NEW YORK — Brett Favre is going to take his time before deciding whether to return with the New York Jets next season.

The 39-year-old quarterback told ESPN today that he's following the advice of Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum by not making a hasty decision on his future.

"He said he's not going to bother me for three or four weeks," Favre said. "He told me to do whatever, and he'd give me a call in a month. Maybe I will tell him my answer that day. But he told me to get away and don't even think about football."

Favre said he plans to make a quiet decision without a public news conference if he does retire, unlike the emotional departure last offseason when he announced he was stepping away from the game only to return a few months later.

Favre is disappointed with how his first season ended with the Jets, who lost four of their last five games and missed the playoffs after an 8-3 start. He takes a large part of the blame but said that wouldn't necessarily increase his desire to come back.

"I have the ability to turn it off just like that," he told ESPN. "I don't feel I have anything else to prove. Do I have to redeem myself for the last five games? No. I could be trying to do that until I'm 60 years old. There is nothing left out there for me from that standpoint. I'm disappointed with the last five games, sure, but I know I did everything I could have."

Not everyone agrees. Some teammates were critical of Favre's performance down the stretch and said he was distant from the team.

"I am not going to let one or two guys ruin a career for me or the relationship I had with my teammates," Favre told The Sun Herald (Miss.) for Thursday's editions. "If you poll my past teammates, I bet 90 percent would say they enjoyed playing with me.

"I am not insecure to let the comments bother me."

Running back Thomas Jones was the first to criticize Favre, saying during a radio interview that the quarterback should've been benched after throwing three interceptions in the team's season-ending loss to Miami. Jones later backpedaled, saying he was talking in generalities and not specifically about Favre.

Favre, who tore a biceps tendon in his right arm that won't require surgery, threw two touchdown passes and nine interceptions in New York's last five games. He refused to completely blame his late-season struggles on his arm injury, but said his accuracy suffered as a result.

"I'm not going to make any excuses," he told ESPN. "If I'm going to play, then I have a responsibility to play at a high level, and I just didn't get it done. I tried to be the best leader I could be, do all the right things and, as I look back, I have no regrets.

"I wish we would have gone farther, but I did all I could."