Brett Favre is an absolute stud. I say this in a week where the Eagles will play Green Bay on Monday night. I wish with every fiber of my being to not respect Emmitt Smith. His tenacity won me over. He would come into Philly, Washington, and the Meadowlands every year and wrack up yards. He played on artificial turf at home. He is now the leading rusher in pro football history (of course Barry Sanders retired well before he should have and undoubtedly would hold that record). Favre is that type of player:

To play quarterback in the NFL is to endure the equivalent of a couple of car crashes every Sunday. A major and seldom-considered part of the job is getting out of bed on Monday morning and beginning the weeklong process of putting yourself back together to play the next week.

For another baseball comparison, consider starting pitchers. They throw 100 or so balls under the most perfect possible conditions, without the impediment of 320-pound defensive linemen plowing into their rib cages as they release the pitch. And it takes them five days to return to full arm strength.

Factor in the rest of the abuse a quarterback takes, and it is a significant achievement just to be in uniform each week. Earlier this year, when the Packers played the Seattle Seahawks, Trent Dilfer marveled at Favre's streak.

"It is by far, in my opinion, the greatest achievement athletically in the last 13 years," Dilfer told the Tacoma News Tribune. "I once got to 70-something starts, and it took everything in my total person to achieve that. Every drug, every shot, everything you could possibly imagine to do 70. It's ridiculous."

I hope Brett does play next year, as has been hinted at, and no QB breaks his record.