Donald Driver and his Packers teammates are subdued in the closing moments of their 37-20 playoff loss to the Giants on Jan. 15. There's a possibility the game may have been Driver's last with the Packers. Credit: Rick Wood

A couple of weeks ago at the NFL draft, Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy danced around questions of a 14th season for Donald Driver in Green Bay.

Anticipating they would be asked about the future of the Packers' all-time leading receiver, the general manager and the coach apparently had ready-made deflection lines about Driver's successful appearances on "Dancing With the Stars."

But neither would commit to another year for one of the team's most popular players.

Of course, it wasn't easy for either guy.

The Packers had just released two other popular players who will one day be in the team's Hall of Fame: left tackle Chad Clifton, who for a dozen seasons had steadfastly protected the blind sides of Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers; and three-time Pro Bowl safety Nick Collins.

Clifton's termination was about age, money and injuries. Collins had a neck injury; no one in the organization wanted to see a 28-year-old man destroy his health playing a game at a time when his life is just beginning.

That's life in the NFL. Hard bottom-line decisions are made on players' careers all the time, but the people making them - even if their job is to move human beings as if they were no more than pieces on a chessboard - are human, too.

So it was not the right time for the Packers to say they're cutting the 37-year-old Driver as well. Letting go three franchise faces in a matter of days, even if it's the right thing to do, is not an image enhancer for an organization that leads with image.

But the handwriting is on the ballroom floor for No. 80. It is difficult to see him playing another snap in green and gold.

Driver wants to stay in Green Bay to the point that he has offered to amend his contract, and it is always possible that the Packers would like depth insurance at a reduced price.

Yet last season, it was apparent that Driver - though still quite physically fit and more than willing to catch the ball in traffic at his age - was being phased out of the rotation in the NFL's No. 3 passing game of 2011.

The four wideouts ahead of Driver - Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb and James Jones - are anywhere from nine to 16 years younger than the distinguished veteran of the receiving corps. Driver's 37 catches last season were his fewest in 10 seasons.

Meanwhile, the Packers are grooming a couple of receivers on the practice squad, Toni Gurley and Diondre Borel, whom they like enough to pay at regular-roster rates.

I don't think there is a question that Driver, who might be a good fit in Indianapolis with rookie quarterback Andrew Luck, can still play in the NFL. It's just a (Lambeau) leap of faith for anyone to believe that it will be in Green Bay anymore.

Jennings and Nelson have elevated themselves to the level Driver once occupied. Since he has learned to hang on to the ball, Jones has become a big factor. And the Packers need to have the outrageously talented Cobb on the field as much as possible. Even with all the footballs Aaron Rodgers slings in an offense that never makes pretension toward balance, there are only so many to go around.

Fans love Driver, who went from sleeping in a car as a homeless youth in Houston to the top of the charts of a franchise that has a practice facility named after a Hall of Fame receiver. He openly wept at the press conference announcing his first big contract with the Packers. He writes children's books. He became Mr. Community Involvement and an advertising pitchman whose face was on TV more than Tony Robbins' ubiquitous mug.

Outside of Rodgers and Ryan Braun, no athlete is more popular in Wisconsin. But 13 seasons is a long time in one place. It's difficult to imagine Driver's place being in Green Bay much longer.

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