The moment Brett Favre said it, you knew it was going to create at least a minor stir. Following Sunday's victory over the Rams, the quarterback was talking about the Vikings' 5-0 start and so he was asked how this team compared to some others that he played on during his 19-year career. Remember, this included a Super Bowl champion and a Super Bowl finalist in Green Bay.

Favre's response when asked about his current collection of teammates? "I think physically and from a talent level, this is the best team I've ever been on," he said.

As if Packers fans needed another reason to despise Favre, right? Favre's comment got play on "SportsCenter" Monday night and probably made his Nov. 1 return to Green Bay all the more interesting. On a conference call with Baltimore reporters on Wednesday, Favre was asked about his statement. Here was his lengthy explanation and it essentially ends with him praising the 1996 Super Bowl championship club he played on.

"Well, you know, of course I caught a lot of heat for that," he said. "What I meant by it is no different than what I said three years ago, going into my last year in Green Bay, where I said this is probably the most talented team coming up that I've ever played on. It had nothing to do with what we did in '96 and '97 and '95 and all those years. All I was saying is, from a talent standpoint, this team, I think, is the most talented. I think with this team here, I would say the same thing. If you look at it from an outside point of view, all the pieces, for the most part, are in place. In '96, I would have said the same thing. You always have injuries and you plug people in and things like that.

"We'd played together for several years there going into that '96 year. Yeah, we had Reggie White, we had Keith Jackson, Mark Chmura, and Edgar [Bennett], and Dorsey [Levens] and Antonio [Freeman], Frankie [Frank Winters], LeRoy [Butler] and guys like that. That was a damn good football team. This football team, me included, has a long ways to go to be compared to that team. But, I think the pieces are in place. That doesn't guarantee anything. There are a lot of teams that could probably say that across the league.

"I'm not saying that this team is better than '96, the team that I played on. I'm saying that this team has every bit as much potential. Now, we still have to go a long, long ways to get there. But that's all I'm saying, is that this team has, for the most part, got all the pieces in place. It's a good group of guys. I said this the other day, that the chemistry is a work in progress and it's getting better. That's what the '96 team had that I played on. We had great chemistry. Part of that was we had played together for a few years. So we're trying to jam that in, I'm trying to fit into this puzzle. It's easy to say we're 5-0, and obviously I'm fitting in and things are going well. Yeah, but we've got a long way to go to reach that team."