MORNING BRIEFING

Favre earns passes by passing a pop quiz

He has only been around the team for a couple of weeks, but Brett Favre is already paying dividends for the New York Jets. It’s probably not what you think, though.

Favre, answering a question from Coach Eric Mangini on behalf of his teammates, managed to trim an hour off a Jets team meeting and get nightly training camp curfew canceled when he had the right answer.

The question was what the team’s core values are -- communicate, focus, finish and do your job first and trust the guy next to you.

“I thought I had him,” Mangini said. “I don’t know how he pulled that one out.”

What was his teammates’ reaction? “Room exploded,” Mangini said.

Now if the Jets’ offense enjoys similar explosions, Favre is really going to be popular.

Trivia time

How old are Favre and Mangini?

In your face

According to the Baltimore Sun, Michael Phelps has more than 700,000 fans on Facebook, second on the site only to Barack Obama.

Secret agent

You are the president of a pro sports team, so which agent would you least like to see representing your No. 1 draft pick? Turnkey Sports took that survey of more than 800 senior-level executives in colleges and the pros last month, and topping the list was Scott Boras. Drew Rosenhaus was second.

Date update

Ana Ivanovic, the top-ranked women’s pro tennis player, answered a list of questions in a profile in Sporting News Today that included some predictable responses -- favorite athlete to watch: Roger Federer; and favorite cities to visit: Paris, Rome, Melbourne, Sydney.

But dream date? Wentworth Miller.

He’s the 36-year-old British-born American actor who stars in “Prison Break” on Fox.

Date update II

Alex Rodriguez, on track to divorcing his wife, Cynthia, doesn’t seem to be much of a stay-at-home guy in the interim. He was recently seen dining with a female friend at Dan Marino’s restaurant in Miami and then spotted a few days later with another female companion in New York, according to the New York Post.

Dr. Phil

Lakers Coach Phil Jackson will receive an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of North Dakota, his alma mater, during a convocation Monday on campus in Grand Forks.

Money talks

What university makes the most from its sales of sports merchandise and licensing? It’s the University of Texas, for the third straight year, according to the SportsBusiness Journal. Michigan is second. The highest-ranking Pac-10 school is Cal at No. 23.

Trivia answer

Favre is 38, Mangini is 37.

And finally

Olivia Grange, Jamaican minister of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports, told the Washington Post that things are looking up: “We have the best coffee on the planet, we have Bob Marley, and now we have Usain Bolt. We are overjoyed and overwhelmed.”

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com