How would Favre know? Easy. He grew up rooting for a team so bereft of hope that fans often showed up at the stadium with bags over their heads.

"I can understand from a fan's standpoint, because I grew up a Saints fan," Favre said when I asked him about the difficulty of fighting against this history of failure. "You almost cheered for them to lose after a while, because you just knew it was going to happen. You didn't want to get your hopes up. So why not get a high draft pick next year?"

Sound familiar? Of course it does.

Jets fans have become accustomed to ending seasons with a sickening feeling, with so many devastating moments from which to choose: A.J. Duhe's three interceptions in the 1982 AFC Championship Game. Mark Gastineau's roughing-the-passer penalty in Cleveland in 1986. The Spike. The Kotite Years. The near miss in Denver in the '98 season. Vinny Testaverde's Achilles snapping in Week 1 the next season. And on it goes for a franchise that is going on 40 years since Joe Namath wagged his right index finger jogging off the field after shocking the world in Super Bowl III.

There's no telling how it will end this season, and whether Favre will conquer the demons that have tortured this franchise for far too long. But I will say this: There might be no quarterback better equipped to handle the next five weeks and beyond than Favre. His winner's mentality might be the perfect antidote to the Same Old Jets curse.

"Changing will take some time," he said. "There's only one way to change it, and that's to win and continue to win and continue to win."

He pointed to last season, when Favre's Packers waxed the Giants, 35-13, at Giants Stadium in Week 2, only to lose to Big Blue in the NFC Championship Game four months later at Lambeau Field.

"They were ready to ship Eli [Manning] and Coach [Tom] Coughlin and the rest of the guys," Favre said. "At the end of the year, there was a parade in New York. I'm not saying that that's going to happen with us, but it's funny how things can change. We're doing everything we can do. I hope in the end that that's good enough."

If the Jets keep playing the way they have the last month, it just might be. But their fans have witnessed far too many folds to feel comfortable yet. Even after five straight wins, including the overtime stunner in Foxborough two weeks ago and Sunday's romp over the previously unbeaten Titans, there is no guarantee that 8-3 will translate into anything other than further - and more painful - disappointment down the road. Thus, the sense of foreboding that won't go completely away.

But Favre believes his team has the right mentality to tune out that angst the fans might be feeling, and to concentrate on what will get them within reach of the trophy named after the great coach whose shadow Favre once played in during his Green Bay days. Twelve years ago, Favre led the first Packers team to win a championship since the Vince Lombardi era, so he knows all about overcoming decades of futility. And who knows? Maybe the players' lack of knowledge of the deep-rooted history of their team can actually help.

"I used to ask young guys in Green Bay the last few years, 'Have you ever heard of Paul Hornung?' " Favre would get a blank stare when he asked about the Packers' Hall of Fame halfback. " 'No, I haven't heard of that name,' " they'd tell him.

Amazing. But good in this respect: What the players don't know about the past - especially the tortured past - won't hurt them.

"We as players, the only thing we have to fight is ourselves," Favre said. "If we continue to do what we have been doing, and in the process get a little bit better, we'll be fine. What 'fine' is, I have no idea, but up to this point it's been pretty good. We're 8?3. We could be better. We just need to stay the course."

Favre is convinced the one-at-a-time mentality will serve the players well, and will continue to reap benefits, even if they stumble down the stretch. And yes, Favre acknowledged, there could be another difficult period coming up.

"We've had some rough spots along the way, and I'm not going to lie. At some point we may have another rough spot," he said. "But if we continue to stay the course, we'll be fine."

But as all Jets fans know, "fine" is a relative term. "Fine" now might turn into "fine mess" later. Favre only hopes the ending doesn't turn out like so many others in the Jets' tormented history.