EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre laughed Wednesday when asked about his recent history of poor late-season performances. While admitting he has never enjoyed playing in cold weather, Favre minimized the impact of the numbers we documented during the spring.

“I wasn’t as effective last year,” Favre said. “The year before, the last pass I threw against the Giants [in the NFC Championship Game] was not very good. But I thought up until that play, it was a pretty good year. We played in the snow the week before against Seattle and I had one of my better games. Had they dropped that interception and we somehow go down the field and kick a field goal, everybody would say he’s great late in the year.”

It’s not quite that simple of course. As we discussed this spring, Favre’s numbers have dropped precipitously in the final five regular season games of the past four seasons. Favre said his performance is “a weekly thing” but joked that media members might already have said “here we go” after watching him throw two interceptions in last Sunday’s 30-17 loss at Arizona. But Favre admitted he has always “hated” playing in cold weather despite his long-term success in Green Bay.

“It was that I was like, ‘Oh man. I’d rather it be 20 than 65,’” he said. In Green Bay, Favre said he was “fortunate enough to always play on teams that found a win to win playing against a team that really didn’t want to be there. … Unfortunately, you lose a couple of games and [it’s], ‘He can’t handle the cold anymore.’”

I wrote last week that there have been no indications Favre was sliding from a physical standpoint. Nothing that happened Sunday night caused me to think otherwise. Favre, in fact, admitted he got out of his comfort zone because he thought the game was going to be a shootout. I’ll have more on that Thursday. The December swoon issue? It remains one to be watched, even if it isn’t anticipated.