Kurt Warner vs. Brett Favre? It's a quarterback matchup that speaks for itself. It'll have to, at least, from the St.Louis side.

        No talking this week by Warner. No interviews. No singing in the shower, either, I presume. His syllables have been slashed.

        Maybe you've heard about his bruised vocal cords. The doctor ordered he rest them for Sunday in case it takes shouting as well as passing to deal with the Green Bay Packers.

        It's the Silence of the Ram, and with such a good story to tell.

        “I do have a lot of thoughts about the events of the last week, but I may never get them out,” Warner wrote in an e-mail message to the media Wednesday. “Too much up ahead to think about.”

        Warner vs. Favre. Between them, enough league MVP trophies to fill a family room. Five, and counting.

        They were once teammates, you know. Sort of.

        Namely the 1994 Green Bay training camp. Back when Warner had about a 15-minute tryout with the Packers and the heaviest lifting he did was to carry Favre's helmet after practice.

        Favre was a young, emerging star and Warner was an undrafted free agent from the football frontier of Northern Iowa. Which in the Green Bay pecking order placed him just slightly above the parking lot attendant.

        Favre got to calling him Pop. As in Pop Warner League. Rookies get such treatment. And worse.

        Favre once mentioned the time Warner was asked to go into the huddle and run a play during camp and refused to do it. Flat said no. “He was just real apprehensive,” Favre said.

        Warner's e-mail said his memory was foggy about that. “I'm sure it probably happened. ... The whole NFL experience was intimidating in the beginning.”

        He did remember his girlfriend and future wife being in the stands one day at camp and overhearing two men talking about Warner.

        “Who's No.12?” one asked.

        The other leaned over and said: “Don't worry about it. He won't be here long.”

        Warner wasn't. Soon he was cut, headed to stocking grocery shelves, then to Arena football, then to the jackpot with the Rams. The now famous saga.

        For his trouble, he kept the green shoes the Packers gave him to wear in flag football games. The $5,000 from his contract went to a down payment on his first vehicle. He and Favre haven't crossed paths since.

        Now Warner runs the greatest show on the NFL Earth, and Brett Favre must come into Kurt Warner's dome Sunday and try to beat him.

        A man could talk about that for hours. Just hours. But not Warner.

        “I have absolutely no hard feelings and nothing to prove to anybody from the Packers,” his e-mail said. “They gave me a shot, I wasn't ready, and I am the most blessed man in the world to be where I am right now.

        “If I would have made the team, I would still be on the bench and nobody would know a thing about me.”

        Instead, he shares the marquee Sunday with a three-time MVP. Different men, different personalities, different styles.

        “I can't think of any ways they are alike. I have gone through the entire scenario,” said Adam Timmerman, Rams guard and former Packer. “As far as arm strength, Brett could throw it right through the wall, and Kurt could throw it right over the wall.”

        Who could have imagined in 1994, as Favre left the practice field and Pop lugged his helmet, that it would come to this? Two gunslingers on the way to a Super Bowl?

        “This isn't about two guys,” Warner typed. “This is about two teams and a chance to move one step closer.”

        He can say that again. If only he could.

DE Strahan named best on defense Favre, Warner need no buildup

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