He descended from the firmament via twin-engine Beechcraft King Air 90 as afternoon bled into dusk. Lightning filled the sky, as if it were a metaphor for the days to come. A light rain did not deter the hundreds of worshipers (sycophants?) from altering their Sunday plans to show up at an airport to welcome a deity back to the franchise that Lombardi built.

With his aviators danging from his blue t-shirt, Brett Favre flashed his happy-go-lucky, aw-shucks grin before entering a maroon Cadillac Escalade, officially kicking off the NFL preseason. The Hall of Fame? Nope. The Steve Smith fisticuffs? Nope. Like it or not, it’s all about Favre from here on out: the second he deplaned in Cheese Country – blame Goodell! See below – No. 4 upstaged every other NFL subplot (Steve Smith, Hard Knocks, the Patriots, Marvin Harrison, etc). A wise man once said, “the chemistry of opposition makes terrific drama.” Aaron Rodgers wants to strangle that man.

One thought: He looked old. As the Journal-Sentinel pointed out, here are the likely scenarios:

* No matter what Favre does in camp, Rodgers has the job locked up
* Favre’s only here to prove he’s still in QB shape, and after a few days, they’ll trade him
* Favre’s heart really isn’t into it, and so he won’t win the job anyway

And now, Peter King: Saturday, Favre told the Packers’ President he wasn’t coming. Sunday morning, the Packers told Favre he could compete for the starting job. The man who supposedly nudged all these negotiations? Roger Goodell, a man who Favre apparently trusts. King says the NFL is about “winning at all costs,” but he’s fibbing. He knows this the move to bring back Favre is about two things: Good PR and money. We want to toss in the word greed, but that might be too harsh.

But there was surely a collective cheer Sunday night at Time Inc on the Avenue of Americas in NYC … the Favre cover that they’ll whip together for this week will become a collector’s item. And duck! In an hour, ESPN is pumping out a Favre “special.”

Here’s one vote for Aaron Rodgers to win the job. These comments from Gale Sayers hint at No. 2. And count us as vote No. 3.