"Senator Julie Rosen, R-Minn., doesn't need Minnesota Vikings ownership to verbalize the dreaded R-word: Relocation. A mounting deficit, currently at $6 billion, continues to be the state's top priority, and legislators have repeatedly delayed the Vikings' decade-long pursuit of a new stadium to replace the Metrodome.

But with the lease set to expire this year, and the roof collapsing on Dec. 12, the Metrodome doesn't figure to be the Vikings' home much longer and Rosen senses the team's patience is wearing thin.

"I am convinced," Rosen told Yahoo! Sports, "they will move, if there is not a sincere and concentrated effort on this stadium. We need to work hard on figuring out a solution.

"He's not throwing a threat around, and he's not saying, 'Do something, and do something now,' " Rosen said of team chairman and majority owner Zygi Wilf. "But he doesn't need to say anything out loud."

Unlike their predecessor, the always outspoken Red McCombs, the Wilfs have avoided any talk of relocating to Los Angeles and counted on diplomacy at every turn.

"We're really focused on getting the stadium solution with the legislators in Minnesota," Vikings president Mark Wilf said. "We're confident. We have a new governor in place, a new legislature. We're focused on getting this done in Minnesota."

In football terms, though, the Vikings are scheduled to become a free agent next offseason, before the next legislative session, which provides the state and the club a clear-cut deadline. To that end, applying an all-in mentality, the Vikings turned to a future Hall of Famer with the belief that unprecedented on-field success would ultimately result in a coveted new stadium. As it stands now, though, the Brett Favre Experiment did nothing more than leave observers wondering if the team's hefty investment in him helped or hindered the franchise.

"I appreciate that they tried and made a major investment. But was he worth it?" senator Tom Bakk, D-Minn., said. "I grew up in the Purple People Eater days. Not a lot of people are going to remember [this stint]. This team will be defined by someone other than Brett Favre."

After the Vikings played far below expectations and the legendary passer had the worst statistical season of his storied career, don't expect Favre in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, Part Three.

"It's been a wonderful ride for me," Favre told reporters after the Vikings' finale in Detroit on Sunday, reiterating that he's played his last season. "I hope that people admired the way that I played – my passion for it – because I hold no regrets."

Publicly and privately, the Vikings' organization doesn't either, but – with the exception of a surprising performance by sixth-round pick Joe Webb in an upset of the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 16 – the franchise isn't any closer to a long-term solution at the quarterback position. Brad Childress, who was dismissed in late November, cycled through several quarterbacks, most notably Tarvaris Jackson, whom the club traded up to select at the end of the second round in the 2006 NFL draft."