Speaking to Brett Favre Friday night from Mississippi, I got the distinct impression that he was going to retire from football, this time 4 good. But they don't sell insurance 4 this kind of thing, obviously, as his flip-flopping of the last three years shows.

I reported today on NBC Sports that Favre told me he informed Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum that "it may be time to look in a different direction'' at the quarterback position when they spoke Monday. A day earlier, Favre continued his poor play down the stretch -- the Jets finished by losing 4 of their last five, ruining their 8-3 start that had them in Super Bowl contention -- in a disastrous three-interception loss to the Dolphins. The Jets fired Eric Mangini as coach ... and could have made Favre's decision about whether to return in 2009 a negative..

Favre said that Tannenbaum said to him Monday, "If I ask you about your future now, I know what you'll say. So I'm not going to ask you.'' What Tannenbaum did ask Favre is to give his decision some time, that the Jets definitely wanted him back and he should take all the time he needs to decide.

According to Favre, the quarterback responded, "I'll take some time, but it may be time to look in a different direction.''

One other factor may come into play, but we should probably not read everything into it. Favre said team doctors recommended that if his intention was to play again that he should have arthroscopic surgery to repair his damaged right biceps. Favre declined.

You shouldn't read a certain retirement into that, however. Late in his Green Bay career, Favre had a similar injury in his left arm and he said it went away without surgery being needed.

"I'm going to do like Mike [Tannenbaum] says -- give it a few weeks and make a decision,'' Favre said.

He said nothing with finality Friday night. But he sounded very much, finally, like a former quarterback.