GREEN BAY, Wis. — Favre-ageddon for Green Bay Packers fans apparently has been avoided.

For now.

Citing a source close to the Minnesota Vikings, Yahoo! Sports reported Thursday afternoon that retired quarterback Brett Favre informed the Vikings by phone he would not be making a comeback.

So the heartbreaking sight to many Packers fans — Favre returning to Lambeau Field as a member of the hated Vikings — has been put off indefinitely.

The call apparently took place sometime after Wednesday afternoon and before Vikings coach Brad Childress was reportedly to travel to Mississippi to meet with Favre about joining the Vikings.

Favre's agent, Bus Cook, continued to deny knowledge of any interaction between his client and the Vikings.

"I don't know if Brett and Brad Childress talked today or not," Cook told USA Today. "Right now, Brett's retired. That's all I know. As far as I know, nothing's changed since yesterday.

"Brett said he doesn't know how all this stuff (about a comeback) got started."

Cook also knew of no plans for Favre to explain publicly his decision to remain retired, as was reported by Yahoo!

The Vikings likely would push Favre to make such a statement to help with damage control. The Twin Cities had been buzzing with the news Favre might be brought into the fold. Now the Vikings are left with Sage Rosenfels and Tarvaris Jackson as their quarterbacks.

According to league sources, the interest on both sides was very real and still might be.

None of the sources would confirm the Yahoo report. In fact, two said they were "still waiting to see what happens."

They would be wise to do so. The last time Favre came out of retirement — in July 2008 — he previously had flirted with returning to the game but decided against it, much like the current situation.

In an interview after he traded Favre from the Packers to the New York Jets, general manager Ted Thompson said Favre hinted in March 2008 that he might want to play again.

In response, Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy arranged to fly to Mississippi from the owners' meetings in Orlando to speak to Favre and his wife, Deanna, about it.

Before the flight, Thompson said Favre had a change of heart.

"We were all set for them, but Brett called back and said that he and Deanna had a long talk about it and they were going to stick with their original decision," Thompson said.

Later in an interview with Fox News, Favre disagreed with Thompson's account.

"I didn't say I wanted to come back," Favre said. "I did not call them before they went to Orlando and say, 'I'm playing. Man, I made a mistake.' . . . That's not true."

This time around, a myriad of factors likely led Favre to pull back.

For one, Favre, who is not averse to putting out trial balloons without Cook's knowledge, likely gauged the reaction of Packers fans to his possible purple turn. It was not positive.

In one jsonline.com poll, 78 percent of more than 26,000 respondents said they would not root for Favre with the Vikings even when he played teams other than the Packers. In another poll, 61 percent of more than 8,000 readers said they would "hate" Favre if he suited up for the Vikings.

Also, Favre was facing surgery — albeit minor — to repair a partially torn biceps tendon, and the prospect of going through off-season practices, minicamps and training camp. He might not have been ready to go through all of that at this time.

But things could change in June. That's when Favre really started to get the itch to play again last year.

Even Cook wouldn't close the door completely.

"Like anyone else," Cook told ESPN, "he could always change his mind in the future about retiring. But I haven't heard anything from him that that's the case."