08/08 — Everybody in the Jets' Cleveland Browns Stadium locker room knew it was coming: The F-question. What about Favre?

Even head coach Eric Mangini knew it, which is why he didn't wait for the first question from the beat reporters following the Jets' 24-20 win over the Browns in their preseason opener. After talking about how "all the things that happen in practice" such as four-minute drills, two-minute drills and red zone work "all happened in one game," he waded right into it.

"As for the question everybody's interested in," Mangini said of the 24-hour-old trade that had made Brett Favre a new Jets QB and Chad Pennington an ex-Jet, "for our organization it was a unique opportunity to get a special player. I talked with Brett and got a chance to feel his passion for the game of football."

Some of that talk went on for a half-hour that took Favre to his half-hour news conference before the game. And Mangini made it clear that he had no reservations about the trade that owner Woody Johnson and GM Mike Tannenbaum finalized by coming up on the outside to outbid the Buccaneers for the right to trade for Brett's services.

So if the head coach says so, the players generally agree. But the Jets players, while clearly mourning Pennington's departure, clearly liked their first exposure to Favre as, on his own, he went through the locker room introducing himself to offensive and defensive players alike.

"It all started at 1 this morning when I heard about the transaction," said Kellen Clemens, the half of the training camp QB competition that remains on the depth chart and who showed no signs of being unsettled by this development at his position. "Everything is for the better. We'll go out there and do our best.

"It's new. The whole situation is new. It's a different situation. It's going to be a positive for the organization. That's what we're all here for."

Even though, as Mangini said when asked if he could declare definitively that Favre would be his starter on opening day at Miami, "Yeah, I'm comfortable with that."

Indeed, Clemens was seen before the game engaged in conversation with Favre,

"It was all just giving him a heads-up on the terminology we use," K.C. said, "giving him a jumpstart before he gets the playbook on what we do and why we do it."

Wideout Jerricho Cotchery told me at last weekend's Green & White Practice that Pennington's passes definitely had more zip on them this season than last. I asked him if that zip was anywhere close to preparing him for Favre's legendary high cheese.

"From what I'm hearing, I don't think anything can prepare you for it," Cotchery said with a nervous smile. "I got the word from Bubba Franks. I'll be going out for some test catches real soon."

And Franks, who became the NFL's best inside-the-10 TD receiving threat for several seasons by deftly handling Favre's bullets for eight seasons as a Packers tight end, said: "I was just happy he was closer to coming here than going anyplace else. I've only played with one quarterback in my career, and now I can keep doing that."

"It's exciting," offered center Nick Mangold, who should have Favre's 38-year-old hands under his posterior taking snaps as soon as Saturday's single training camp practice. "Someone with that kind of experience, the things he's done. It's going to be exciting to get out there."

But, Mangold said, that first practice in front of Favre "is going to be a little weird. If my math is correct, he started playing in the NFL two years before I started playing pee-wee. I was alive then, but I wasn't doing much."

Even the defensive side of the room was feeling the good vibrations.

"It just seems like everybody is in high spirits about it, everybody's excited," said linebacker David Bowens. "It's a very unique situation. How many times will you fall into a situation like this, where the GM, the head coach, the players, we're able to get a guy of Brett's caliber? He brings a lot of big-play ability to the team."

Favre also is noted for bringing a bit of spontaneity and entertainment value along with his football skill set.

"I've been around Brett," Bowens said. "He's 39 [in October] but he acts like he's 12 years old most of the time."

And that element of the Favre package impressed Cotchery as the legendary Packer, the future Hall of Famer beloved by Green Bay and NFL fans everywhere, worked the pregame locker room to get a start on his Jets relationships.

"When he first came into the room, it was very interesting, him saying, 'Let's have a lot of fun,' " J-Co recalled. "Of all the things he could've said — everybody's thinking about that ring — the first thing that came out of his mouth was about fun."

And fun, as we all know in the National Fun League, is spelled with more W's than L's. Very soon Favre gets his crash course on his new grammar and begins to work his spell on Jets Nation.