MELVILLE, N.Y. — Just after Kellen Clemens threw an interception during Thursday afternoon's practice, a voice pierced the humid air.

"Get Favre!" someone exclaimed.

According to a published report yesterday morning, that's exactly what the Jets are trying to do, asking for and receiving permission to talk to retired Packers quarterback Brett Favre.

However, later in the afternoon, Chad Pennington — who is battling Clemens for the Jets' starting job — said general manager Mike Tannenbaum told him it was the Packers who contacted the Jets, not the other way around.

"He just let me know exactly what the situation is," Pennington said. "That (the Jets) had received a call."

Pennington later said: "I don't know all the logistics of it but I was told that a call was made to the Jets and that's it."

What "it" is in regard to the entire Favre situation (mess?) was far from clear last night. ESPN reported that on Thursday, Favre told Packers general manager Ted Thompson that he planned to report to the team's training camp by Sunday. But in order to do that, Favre would have had to officially apply for reinstatement to the league, a step the quarterback had not yet taken as of last night, according to The Associated Press. An option for Favre might be Tampa Bay, which according to ESPN has expressed interest.

All of that became the dominant topic of discussion yesterday at Jets camp at Hofstra. The team hierarchy, though typically nonresponsive, all but confirmed conversations had taken place by not denying that they had. Tannenbaum certainly didn't dispute Pennington's account of their conversation.

"Relative to conversations I have with other teams or with Eric (Mangini), those will remain private," Tannenbaum said.

Asked why he felt the need to address both quarterbacks after practice, Tannenbaum said, "Given the high profile-ness of Brett Favre's name, I felt like this was a fairly unique situation and that I wanted to be proactive so they (Pennington and Clemens) heard from me first."

Whether the Packers extended a hand to the Jets, as Pennington said Tannenbaum told him, or the Jets reached out to the Packers is not an insignificant detail. Up until yesterday, several sources familiar with the Jets' thinking were resolute in saying the Jets had no interest in acquiring Favre, which is the reason yesterday's news came off as unexpected. Again, Tannenbaum would not address that. Neither would Mangini, who Thursday said he was happy with the quarterbacks he had in camp.

"I feel the same way I felt (Thursday)," Mangini said. "Nothing's changed, but with any conversations me and Mike have ... Mike likes to talk about a lot of different scenarios and he enjoys a good chart, he enjoys a good graph, a lot of scenarios. That's what he does. That's what he's supposed to do. It's just normal discussions."

For their part, neither quarterback seemed particularly upset by the rumors.

"That's really kind of an issue that I think coach Mangini and Mr. Tannenbaum are dealing with," Clemens said. "We have a lot of stuff to worry about and a lot of stuff to focus on other than what has been speculated out in the media. I've heard about it, but I am really focused on what is going on in-house right now."

Pennington was philosophical. "It's part of the business. It's part of being a professional," he said. "I think if you speculate as a player or you start to think of all the different scenarios, it really takes you off the focus of the field. That's what matters most."

Which is basically what Pennington told Tannenbaum when the general manager mentioned Favre after practice.

"I told him, 'I'll handle the situation, Mike. I know how to handle it,"' Pennington said. " 'This isn't my first rodeo. I've been here before so I can handle the situation. I appreciate you being upfront, telling me what was going on, so I can deal with it accordingly."'