“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?”
—Satchel Paige
“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
—Mark Twain
What sparked recollection of these sentiments from long ago?
Take your pick:
Philip Rivers, age 44, successfully returned to the National Football League’s Indianapolis Colts five years after he retired—earning the nickname The Gridiron Grandpa.
Lindsey Vonn, at 41, resumed competitive downhill skiing after retiring in 2019 because of disabling crashes, and immediately won a World Cup race.
Brent Burns, soon to be 41, is the oldest player in the National Hockey League yet sixth in average ice time per game for the Colorado Avalanche, almost halfway through the 2025-26 season .
Max Scherzer started Game 7 of the 2025 World Series—the oldest pitcher ever to start a winner-take-all Series game—97 days after his 41st birthday.
LeBron James played almost three-fourths of three straight 48-minute National Basketball Association games and averaged almost 25 points per game, two weeks before turning 41.
Aaron Rodgers, 42 and in his 21st NFL season, has quarterbacked the Pittsburgh Steelers into first place in the American Conference North Division. In the Monday Night game against Miami, he completed 23 of 27 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns in a 28-15 win.
The common denominator in all of these recent examples is that the athletes are all more than 40 years old.
The message: 40-plus doesn’t mean you can’t still excel.
Skiing on a titanium knee after robot-assisted surgery last year, Vonn approached 80 miles per hour on the slope as she stunned the sports world two weeks ago by winning the World Cup downhill in St. Moritz, Switzerland. She then finished second in the same discipline the next day.
The Vail product previously had endured nine surgeries to repair injuries from on-mountain crashes. Now she’s a virtual certainty to represent the United States in the Milan Winter Olympics in February.
“All the people that didn’t believe in me,” she said, “I have to thank them because it really gives me a lot of motivation.”
Why do they do it? Why do athletes push themselves to such lengths?
There are many reasons, of course. But foremost is their competitiveness. Winning drives them, no matter the sport or any other endeavor in which one can outdo another.
This explains why many professionals struggle after they retire, and why some stay so long, or return.
Fifty years ago, George Blanda suited up for the Oakland Raiders when was 48. A quarterback and placekicker in what was his 26th season, he threw only three passes in 1975, completing one for 11 yards, but he converted 44 of 48 extra point kicks and 13 of 21 field goal attempts as he helped Oakland to a 11-3 record.
Ten years earlier, Satchel Paige pitched three scoreless innings for Kansas City when he was 59 years old—more than twice the age of seven Boston players in the lineup that night and 26 years senior to the oldest player he faced. He allowed one hit and struck out one, throwing a measly total of 28 pitches.
The Avalanche’s Burns, who is seven years senior to the next-oldest of the 20 Avs scorers below him through 33 games, is eighth on Colorado’s overall list of scorers this season.
Ignoring his age, Colorado signed the big defenseman as a free agent in July. He’s averaged just under 20 minutes ice time per game—nearly one-third of a full-length hockey game—this season.
Philip Rivers came off his couch and, with less than a week of preparation, started at quarterback against Seattle and would have engineered an upset victory if not for a 54-yard field goal in the final minute.
He completed 18 of 27 passes for 120 yards and a touchdown—his first since January 9, 2020, in a playoff loss to Buffalo that was his final game before retirement.
After the Seattle game, The Gridiron Grandpa said that one of the reasons he answered the Colts’ call after both their starting quarterback and his backup went down was to show others—not just those over 40 but even teens—that you can achieve no matter your age.
And not just in sports.
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Denny Dressman writes a weekly sports column for The Villager. You can write to Denny at dennydressman@comcast.net.