at the start of training camp, seems wildly premature unless his ankle is hopelessly damaged.

And sure enough, the news out of Vikings camp swirled in all sorts of directions, much of it coming from two highly credible newspapers, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press. First, there were reports that Favre had texted some teammates and club officials. Then, in his regular news conference after the morning practice, Coach Brad Childress said he wasn’t aware of the quarterback telling anyone he’s done, adding he hadn’t talked to Favre in the last 24 hours.

Fox’s Jay Glazer, who earlier also reported on the text messages, said the Vikings are prepared to offer Favre more money than his current $13 million, and more time to join the team.

Then more mixed messages. Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell, a close friend of Favre’s from their Green Bay days, said he talked with the quarterback Tuesday morning and the subject of retirement never came up. After the afternoon practice, tight end Visanthe Shiancoe said Favre had informed some teammates of his plans.

“He told a couple guys on the team that he is going to retire,” Shiancoe told reporters. “He hasn’t told me yet. I’ll go in and check my phone right now.”

Around that time, the Biloxi (Miss.) Sun Herald, which seems to have a Favre pipeline, cited an unnamed family source saying no decision had been made.

A few things come to mind after all this: Even people you’d expect to be in Favre’s inner circle have different interpretations of the situation; Favre has kept mum throughout, and it was just last summer when he told the Vikings he was going to hang it up … before ultimately reversing that decision and putting together a brilliant season, directing them to within one victory of the Super Bowl.

So this time we’ve learned. It’s best to wait until Favre announces his decision. Then, we’ll know for sure. Until he changes his mind again.

sam.farmer@latimes.com