EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — Brett Favre is back in Minnesota, right on schedule.

For the second year in a row, the quarterback who spends his summers on the verge of retirement was driven to Vikings headquarters on the Tuesday following the team’s first preseason game. Just like last August, news helicopters followed his vehicle from a local airport and dozens of fans and media gathered at the entrance to Winter Park to greet him.

“Circus in Winter Park,” tight end Visanthe Shiancoe tweeted.

Nothing the Vikings haven’t seen before.

On Aug. 18, 2009, Favre boarded a private plane from Hattiesburg, Miss., and arrived in Minnesota. Coach Brad Childress picked him up and brought him to the team facility. He practiced the same day and suited up for a preseason game three days later.

This time around, the Vikings sent three of Favre’s closest friends on the team — Jared Allen, Ryan Long- well (a Bend High graduate) and Steve Hutchinson — to Hattiesburg to bring him back for one more shot at a Super Bowl.

Longwell filled the role of Favre’s chauffeur and three local television stations broke into programming to show the kicker’s black BMW SUV rolling down the road.

Favre’s website posted a message earlier saying “stay tuned for breaking news from the Minnesota Vikings today on Brett Favre’s possible return.”

— The Associated Press