"Sage Rosenfels welcomed the news this past February when he found out the Houston Texans had traded him to the Vikings for a fourth-round draft pick.

At the time, Rosenfels thought he was going to get an opportunity to compete for the starting quarterback job and knew he wouldn't have that chance behind Matt Schaub in Houston. But Rosenfels made it clear he left the Texans on good terms and is looking forward to returning to Reliant Stadium for Monday's preseason game.

"It was nice to be a part of that," said Rosenfels, who spent three seasons in Houston. "I'm a big fan of a lot of those guys, and it's a great organization. I think Coach [Gary] Kubiak is a great coach to play for and as a player you want to play for a guy like him. He always has the players' best interest in mind, and there was always a reason we did everything. Everything makes sense as far as offensively or when meetings are or how you're going to practice that week."

Rosenfels, who is in a battle for a backup role again now that Brett Favre has arrived in Minnesota, played in 19 games during his time with the Texans and made 10 starts, all in the past two seasons.

"It will be weird" to be there as a visitor, Rosenfels said. "When I got traded to Miami [in 2002], I was there for like 24 hours and the first preseason game was in Houston -- the grand opening of that stadium. So I've been on that other sideline once before, but it's going to be weird after being there for three years -- being across from those guys. It's a great group of guys, especially on offense, the group that we were with. Really bonded close. But it will be different."

Learning under fireThe Kansas City Chiefs blitzed extensively Friday, which was a valuable experience for center John Sullivan, who is handling all the protection calls at the line. Favre took a couple of hits in two series, including a shot to the chest by linebacker Corey Mays on his final play of the night. But coach Brad Childress said Sullivan did a solid job with his calls.

"He directed the protection the way we wanted it protected," Childress said. "We missed a guy [on Favre's last play]. There was one guy that we couldn't block just by virtue of numbers. We sent out three [receivers] and they had one more [rusher] than we had [protecting]. They brought eight. The quarterback can't block anybody, so that's why we call it a zero blitz.

"[Sullivan] is doing just fine. He is handling himself along the line of scrimmage in the run game and in the pass game. He's a quick study. [He has] good communication, good open line with people on the line as well as with the quarterback and the coaches."

Etc. • Favre's first start as the Vikings quarterback resulted in the team's highest rating for a preseason game since at least 2000, which is as far back as ratings were available. KSTP (Ch. 5) had a 25.8 rating and 48 share for the Vikings' victory over the Chiefs. That means an average of 440,"