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With rumours circulating that veteran quarterback Brett Favre will stun the NFL by reversing his decision to retire, Yahoo! Sports' Michael Silver tries to work out just what the Green Bay Packers will do with him.

Ted Thompson is the Green Bay Packers' executive vice president, general manager and director of football operations. Even in Titletown, that's a lot of titles for one man.

Very soon, assuming Favre continues to press the issue, we're about to find out how much power Thompson actually wields. Or, specifically, how much stomach he has for exerting his power the way a bold leader must.

That's because the time has come for somebody to tell Favre his time in Green Bay is done, consequences be damned. And that somebody is Thompson, who needs to serve his franchise by being a dispassionate executive and leaving the sentiment to others.

Here's the dilemma: According to a report on Monday by my friend and former SI homie Peter King, Favre's agent - Bus Cook - will send a letter in the next 9 days stating that the 38-year-old quarterbacking legend wants to be taken off the NFL's reserve/retired list. This will force the Packers to welcome Favre back to the team four months after they thought he'd bowed out gracefully, or to trade or release him - three options that Thompson and head coach Mike McCarthy reportedly find distasteful.

King is exceptionally plugged in when it comes to Favre and the Packers, so I believe him when he writes that Thompson and McCarthy are sickened by the prospect of Favre potentially succeeding elsewhere - possibly as a starter for the Chicago Bears or Minnesota Vikings, both bitter NFC North rivals - while Aaron Rodgers tries to prove he's a worthy successor to the most beloved athlete ever to perform in Green Bay.

There's even a scenario King calls vomitous - Favre, on the season-opening Monday night on which his number was supposed to be retired at Lambeau Field, charges through the tunnel in white and purple as the Vikings' starting quarterback.

It would be weird. It would be jarring. It would be kind of sad.

And, you know what? It would also be football, at least the way it exists on its highest professional level.

Think such a blasphemous scene would be unprecedented? Let me take you back to the second game of 1994, when Steve Young and the San Francisco 49ers ventured into Arrowhead Stadium to face Joe Montana and the Kansas City Chiefs.

From the 49ers' perspective, it was the most emotional regular-season game imaginable. It served as a referendum on the leadership of team president Carmen Policy and coach George Seifert, the two men most responsible for the decision to trade Montana - the most revered athlete in the city's history. And, even more important, it was a chance for Young, who'd already won an MVP and a pair of passing titles, finally to quiet the resounding "You'll Never Be As Good As Joe" chorus.

During a walkthrough at Arrowhead the day before the game, I vividly remember Tim McDonald, the 49ers' wise and assertive veteran safety, pulling me aside and saying, "I know everyone is talking like this game doesn't have any extra meaning, but that's a lie. We need to get this one - for Steve - and every player on this team knows it."

The next day, after a 24-17 Kansas City triumph in which Montana shined while Young got pummelled by the Chiefs' defense, I recall the losing quarterback's glazed stare as he walked off the field alone. A few minutes later I saw Policy roaming through the tunnel leading to the 49ers' locker room.

"Up in the box, Eddie [DeBartolo, then the 49ers' owner] and I thought we'd have some mixed emotions but that it would end up being like any other game once they kicked it off. But as it played out, I was surprised at just how desperately we wanted to win."

In the immediate aftermath, the 49ers' defeat seemed so cataclysmic. Everything Young's detractors had been saying since he took over for Montana seemed to have been conclusively validated.

Three weeks later, San Francisco got blown out at home by the Eagles, and Young loudly unloaded on Seifert after the coach yanked him from the game.

Four months later, Young threw a record six touchdown passes in San Francisco's 49-26 thrashing of the San Diego Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX. And guess what - everything changed, instantly and permanently. From that day on, Young was defined by his own accomplishments, rather than by his inability to match Montana's. The fans warmed to him, too, some of them showing up in Canton in 2005, when he entered the Hall of Fame as a first-ballot inductee.

I'm not saying that Rodgers, a promising 05 first-round draft choice who played superbly in relief of the injured Favre during the Pack's road defeat to the Cowboys last November, is necessarily on the same glorious path. But Thompson is clearly and understandably eager to find out, and if he and McCarthy ask the kid to resume his subservient role after an off-season of grooming him to be The Man, you can forget about Rodgers staying in Green Bay for the long haul.

As for the rest of the analogy, please don't try telling me that seeing Favre play elsewhere is any more jarring to Packers fans than was the sight of Montana in a No. 19 jersey for the Chiefs to the 49er Faithful. I know Green Bay is a quaint town steeped in lore, and I realize that Favre is a truly special performer. But I also know plenty of Northern Californians who will tell you that Montana is the most magical, transcendent athlete ever to walk the earth, and if you try to argue otherwise (and, for what it's worth, I happen not to), their instincts are to kick you down Russian Hill.

To be cold about it, Montana was the man who showed up in a city that had never celebrated a professional sports championship and transformed a franchise's identity while winning four Super Bowls. Favre came to a city that had a rich championship history and ended a two-and-a-half decade lull by winning a single Lombardi Trophy.

The point here is not to disrespect Favre, who had a terrific year in 07, albeit one that ended with a thud in the NFC Championship game defeat to the Giants at Lambeau. He deserves the right to change his mind about retirement, and he's obviously capable of playing somewhere for at least another season.

But if you're Thompson, the only sensible decision is to make sure Favre doesn't return to Green Bay. Again, this isn't without precedent. Thompson simply needs to tell Favre what the Miami Dolphins told Dan Marino after the '99 season: Go ahead and play for the Steelers, or whomever, but this era is over. (Then again, when the Dolphins decided to encase two of Marino's lockers at the team facility in plexiglass for the following season, that whole 'we're-moving-on' vibe got a bit mangled.)

Think about it from Thompson's perspective: With Favre back, not only do you effectively say goodbye to Rodgers, but you essentially become beholden to the ever-changing whims of a man who clearly is ambivalent about his playing future. And if things go badly and you want to cut your losses, the only way to do so is to bench Favre - saddling your coach, McCarthy, with the stigma of being The Villain Who Ended The Streak.

If you're Thompson, the better option is to suck it up, set Favre free and move forward. Try to trade him to a team outside the division, and if you can't, so be it. Cut him, and even if Favre comes back and bites you as a member of the Vikings or Bears, it's still just two games - and, in all likelihood, one season of awkwardness. You might take some heat, but you'd be putting the franchise's best long-term interests at heart.

Or, to put it another way, you'd be doing your job.

There is another option, though it may be a bit too extreme for Thompson or McCarthy's tastes: Tell Favre he can, in fact, return to the team, but that he'll have to compete for the starting job. Given that Rodgers has been working as the starter for the entire off-season while Favre has been sitting at home in Mississippi, this would set up a scenario in which the young player could legitimately beat out the legend.

That might sound cold, but it's the way the most accomplished football executives are forced to think at times. Thompson did so this past April when he picked Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm in the second round of the draft, a move that couldn't help but decrease Rodgers' sense of security as Favre's successor.

The GM's reasoning, I'm sure, was this: So what? It's what's best for the organization, and if Rodgers is as tough as he'll need to be to make it in this league, he'll figure out a way to deal with it.

That's the exact mindset Thompson needs to adopt now, no matter how much emotion is swirling through Titletown. Only after he decisively and irrevocably shows that Favre is no longer the main man in Green Bay will Thompson get the unofficial title the franchise needs him to seize: Leader of the Pack.

Michael Silver / Yahoo! Sports / Eurosport