As the NFL world turns we've seen a happy divorce in Green Bay, a tragic separation in New England, a restless Young in Tennessee and Ryan's hope in Atlanta.

These are the Sundays of Our Lives.

The King and the Cassel

On Sunday against the Patriots, Brett Favre will be making his 254th consecutive regular-season start. Matt Cassel will be making his first start since he was at Chatsworth High School in the San Fernando Valley.

If Packer fans thought their hearts were wrenched by the departure of Favre, they're not going to get any sympathy in New England. In one nauseating moment, Patriot fans discovered there was actually something more sickening than the Eli Manning-David Tyree-Plaxico Burress nightmare.

To his credit, Cassel did not pull a Billy Joe Hobert and run onto the field without knowing the playbook. He looked completely prepared as he led New England on a 99-yard TD drive that began with a third-and-long conversion to Randy Moss from his own end zone. While most in Patriot Nation have written off the season, there are still those clinging to the memory of another late-round draft pick who rose to the occasion in 2001 when Drew Bledsoe was injured on a colossal hit by Mo Lewis of the Jets. It's unlikely that lightning could strike twice for the Pats, but keep in mind Brady led that team to the title with Troy Brown and David Patten as his starting wideouts. Cassel has Moss and Wes Welker.

Meanwhile, like an Archimedes water displacement discovery, as expectations sank in Foxborough they rose proportionally for Jets fans. As Brady was going down for the season, Favre was making the throw to Jerricho Cotchery heard 'round the greater New York area. The 56-yard TD strike was a glimpse of the expanded possibilities for the J-E-T-S offense now that it is no longer limited to D-I-N-K and D-U-N-K with Chad Pennington.

If, as expected, Favre leads the Jets past Cassel and the Pats on Sunday, the tide of expectation building in the Meadowlands — back-to-back champs in Jersey? — will continue to rise.

Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood

Fans in Green Bay had 24 hours to stew about Favre's impressive debut for the Jets before begrudgingly pinning the corsage on their new date and heading to the dance.

After 60 surgical minutes of quarterbacking by Aaron Rodgers, you'd now be hard-pressed to find a Packer fan who would admit that they didn't love this guy all along.

As if there wasn't enough pressure on Rodgers in the wake of the summer-long soap opera and Favre's strong debut, the Vikings had added NFL sack leader Jared Allen to a defense that was already No. 1 in the league against the run.

All Rodgers did was go 18-for-22, the second-highest completion percentage (81.8) in league history for a QB making his first start. He threw a touchdown and scored on a keeper, prompting the first Lambeau Leap of his career.

As giddy Packer fans pummeled him with congratulations it was like they were saying, "We wanted you all along. Really we did."

Next up: the Lions on the fast track of Ford Field — and a whole lot less pressure.

Young Is Restless

The good news in Tennessee is that the police in Nashville were called in to deal with a Titan ... and it wasn't Pacman Jones, who is safely off in Dallas threatening Tank Johnson for encroaching on his locker space.

The bad news for Titans fans is everything else.

Not only will Vince Young be sidelined for a month with a knee injury, but his regression as an NFL QB continues. There were conflicting reports as to just how disconsolate Young was when he went missing without his cell phone earlier this week, but there was no doubting he had every reason to be bummed out.