HATTIESBURG, MISS. ? On Wednesday, Brett Favre said he will return to the Vikings only if the condition of his left ankle improves.

Then he drove off with a mountain bike in the back of his truck, saying he was going to take a ride, perhaps intending to use prosthetic ankles.

On Wednesday, Brett Favre said the size of his contract is not an issue.

He said this hours after the Vikings, reacting to Favre’s latest melodrama, began planning to give him a raise that could reach $7 million.

On Wednesday, Brett Favre said he did not send text messages to his teammates indicating he was either going to retire or was considering retiring.

He said this after teammate Visanthe Shiancoe, known for his candor and well-liked within the Vikings organization, said Favre had sent texts to his teammates.

When I asked him about the difference between his story and Shiancoe’s, Favre chuckled and said, “That’s Shank. That’s why I love him.”

Here is where the Vikings are after three days of Favre-generated silliness:

They can’t trust him.

They still need him.

In other words, nothing has changed. All that has happened in the past three days is that Favre has manipulated teammates and the media to his own ends.

By sending what were probably vague text messages to teammates, knowing the news of his intentions would leak out, Favre achieved three things:

• He spurred Vikings management to sweeten his contract from $13 million to as much as $20 million for the 2010 season without ever making a formal request. A few texts could have netted him $7 million while leaving him with deniability.

It was a selfish, manipulative move. It was also very shrewd, and could prove quite profitable.

• He timed the texts for a dead period in the sports calendar. The LeBron James saga has quieted. The baseball trading deadline had passed. Pennant races are not yet at crucial junctures.

ESPN might have had to return to airing Australian Rules football if not for the outburst of Favre news. Instead, ESPN ran career retrospectives, as if Favre actually would stay retired.

• He reminded the sports nation that it will require an act of heroism for him to play this season. His ankle is shot, even though he has been seen running the Oak Grove High School stadium steps while wearing a weighted vest, and he intended to ride his bike.

The ankle is this summer’s version of last year’s biceps surgery, a means for delaying his arrival in Minnesota.

Favre is a limping contradiction.

His record tells us he might be the toughest quarterback ever to play the game … and yet he desperately wants us to feel his pain, and constantly reminds us of injuries real and imagined.

He (and every NFL broadcaster in existence) tells us how much he loves the game … and yet he refuses to spend a day playing catch with teammates in the offseason or in training camp.

He wears the same clothes every day he works out at Oak Grove or shows up in a locker room … and yet he will try to manipulate the Vikings into paying him more than the amount that was called for in the contract he signed for 2010.

What we know for sure is this:

Favre wants to play. Favre will play if the circumstances are to his liking. The Vikings need him more than ever to give themselves a chance to win a championship and gain stadium traction.

Of course, Favre knows that.

Yes, Favre does indeed love this game. Only this time, the game in question isn’t football.