Less than two-thirds of the way through his 15 minutes of fame, however, Bradford had tired of talking about his heroics and decided it was time to shift the focus of the spotlight to a teammate infinitely more accustomed to the glare of center stage.

"How 'bout the guy who made the throw?" said Bradford, responding to a question about how he had outmuscled San Francisco cornerback Jason Webster to snatch a perfectly thrown pass. "You can't ignore what Brett (Favre) did on that play. Putting the ball up where he did, taking the kind of chance he took at that point in the game, it was great. That's a throw maybe only he makes in that situation, because he's been there before. I mean, it's hard to beat his playoff experience."

	Chicago's Jim Miller will be one of two quarterbacks making his playoff debut.

Whether his lengthy postseason dossier helps Favre and the Packers against the top-seeded St. Louis Rams this Sunday remains to be seen. What is undeniable, though, is that none of the seven other quarterbacks remaining in the Super Bowl tournament can match his experience in postseason play.

Favre is 10-5 now in the playoffs and his 15 starts represent two more than the aggregate total of the seven other quarterbacks who will lead their franchises into the divisional round.

That's an average of fewer than two postseason starts for the rest of the field. Only Kurt Warner of the Rams has more than three. Tom Brady of New England and Chicago's Jim Miller will both make their first playoff start. Five of the seven have either zero or one playoff victory. Even 14-year veteran Rich Gannon of Oakland has sparse playoff background, with just three starts.

It is not the most inexperienced octet of quarterbacks to ever line up for the division playoff round, but it does rank among the most callow groups in recent years, with an average of 3.5 starts and two wins. Exclusive of Favre and Warner, who will square off in Sunday's late game at St. Louis, the other three contests feature quarterbacks with four playoff victories among them.

This weekend, then, will certainly represent a baptism of fire for those on the firing line.

But having their mettle tested in the postseason crucible doesn't seem to daunt the quarterbacks, who seem to view the situation as a potential coming of age and not a shortcoming. There is a sense that confidence, not cowardice, is the overriding sentiment. But that could be tempered by a pretty good dose of anxiety.

Warner recalled that, even after starting all 16 regular-season games in 1999 and capturing the league's most valuable player award, he sensed a different dynamic going into the playoffs. It is a palpable pressure, he allowed, equal parts exhilaration and angst. There is something perversely exciting about walking into such a pressurized situation. But until a quarterback has experienced it, Warner said, it is difficult to explain.

The quarterbacks making their first playoff start this weekend, though, figure they'd rather deal with it now than be sitting at home watching the games on television.

"There's got to be a first time," said Miller, who has just 19 regular-season starts in eight years. "All the great playoff quarterbacks -- (Terry) Bradshaw, (Joe) Montana, (Roger) Staubach, every one of them -- had to go through the same thing. You can't ignore the fact it's the playoffs and the stakes are higher, but somehow you can't allow yourself to get too caught up in that."

Said Brady: "Once the game starts, you can't be thinking, like, 'Oh, my God, it's the playoffs.' Somehow you have to try to make it just a game."

That theme, trying to transform the playoffs into just another game, is a common one among the inexperienced postseason passers.

If history is any indicator, that might be easier said than done, it seems. Dating back to the 1980 season, quarterbacks starting in their first playoff games won just less than 40 percent of the time. Warner and Favre are among a fairly elite subset of quarterbacks who won Super Bowl titles in their initial championship appearances. Favre won his first playoff appearance, at Detroit on Jan. 8, 1994, despite throwing for just 204 yards. The following week, at Dallas, he posted 331 yards, still his postseason best, but lost.

	“	You're conscious of the pressure on every snap, believe me, but you can't let it paralyze you. You have to be ready. ”
		— Kordell Stewart, Steelers quarterback

He is quick to acknowledge every playoff start is different, but that two common denominators exist, no matter the postseason situation. First, every starting assignment in a postseason game helps a quarterback accelerate his personal learning curve. Second, you tend to recall just about every pass you throw in a playoff game and, upon taking mental inventory after the fact, realize the significance of every snap.

"Everything is magnified (in the playoffs)," Favre said. "The good and the bad."

Even the negative reinforcement, apparently, is a learning experience.

In the 1997 AFC championship game, Kordell Stewart threw three interceptions as Pittsburgh was upset at Three Rivers Stadium by the underdog Denver Broncos. One interception came in the end zone and Broncos linebacker Bill Romanowski derided Stewart by pointing to his helmet, as if to say, "You dummy." The final interception came with the Steelers driving for the potential winning touchdown and Stewart throwing deep despite having open receivers in intermediate zones.

"You don't forget those things," Stewart said. "They hang with you. In your mind, you kind of think, 'If I'm ever in that situation again, I won't (make the same mistake).' You're conscious of the pressure on every snap, believe me, but you can't let it paralyze you. You have to be ready."

The weekend will prove just how ready this relatively inexperienced group of quarterbacks really was. Several coaches sought out this week conceded they would be a bit unnerved going into the playoffs with a first-time postseason starter, but a few emphasized that the evolution of the game is going to make such events more common.

Indeed, in a league that has de-emphasized the quarterback position while trying to maximize the performances of lesser players there, most playoff fields probably will not feature passers of the Favre ilk. Of the eight starting quarterbacks this weekend, for instance, only Donovan McNabb of Philadelphia was a first-round choice. And only three of the quarterbacks -- Stewart, McNabb and Brady -- are with the franchises that originally drafted them.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.