EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress knows the perception exists that he does not like to give his quarterbacks the freedom to change plays at the line of scrimmage.

“Oh, you guys (media) always like to say that,” Childress said playfully. “Yeah, I’ve got shackles on them. We have an electric current and if they happen to change (the play) we do the Pavlov’s dog thing. We hit them with a current on the way back to the huddle.”

If that’s the case, how high does he have to dial up the voltage to get through to a gambler like Brett Favre?

“No, he is one of those dogs that runs right through the fence,” Childress said.

All joking aside, it is clear that just one month into the union between Favre and the Vikings, the 39-year-old’s three MVP awards, one Super Bowl ring and numerous passing records have earned him more influence and freedom with the system than any quarterback to play here under Childress.

Brad Johnson and Gus Frerotte both complained that the system didn’t allow them to make adjustments at the line of scrimmage.

But in the season opener at Cleveland, Favre made several significant changes after the huddle was broken as he reacted to what he saw in the Browns defense.

“You know he did a great job getting us out of a couple runs that had a low probability of success and actually took one to the side where we gained a bunch of yards,” Childress said. “He did that on his own.”

He also made a few changes from runs to passes “that we really weren’t expecting,” Childress said. “You know, you live and learn and he will live and learn, too.”

From the moment he arrived in the Twin Cities, it’s clear things have been different for Favre.

After courting Favre all summer long, Childress picked him up personally from the airport and drove him to team headquarters. He handed Favre the starting job and, given the quarterback’s vast experience in a nearly identical system during 16 seasons in Green Bay, the ability to tweak and adjust things.

Favre and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell are close friends from Bevell’s days as quarterbacks coach with Green Bay, and there appears to be a dialogue there that did not exist with Johnson, Frerotte or Tarvaris Jackson.

“Usually Tuesday nights, as they’re finalizing the base game plan, (Bevell) will either call or send me an e-mail or something of what they have going in (to see) if I have any thoughts or ideas,” Favre said. “Then as the week progresses and I find things I like (and say), ‘I feel more comfortable with this as opposed to that.'”

Receiver Sidney Rice has already noticed a difference. In his third year with the Vikings, Rice said he has never played for a quarterback here who will change things at the line like Favre does.

“He knows his stuff,” Rice said. “If he gives us something different at the line, we know to run it because he sees something that we don’t see.”

Rice was the beneficiary of one such adjustment against the Browns, when Favre saw a matchup on the outside he liked and signaled for Rice to change his route to a fade pattern. The play resulted in a pass interference penalty that set the Vikings up with a first-and-goal and ultimately led to a touchdown.

“He’ll change it at any moment and that’s a good thing,” Rice said. “Especially for wide receivers if the ball is going to be in the air and give us an opportunity to make a play on it.”

As Favre becomes more comfortable with his receivers and running backs, he expects his influence on the game plan — both in practice and in the huddle on Sundays — to grow.

It’s the kind of influence that only experience can bring, and Childress is clearly comfortable giving a little bit longer leash to a guy who “comes from those days before there were electric appliances and things like that.”

And after three seasons of running the play that was called almost every time the huddle breaks, Favre’s teammates are also learning that they have to be ready for anything.

“You’ve got to expect the unexpected at all times with Brett,” Rice said. “Because he will change it up and get the job done.”

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