Yet, as much as management wants all attention to fall back on what the team it has assembled is doing on the field, the fallout from the highly publicized divorce between the league's oldest franchise and arguably its greatest player continues to bubble.

The Packers took a public-relations hit in the past month for how it handled the soap opera that played out with Favre. The legendary player, who started 275 straight games for the team since 1992 and led it to the NFL title in the 1996 season while winning an unprecedented three league MVP awards, was unceremoniously ushered out of major sports' smallest market after he came out of retirement.

"It's the strangest thing I've ever seen," Bus Cook, Favre's agent, said after the trade with the Jets was consummated. "I've talked to a lot of people in the league, I've talked to several general managers, and nobody can figure out what the thought process is for Green Bay. But, that's their jobs and for them to figure out. I think Green Bay's loss is going to definitely be New York's gain."

The Packers welcomed Favre back to the team after he was reinstated from the reserve-retired list by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Aug. 3. Favre was added to the 80-man roster the next day, but a series of meetings between Favre and head coach Mike McCarthy, general manager Ted Thompson and president Mark Murphy cemented the club's plan of the previous five months: to move on without its iconic quarterback.

"It wasn't Brett's fault, and it wasn't our fault, but the relationship got to a point where it couldn't go forward," Murphy said. "Don't try to blame either side. It's like a marriage that ends. Neither party is at fault, but you move forward."

McCarthy met privately in his office with Favre for four hours the night of Aug. 4 and then for a brief time the next morning, before the team was to practice for the first time since Favre was reinstated and flew from his Mississippi home to Green Bay. McCarthy said having Favre, who had retired in March, rejoin the team on the practice field didn't come to pass because the veteran wasn't fully committed to continue playing in Green Bay.

"I think Brett's view of what reinstatement meant was different than what my view of reinstatement meant," McCarthy said. "I've said all along, and we talked about this openly, I never thought he was really going to play this year. I thought there was a number of things going through his head; he was in a different mindset for a number of different reasons."

Without the all-in pledge from Favre, who last month in a national TV interview was outspoken of Thompson's personnel decisions the past few years, McCarthy emphasized that consideration of creating competition between tapped successor Aaron Rodgers and Favre for the starting QB job went by the wayside.

"I used the reference about the train moving down the track," McCarthy said. "He was welcome to get on the train, but we never really got to that spot because of where Brett was at, as far as everything that had happened."

Rebuffed in his stated attempt to play another season for the Packers, Favre boarded a private plane and left Green Bay for good on Aug. 6 and waited until the trade with the Jets went down several hours later.

"I didn't go up there to throw daggers and make it any worse," Favre said upon his return to Mississippi. "It came down to, 'Are you 100 percent committed to us?' and vice versa, '(Are you) 100 percent committed to me?' That answer was, 'No.'

"Have I always wanted to be the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers? Absolutely. And, that didn't change. It's just that things had changed. So, if I wanted to play, I think they would've allowed me to play there. But, if you would've been up there, you would've seen the distractions that were going on. I've got too many friends on that team and have too much respect for that organization to allow that to happen."

Indeed, having Favre in Green Bay, although he wasn't on the field for the duration of his short stay, wasn't healthy for the team. "Fire Ted Thompson" chants were intermixed with those of "Bring Back Brett" at camp practice Aug. 5.

Meanwhile, some players became increasingly frustrated as the stalemate lingered into Week 2 of camp. Cornerback Charles Woodson suggested that he and other veterans would be confronting Thompson for answers on a situation that allegedly wasn't made clear to the players throughout the lengthy ordeal. Going to that extreme, however, was avoided when the resolution came with the mutual ouster of Favre from the team and the subsequent trade.

"It's over now. We got the answer that we needed," Woodson said. "Green Bay doesn't want Brett, and Brett doesn't want to be here. That's what we needed. So, now, we move forward."

How soon the Packers fully recover from the nationally publicized fiasco remains to be seen. They hired former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer to be a public-relations consultant for the interim.

As for being the GM whose legacy could be defined as the guy who traded away the face of the franchise the last 16 years, Thompson confessed, "I don't think anybody would be comfortable with that. This is, in many ways, sad that this is where it came to. At the end of the day, though, I think all parties involved felt like it was the best solution to a very difficult situation. Hopefully, we can do things going forward that maybe people will not remember that."

CAMP CALENDAR: Their final two of eight evening workouts on the camp schedule are Aug. 13 and 18.