Iron Man Mania: The 10 Toughest Iron Men In Sports

Sports obviously put the highest physical demands on an athlete's body. Many athletes feel fortunate just for playing one season without injury, but season after season?

It is a rarely commodity in today's sports. Even if a player runs a long consecutive games played streak, it is inevitable that the player will receive a day off at some point.

Cal Ripken is the gold standard of such streaks, one with a record so large that baseball players cannot fathom the demand to match it.

Nevertheless, there are other iron men in baseball, and other sports, for not just consecutive games play but for the durability of their excellence and the perseverance of their careers.

Here are the ten ranking iron men in sports.

Brett Favre

Brett Favre's streak of 285 consecutive starts is now often in the discussion with Ripken's streak of 2,632 games, considering the physicality and punishment of the sport.

Favre's streak will continue if he returns for the 2010 NFL season, but if not, his streak will serve as the seemingly insurmountable parallel to Ripken's record.

Roy Halladay

Halladay missed time in 2004 and 2005 when a comebacker broke a bone in his lower leg, but otherwise, the Phillies ace has been an iron man among current big league starting pitchers.

Aside from those two seasons, Halladay has gone at least 220 innings in every season since 2002 including a career-high 266 innings in 2003.

CC Sabathia

The consideration of CC Sabathia as another one of baseball's iron men on the mound made him such a valuable commodity for the Yankees prior to the 2009 season.

Sabathia tossed at least 230 innings in each of the last three seasons and has been relied upon to pitch his team to late season victories on short rest.

Tom Watson

Winning golf was thought to be a distant memory for golfing legend Tom Watson. He hadn't placed in the top 20 of a major since the 2000 PGA Championship at 51-years-old.

That was until 2009 when the then 60-year-old Watson finished second at the British Open.

At his next major, the 2010 Masters (he skipped the 2009 PGA Championship), Watson again stunned crowds with an 18th place finish.

Holding up a major trophy on Sunday may still elude Watson, but he has amazed us with his sudden and unpredicted resurgence.

Martin Brodeur

Martin Brodeur will go down as arguably the greatest goaltender in NHL history.

Even more amazing is that the New Jersey Devils man between the pipes continues to lead the league in valuable categories like wins and shutouts (which he did again in 2009-2010) at age 37.

Brodeur is already the NHL's all-time leader in wins and shutouts, and is still playing a very high level.

Jamie Moyer

The numbers aren't always pretty, but left-hander Jamie Moyer is still getting big league hitters out at an astounding 47-years-old.

Moyer, who debuted in 1986, is the first pitcher since Phil Niekro in 1987 to pitch passed his 47th birthday.

How old is Moyer?

Last Sunday, he pitched to Gary Matthews Jr. In his first season in 1986, he pitched to Gary Matthews Sr.

Chris Chelios

NHL all-time great defenseman Chris Chelios has been playing hockey somewhere since the 1983-1984 season.

He played professional hockey before Sidney Crosby was born and he's still going. Chelios only played seven games this season with the Atlanta Thrashers, but that doesn't diminish the impressive fact that Chelios did it at 48-years-old.

Jeff Feagles

The long time punter just retired on Friday, but we'll give him some recognition for a long, long career filled with many records.

Feagles is the NFL's record holder for most consecutive games played (352) and most games played all-time.

Now, that is a bit easier to achieve as a punter, but consider that this year's crop of NFL draft picks weren't even born when the former Giants/Seahawks/Eagles/Cardinals/Patriots punter was drafted out of the University of Miami in 1988.

Mariano Rivera

He is the greatest relief pitcher of all-time and it appears that his excellence shows no sign of stopping until proven otherwise.

Rivera is pitching the 2010 at 40-years-old and has yet to give up a run this season.

Are there enough superlatives to express his value as a player anymore? Mariano Rivera is still dominating the game without an end in sight.

Omar Vizquel

Vizquel's numbers, productivity and playing time have decreased in recent seasons, but the 43-year-old, 11-time Gold Glove winner still has work because of what he can do with the leather.

Vizquel, who broke into the big leagues in 1989, is currently with the Chicago White Sox—his third team in three years.