Green Bay, Wis. ? The question no longer involves whether Mike Sherman should stay or go, because his 2006 presence seems irrelevant to the Green Bay Packers’ recovery process. Sherman seems so invisible, so pressed into the background, that he might as well be the man who wasn’t there.

The real question, the one that the Packers knew eventually would raise its contentious head, is, what do they do with Brett Favre now?

Favre threw four more interceptions Sunday in the 24-17 loss to the Chicago Bears. He was called twice for intentional grounding. He misfired on fourth down on the Packers’ first drive. His quarterback rating was a strikingly low 44.3, the week after it was a shocking 34.3 in a 45-point loss at Baltimore. He is one interception from tying the franchise record for a season.

Of course, the usual mitigating circumstances were present against the Bears, who heaped further indignity upon the Packers by taking their NFC North title away at Lambeau Field. The Packers lost another lineman and another tight end, further relegating Favre’s protection and playmaking options to the largely useless entities they have been for most of the season. It could again be argued that the problem is not Favre, but the hopeless cast around him, as the future Hall of Famer makes the occasional boneheaded decision in the futile attempt to win against impossible odds.

But here’s the immediate problem: The Packers will mercifully end this living nightmare of a season on New Year’s Day against Seattle. The game’s significance hardly will rise to exhibition level because the Seahawks have clinched home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs, so Mike Holmgren could not be accused of messing with the game’s integrity, as Mike Shanahan was a few years ago, were he to sit his starters.

Green Bay, however, has to find a starting point on which to reverse this mess. It begins with whether Favre is finished in Green Bay and if Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback with whom the Packers will move forward. No one knows if Rodgers, about whom little could be learned in mop-up duty against the Ravens, can play. The Packers need to find out in a hurry, especially if Matt Leinart is available when they draft this spring.

The logical place would be against the Seahawks. Favre should be allowed to maintain his consecutive-start streak and then take the rest of the year off to give the franchise a real chance to evaluate their first-round pick. Whether this was on Favre’s mind wasn’t clear because he did not make himself available for comment after throwing an interception deep into Chicago territory to end the game.

Sherman said he never considered playing Rodgers against the Bears, and that was the right call because the Packers – despite following their usual script of two missed field goals, all those turnovers and missed opportunities – still had a chance to beat their archrivals. Sherman owed that much to the suffering fans who filled the stadium on Christmas Day to watch a 3-11 team.