Green Bay When Donald Driver and team physician Patrick McKenzie met a few days after the season, their discussion centered on how Driver wanted the remainder of his career to play out.
At issue was the condition of Driver's left knee, which unknown to reporters, fans and most of his Green Bay Packers teammates had been causing him persistent sharp pain for the past three or four seasons.
"He said, 'If you can play through it the next couple years, then do it. You don't have to do it,' " Driver said of McKenzie's advice.
Play a couple years? Uh, not quite.
Driver intends to be going strong for a lot longer than that. So given the fact he was still a month shy of his 35th birthday, the decision was as simple for Driver as pivoting away from a slot defender on third and 4.
"A goal of mine is to play until I'm 40," Driver said. "I'm like, 'Look, I want to play longer. What's going to make me play longer?'
"He said, 'Get 'em done so you won't have to be in pain.' "
Driver's problem knee was the left, but he also had arthroscopy done on his right knee in 1996 shortly after competing in the U.S. Olympic Trials as a high jumper from Alcorn State. That had been his only previous surgery.
So Driver let McKenzie operate on both knees on the same day in mid-January.
"I guess you could say it was like cartilage," said Driver. "It was irritating. More when I planted. It gave you that sharp pain and then it went away."
In 1999, Driver could have written the book on how to make a National Football League roster as a seventh-round draft choice. One chapter would have been on staying out of the trainer's room.
Even as an elite player, Driver "stayed away," in his words, from the medical staff in recent years. About his only allowance for the knee was applying heat occasionally on game days.
Driver didn't take a snap during May or June. But he was back rockin' and rollin' Saturday afternoon, flitting across the field making difficult catches look routine and loving his life in the NFL's smallest city.
"Now I can go out there with no pain, having fun," he said Sunday. "I can run. I can cut. I don't feel it. Now that I've gotten them done I'm able to go back and play like I did in 2001, 2002, the early years."
What can't Driver do on the field today that he once could?
Pause. Longer pause.
"Nothing," said Driver. "I hear it all the time. Like, 'Last year he declined.' I did not decline last year at the end. I didn't get the opportunity. Everybody got the ball at the end of the season. I'm still playing the same way I did in '99."
Driver is quick to acknowledge that he did drop too many balls in 2009. But his average per catch of 15.2 yards was his best since 2002, evidence that the unwanted tag of "veteran possession receiver" doesn't apply to his game.
As Driver flashes his million-dollar smile preparing for what would be a seventh consecutive 1,000-yard season, he is dealing with an issue that could become even more troubling than a sore knee. Driver, the ultimate Packer, is in the final year of his contract and has received no indication from management that he'll be offered another deal.
Driver signed four contracts with the Packers when Andrew Brandt was negotiating for the club, and three times he and agent Jordan Woy were able to renegotiate the deals. His last time at the table was August 2007, when $11 million in new money was added and the average per year of the contract increased to $6.663 million.
Clearly, the Packers want to see how Driver recovers from the knee scopes. Now they will monitor him as well as Jordy Nelson and James Jones, both of whom have been praised by the coaches and are pressing for more significant roles.
"They have great players behind me," Driver said. "If they decided not to have me here and I left here and James and Jordy became 2 and 3, then that's fine. Greg (Jennings) would be the No. 1 guy and I would move on."
Driver says this with little emotion. In the next breath, he mentions his close relationship with Ted Thompson and his hopes for 2011 and beyond.
"My thing is, I want to finish my career here," he said. "I've built a great legacy here. I don't know if I'm disappointed yet. I don't think you get disappointed. You just sit back and let it play out."
Driver is shown a list of 32 names, the wide receivers drafted with him in 1999. Today, only Torry Holt (the first wideout taken), Brandon Stokley (No. 12) and Driver (No. 26) remain active from that draft. Driver also knows full well that Holt and Stokley are with their third teams.
"Of course I'm proud of it," Driver said of his beat-all-odds career. "It means you can become anything you want to be."
At this point, Holt and Stokley are just hanging on. Driver checks Holt's yardage (13,382 yard, 10th all-time), does quick mental calculations and isn't shy about letting you know what his future expectations are.
"I'd need four years to catch Torry and I'd be No. 10," said Driver, whose 9,050 yards rank 44th on the list. "That'd be big. Think that would get me in the Hall of Fame?"
James Lofton, the first great No. 80 in club history, is in Canton with 14,004 receiving yards. Driver needs 507 to surpass Lofton as the Packers' leader, but he also pointed out that if Lofton's career in Green Bay hadn't ended in disgrace in 1986, his friend probably would have established marks in Green Bay that never would have been equaled.
"That's what I want to do," said Driver, referring to records. "One day I'm hoping I can put up stats high enough that no one would ever break it in history. I want to win the Super Bowl. And when I'm done, I'm hoping my name is in the ring and no one ever wears No. 80 again."
Jermichael Finley, 23, walked up to Driver at practice over the weekend to let him know just how much he respects his zest for football at age 35.
Each day, Driver puts on his size-30 uniform pants (his body fat is just 3%), thanks the Lord for putting him where he is and goes out and out-hustles just about everyone on the field.
Jerry Rice played until he was 42. It would come as no shock if Driver did as well.