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Excerpts from tonight’s Cincinnatti Bengals / Green Bay Packers pre-season, pre-game comments by Tony Kornheiser, the worst color commentator working an NFL broadcast booth (and that includes the patently awful Randy Cross):

(Aaron) Rodgers is under more scrutiny and more pressure than any player in the NFL bar none, maybe ever.

Um … does Pacman Jones ring a bell? Or Michael Vick? Or, going back to a time perhaps more familiar to Kornheiser’s aging brain, Paul Hornung?

Kornheiser’s bluster is especially amusing because not 10 minutes before this dumb shit was said, Steve Young said the same year he was named league MVP (1994), San Fransisco 49ers fans were telling him he didn’t measure up to Joe Montana.

Not three years ago, many people were calling for Favre to quit, following the disastrous 4-12 2005 season. Had not 2006 ended up at .500, thanks to a season-ending, four-win streak that saw the Packers defeat their awful division opponents and the as-awful 49ers, we wouldn’t be having this discussion; Favre wouldn’t have been given an option to return.

Of course, since Kornheiser has exactly two years’ experience broadcasting NFL games, and apparently was paying attention during only one, I wouldn’t expect him to have much of a sense of history. Which makes his hyperbole especially sophomoric.

Unless he wins the Super Bowl, almost nothing (Rodgers) does will be good enough.

Packers fan is loyal. Packers fan loves No. 4. But Packers fan has no delusions about winning Super Bowls, with or without Favre.

Favre won one Super Bowl in 16 years at Green Bay, back in 1997 (11 years ago, for those of you who are math challenged), and got the team to one more. The previous Super Bowl won by the Packers, back in 1968, wasn’t even called the Super Bowl at the time.

In 1995, the Packers won their first division title since 1972. They won seven division titles during Favre’s tenure. They did make the playoffs 11 times during Favre’s 16 seasons, but that is more testament to the weakness of the NFC than the strength of the Packers. Four of the times the Packers made the playoffs under Favre, they had 10 wins or less.

Favre lost in the wild card round three times, the divisional round four times, the conference championship twice and the Super Bowl once.

Packers fan is happy to win the NFC North and get to the conference championship. Given the weakness of the division, the Packers have a real shot to do just that.

He’s been handed a 13-3 team and told, “Hey, make everyone forget Favre, the most beloved Packer of all. And by the way, can you please be nice to anyone who asks you, ‘Why are you the quarterback and not Favre?’”

Vince Lombardi is the most beloved Packer of all, not Favre. Nobody has asked Rodgers to make people forget Favre. Nobody has asked Rodgers to be nice to crass dipshits who don’t understand that the NFL is a business.

Emmitt Smith played 12 seasons in Dallas and two seasons for the Arizona Cardinals when the Cowboys refused to give him the money he thought he deserved. Smith, too, felt betrayed. But the Cowboys made a business decision and moved on.

The Cowboys did not forget about Smith, even after Smith called his former team “trash” and insulted them in several interviews. When he retired, Smith was welcomed back to the Cowboys with open arms. The same will be true of Favre in Green Bay when he retires for real.

Rodgers seems like a nice kid, but I think he’s become the pawn in this game between the Packers and Favre.

Rodgers is in no way a pawn. From the moment rumors first surfaced that Favre wanted to return, the Packers had a mantra: “Aaron Rodgers is our quarterback. We have moved on.”

The pawn is Condrew Allen, a cornerback who was placed on injured reserve Aug. 4 so that the Packers could have Favre on their active roster for two days. Allen was waived the day after Favre signed with the Jets.

The Packers only created a roster spot for Favre when the commissioner forced their hand by reversing Favre’s retirement. Even then, anyone paying any attention at all knew the Packers would take any trade deal that kept Favre out of the NFC North.

The situation was mishandled by the Packers, but they were 100 percent motivated to preserve Rodgers’ position as their starting quarterback. That was never in doubt, even for the brief time Favre was in camp.

I wish (Rodgers) all the luck in the world because honestly, no player in the NFL has further to fall than Rodgers and at the moment … there’s no net down there.

Aaron Rodgers has no place to go but up, largely thanks to ignoramuses such as Kornheiser spouting revisionist nonsense.

If Rodgers fails, he’s just another sorry attempt at replacing a legend. And if he succeeds, he’ll still never be Favre, the way Young was no Montana, no matter how well he played.

So Rodgers might as well act as he has acted: Be respectful. Be humble. Prove what you can do on the field. Build your own legend. Ignore ignorant gasbags, such as Kornheiser.

Rodgers just finished the night 9-15, 117 yards, a pick and a TD, for a rating of 79; if you take away the INT, which was really the receiver’s fault (the pass bounced off his chest and into a defender’s arms), Rodgers would be at 106.8. (Although in fairness, the touchdown was thanks to a spectacular catch and run by the receiver. So let’s stick with 79.)

By comparison, Carson Palmer, probably the third best quarterback in the league, was 5-9, 33 yards and 1 TD, for a rating of 100.7.

I’m not saying Rodgers is as good as Palmer or there isn’t reason for concern about the Packers’ success this season, and for the foreseeable future. From what I saw tonight, I would call Rodgers “serviceable.”

I’m just pointing out that in 19 minutes of a preseason game, everything Kornheiser said at the start of the game was proven wrong, stupid or overstated. Which makes it almost impossible to understand why ESPN won’t fire him.