Now that he has a Super Bowl ring, Donald Driver says he has nothing left to prove on the field. Credit: Gary Porter

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Green Bay - For the longest time, Donald Driver didn't even want to talk about it. He couldn't even consider it. Absolutely consumed with winning a Super Bowl, he would shake his head at anyone broaching the topic of his post-football life.

But lately he's been thinking about it a lot.

In his 13th season, 36 years old, with that cherished ring, he's watching his numbers recede as these younger receivers fly on the field. His role has changed. And with the tiny crinkles around the eyes and the sore joints every morning, Driver can't help but sense an aging transition and wonder where it will take him next.

"I come to work happy. But sometimes I think, why am I still doing this?" Driver said. "I've got eight, nine years on all of these receivers. I won a Super Bowl. I have Pro Bowls. What am I trying to prove? Nothing. I don't have anything to prove.

"What's left?" he said.

It was a question and a topic Driver brought up on his own one recent afternoon in a wide-ranging conversation that lasted for more than a half-hour in the Packers locker room.

"I still love the game. I can still play at a high level. It's just a different offense, a different year. I'm not the go-to guy I used to be. I have never been a part of an offense where there has been this much talent. Remember those great St. Louis teams? Faulk. Warner. Bruce. Holt. Greatest show on turf? We're the greatest show on grass.

"As my time winds down, I see it. I see the big picture. It's not about me having 1,000-yard seasons anymore."

For years Driver counted on the numbers to validate his worth. Thousand-yard seasons. He had seven - the team record. Seventy catches or more a year. Did that seven times. Winning teams. This is his ninth in 13 years.

That's what drove Driver once. But if not now, then what?

Last year, as the receivers group of Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson and James Jones got even stronger, Driver's numbers dropped, to 51 passes for 565 yards and four touchdowns. But his involuntary retreat was tempered easily by winning a championship. Driver said he was happy. And it wasn't hard to believe him.

This season, with tight end Jermichael Finley healthy too, Driver is sixth on the team with 23 receptions for 248 yards and two touchdowns, and it's hard not to wonder how he's doing.

"I just told Jordy that - I'm OK with my role. Jordy's like, 'It's got to be hard,' " said Driver. "I told him, 'When you get up in a certain age, you don't get the ball as much as you used to.' Maybe if I was with Chicago, Cleveland, they would say, you've still got it, give it to him. With us, we've just got too much talent to say one guy to get all those balls.

"I got to a point where you can't care about it. What motivates me now is to just enjoy it and let's win games. I've got a Super Bowl ring on my finger and I've been here 13 years. Why get mad?"

Instead he talks about leadership and contributing whenever and however he's needed.

"Everybody asks, what's the final thing for you, Donald?" said Driver. "Something Vince Lombardi said: 'Leaders are not made, they're born.' That's what I need to be. Quit trying to be the leader at catching balls and putting up yards. Be the leader outside of that, not just on the field but off the field."

Community a priority

No matter what happens, no matter how long he plays, Driver doesn't really ever want to leave this place. He's always been one of the most involved players in charity events. He can't imagine giving that up. There aren't many players who can say they played their whole NFL career for the team that drafted them. To Driver, that means something.

"I sat down with Paul Hornung, Bart Starr, Boyd Dowler, Jerry Kramer. It was amazing. Those guys told me I was the next legend. I'm like noooo, no, no. They said yes," said Driver. "Bart told me a long time ago, 'What you do in this community stands forever. What you do on that field stands forever.' And this was when I was younger - five, six years ago. I never considered it. It was, 'Yeah, OK Bart.' "

But Driver can't stop thinking about Starr's message now. Making appearances on behalf of the Packers organization. Helping out the Green Bay community with charity appearances. Telling his story to kids. It's as close to immortality as there is.

It's riding off into the sunset with the perfect ending.

"Donald's ongoing career definitely will be discussed along with other Packers greats, with the records he holds," said Packers president Mark Murphy. "And when you add his off-the-field efforts and contributions, he stands as one of the great ambassadors of the organization and what it means to be a Packers player.

"He's a great player, obviously, but he's a genuine person, too," Murphy said. "He's one of the guys I really have come to admire for everything he does, how he goes about it and what he represents."

Not done yet

But let's not get too far ahead here. Driver is still tumbling this all around in his brain. He's not done yet. Not close. Green Bay is 11-0. They're going to need him again, whether it is this Sunday or next. Or both. After all, he caught four passes for 72 yards in Week 11 against Tampa Bay two days after he had this introspective conversation. Driver is not just a good locker-room presence. He's a contributor and has all the confidence that he has not lost a step, that he is not slowing down.

"Aaron (Rodgers) is going to get it to the guy that's open," said Driver. "You're running down the middle of the field wide open? He's going to get it to you. He's never, OK, where's Greg at, where's Jermichael, where's 'Drive' at. He's like, who wants it? Get open and I'm going to give it to you."

Besides playing for the pursuit of another Super Bowl title, Driver is also enjoying the bonus of padding his records.

Driver is Green Bay's all-time leader in receiving yards with 9,863 and counting.

He is Green Bay's all-time leader in receptions with 721 and counting.

He will be ranked in the Packers' top five for other lists such as most seasons played for the team (at least 13), most seasons leading the team in receptions (six), most receptions in a season (92 in 2006), most 100-yard games in a career (22) - all indicators of his consistency and longevity.

He jokes that with fewer plays and less wear and tear on his body, he could play well past his 40th birthday, old enough so that his baby daughter, Charity, could get to at least see him play a game.

"If we keep spreading the ball like this? I might pass Jerry Rice!" Driver said with a laugh.

The records give Driver even loftier reasons to keep playing.

"My one goal is . . . maybe . . . one day . . . I could have my name in the ring of honor," said Driver, referring to the names of Packers in the Pro Football Hall of Fame inscribed on the stadium walls of Lambeau Field. "Maybe one day get the jersey retired. Maybe one day, go to Ohio - don't care if I'm 90 years old walking with a cane - in Canton. I mean Canton is the ultimate goal for every player. . . .

"And if I never get in, I never get in," he said. "I can see myself walking back in this building at 75, 80 years old like Bart. It's going to mean even more to you then when you see those fans. I can see myself feeling what this organization means to you - and that's everything."