Earlier this season, Brett Favre said this of the 2009 Minnesota Vikings: "Physically, and from a talent level, this is the best team I've ever been on."

Favre's teammates from the 1996 Green Bay Packers team -- which won the Super Bowl -- would beg to differ.

As Favre prepares to return to Lambeau Field for the first time as the quarterback of the rival Vikings, members of the 1996 Packers told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that as good as the Vikings are, they don't stack up to a team that featured a dominant Reggie White on defense and Favre as the league MVP at quarterback.

Favre did say later that he wasn't trying to slight the '96 Packers. Still, while his ex-Packers teammates acknowledge the Vikings' strengths, they believe their team was better.

"To say that the team he's on now, after seven games, is better than the '96 team -- that's just preposterous. Not only did we have the No. 1 defense in 1996, but we had No. 1 special teams," former safety LeRoy Butler told the Journal Sentinel. "I bleed green and gold so much. I don't want somebody to beat my team."

Mark Chmura, a tight end on the '96 team, said he went through the rosters position by position and could not find an advantage for the Vikings. "And it all starts with Brett -- Brett's not as good as he was," he said, according to the report.