Often enough in this NFL analysis racket, the primal needs of individual players go unappreciated or completely ignored, particularly on major stories that chew their way through multiple news cycles.

Look at Brett Favre, whose primal need is to be looked at -- otherwise, he'd be spending this weekend somewhere in Mississippi instead of at Dolphin Stadium for a conspicuous round of celebrity spear fishing as a new member of the New York Jets. But that's the exact kind of oversimplification I'm talking about. Favre's real primal need probably isn't so much to be looked at as it is to simply play. He's a 38-year-old boy. Still. The whole sordid Escape From Green Bay drama wasn't brought on by a lot more than that, in essence.

Look at Michael Strahan, whose primal need is to put on an expensive suit and yammer away on some Fox pregame show because otherwise he, too, would have reversed his retirement to help the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants sustain some kind of pass rush in the sudden absence of Osi Umenyiora.

Unfortunately for our working theme, however, primal needs likely have nothing to do with Favre's unretirement or Strahan's un-unretirement.

The real reason Strahan decided to stay retired is purely that his Giants do not play Favre's Jets this season. Had the Jets been on the Giants' schedule, I'm certain Strahan would have left his Fox sinecure for the chance to sack Favre, who generally faints in his presence.

You'll remember the Strahan sack of Favre in the final game of the 2001 season, the one that gave Strahan 22.5 sacks in one year, the record-breaker. Favre had turned suddenly in Strahan's direction, tried to duck away and fell to the grass. The record-breaking "sack" therefore required no more physical exertion than is necessary to open a screen door.

Strahan didn't get close enough to Favre to trigger the same kind of narcolepsy in last year's NFC championship game. No Giant did. But the memory of the ease of that record-breaking sack might have been very tempting, only had the Jets showed up on the Giants' 2008 schedule.

Strahan, it so happens, needed only 8.5 sacks to reach 150 for his career, and would have been only the fifth player ever to reach that plateau, joining Bruce Smith (200), Reggie White (198), Kevin Greene (160), and Chris Doleman (150).

Similarly, the real reason Favre decided he could not sit idle in the bayou this season is his third-place position on one of the game's most hallowed lists. Sources with no conceivable knowledge of the situation have informed me that Favre, swinging in a hammock one evening this summer while flipping through the 2008 NFL Record and Fact Book, sat bolt upright and said, "Holy mackerel, I only need 15 more fumbles to break the all-time record!"

Favre's math was right.

His 147 career fumbles are just six fewer than Dave Krieg and only 14 behind the all-time professional football fumbler, Warren Moon. Not only does the former Houston Oilers, Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback hold the record of 161 career fumbles, he also holds the record for most fumbles recovered, 56. Every one of those 56, by the way, was his own fumble. That's a total of 217 fumbles, which doesn't even count his days in the Canadian Football League, where I imagine the pig was just as slippery.

The chances that Favre will rub Moon out of the NFL record book this season would have to be rated as excellent. On Dec. 7, 1998, in a game against Tampa Bay, Favre fumbled six times, just one short of the all-time "oopsidaisy" record set by Kansas City icon Len Dawson, who lost it seven times against San Diego one day during the Lyndon Johnson administration.

All Favre needs do is average one fumble a week and the record is his, even if he recovers them himself. Fifteen fumbles from Favre could prove very useful, in fact, as Favre's 15 would likely get a lot more media play than the 30 Rashard Mendenhall might dump on playing surfaces from here to Nashville and back.

You just have to hope Rashard's preseason proclivity for ridding himself of the football is not symptomatic of any primal need.