[fightinJAG]

Point on Favre is not about size, it’s about *durability.* And, to a certain extent, mental acuity and enthusiasm.

Favre’s drug use actually did affect his performance positively over the years, yet no one ever even mentions it.

I’m not saying they should, but it’s pretty dumb to keep bringing it up re Rush.

[Richard Kimball]

There are some horror stories about pre-1980 treatment of athletes. Favre has never impressed me as being a steroids guy, but I agree as far as pain killers are concerned. Tom Landry once said that players could go into their late thirties to mid-forties if they only played every two weeks. Over time, it takes more than a week to recover from the previous week's beating.

For a long time, the teams would pressure athletes to play injured. Now, it's more likely that the athlete will hide the pain killers and steroids from the team because they don't want to be off the field and lose their jobs. The biggest risk of pain killers is that they mask injuries that can become much more serious. Dick Butkus, IIRC, played an entire season with bone on bone contact in his knee (femur to tibia-fibula.)

Favre has never had a catastrophic injury, but having photographed college games close up, I know that at that level players take several hits a game that would kill the average person. Playing pro football is like being in a car wreck every week.