"So Our Man Brett believes the Packers will win the Super Bowl.

In an e-mail to ESPN, No. 4 opines that his former team is "by far" the best remaining among the final four.

He says his replacement behind center is the superior quarterback in the tournament field, better even than the guy in Pittsburgh who has as many Super Bowl rings as Aaron Rodgers does playoff victories.

Favre heaps hosannas on the Green Bay receiving corps, Dom Capers and the defense in general. He stops short, though, of mentioning the general manager, head coach or the person who worked so hard to move his locker to the inaccessible reaches of the Packers' locker room.

And, as the final plank in the platform speech he hopes will secure the nomination as Ambassador for Life with one of the world's pre-eminent franchises, Favre also wrote this about the Packers winning the whole thing:

"I hope they do, if you're wondering."

Actually, I wasn't. Except for an occasional thought of the American Hamlet catching on next season with the Carolina Panthers after the labor dust settles, out of mind had been an appropriate dwelling place for the last QB to lead the Packers to a Super Bowl championship. . . . XIV seasons ago.

Beyond that, the Packers are playing the Chicago Bears in the qualifying round this Sunday at Solider Field, an event that tends to monopolize traffic flow in an obsessive-compulsive noggin.

But in a way, I'm glad Favre made the first reconciliatory gesture. It was a reminder of how right Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy were in that terribly divisive summer of 2008.

It also served a purpose in expunging the memories of the season before, when Favre threw his final pass as a Packer in the NFC Championship Game at Lambeau Field against the New York Giants.

"I really see no benefit to go back and talk about the pain of '07," McCarthy said this week. " '07 is a different year. It's a different team. There (are) different coaches. Playing a different opponent.

"And we're playing in a different location. So I'm sure everybody that went through the experience in '07 has a personal memory of what they thought maybe they could do differently or how they can learn from that experience."

If you count the Packers among your financial and/or emotional interests, the learning experience mostly has been about how this team has exponentially grown with the decision to allow Rodgers to begin his career three seasons ago.

Because right now, the Packers are remarkably well-positioned to beat the Bears and then fulfill Favre's pandering communiqué for the simple reason that Rodgers cannot be stopped, not by Chicago's terrific defense, not by anyone."