40 and lovin' it

I am 41 years old and I feel like my life has started over. I have a beautiful daughter who turns 9 months on Saturday and hot British wife. when they said that life began at 40 I really believe and i live it daily. My joints however do remind of years of playing sports on all the surfaces. So as I am celebrating my 40's I am dismayed by all of the criticisms of the forty year old. This weekend Brett Favre turns 40. He has been a great player for the past 18 seasons in the NFL. The last two weeks he has shown that that his arm still has magic in in. Now i am aware that last year he fell off in the second half of the season. He played despite having a serious arm injury. So today we honor the 40 year old with the belief that Mr. Favre wont let us down..
There have been several 40 year old who have contributed to sports in meaningful ways. George Foreman won the heavyweight championship as a 46 year old. Jack Nicklaus won the Masters at the same age as well. Hale Irwin did it too. Ray Bourque was an all star defense man for 20 plus years and got his cup as a forty plus year old. Martina Navratilova and Leander Paes won the mixed doubles tennis championship recently and she is over forty. Vinny Testaverde led the Jets to the playoffs as a 40 year old. Steve Deberg played till he was 44 and he was great at the end of his career. Bruce Matthews culminated his hall of fame career with a pro bowl as a 40 plus performer. So why is it such a big deal that Favre is turning 40 on Saturday. Micheal Jordan scored 41 points against the New Jersey Nets as a 40 year old.
There are five great 40 year olds that are the stars of the group. Nolan Ryan, Minnie Minoso, George Blanda, Mark Martin and Kenny Perry may be the greatest over 40 to play their sports. Minnie Minoso has a hit in 5 decades. He was a pinch hitter extraordinaire in his days, and i know that other 40 plus have achieved better things but i had to give him his props. He wanted to try and hit in a sixth decade but Major league baseball stepped in. Kenny Perry has become a top seven golfer. Since he turned 40 he has won 11 tournaments . He was so close to winning his first major this year and has won i believe 2 tournaments a year over the past three seasons. He is one of the most consistent golfers in the world.
George Blanda not only was he a kicker for the Raiders in the 70's but whenever Kenny stabler couldn't get the job done as a quarterback Madden summoned Blanda to help the Raiders win a few games. Nolan Ryan threw a No-hitter at the age of 44. He pitched till he was 46. He wasn't just sticking around either. His teams may have stunk but when he pitched people still sat and watched to see if he could throw a no-no. Mark Martin at age 50 may win the Nextel Cup which would amazing considering that this is auto racing where reflexes are very important. I haven't forgot about Jamie Moyer who won 20 games as a 44 year old and has led his team in victories in the last few seasons. Randy Johnson has stayed around long enough to win 300 games. In other words don't sweat us.. We can still bring the goods if we need to and in this next few days as we hear about Favre turning 40 keep in mind that life begins here ...