The conference championship games present us with some terrific potential story lines for the Super Bowl.

We could see Brett Favre vs. Tom Brady, two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks. This sort of thing happens far too infrequently. Among those that come to mind: Elway vs. Favre after the ’97 season, Montana vs. Marino after ’84.

I know. There have been other matchups of QBs who made it to Canton. But I’m talking about games that looked like they’d be competitive going in, with great QBs on both sides, and the competitive part leaves out the Dallas-Buffalo back-to-back Super Bowls in the ‘90s and even Montana vs. Elway after the ’89 season.

I don’t think Green Bay could beat New England, but with Favre in what could be his final appearance at the pinnacle, it would be worth watching.

Another prospect of great interest for different reasons would be Eli Manning vs. Philip Rivers.

These two were traded for one another on draft day 2004, and in the last couple of weeks have finally showed the kind of potential that their teams expected when they made the deal.

In fact, Manning has been superlative for three consecutive weeks, against the Patriots, Bucs and Cowboys. It’s a perfect time for him to do that, too. In those three games, he completed 54 of 77 passes for 599 yards, 8 touchdowns, just 1 interception. You’re seeing the reason retired GM Ernie Accorsi was so hot to acquire Manning. Clearly, it was not just the name.

As for Rivers, we don’t yet know if he’ll be able to play or, if he does, how effective he will be against the Patriots because of the knee injury he suffered at the end of the third quarter against the Colts.

There could also be a Super Bowl matching two recent 49ers offensive coordinators, Norv Turner and Mike McCarthy. Or it could be a coaching matchup of former colleagues, Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin.

All sorts of interesting possibilities.

Conventional wisdom and my predictions say it will be the Patriots and the Packers. But upsets are possible in both games.

The Giants can win if their pass rush, which is the strength of the defense, gets to Favre. They must start early and keep after it, which is something Seattle failed to do even after establishing a 14-0 lead. And, of course, the Giants need another big game from Manning.

The Chargers can win and, surprisingly, the key is not to control the ball with LaDainian Tomlinson’s running. San Diego needs a high-scoring game in which the Chargers’ passing game forces New England linebackers to run around the field and get tired. The linebackers are where the Patriots are most vulnerable, because of their age.

And there’s also one great coincidence. On September 16, the second Sunday of the season, the Packers beat the Giants, 35-13, and the Patriots beat the Chargers, 38-14. Same day.