One can also add 22 playoff games to Favre’s streak. Just for nitpicking purposes
I don’t know what Marshall’s would have been with playoffs added in. But it’s damn impressive regardless.
Are you sure?
Marshall was a great player, Favre was a great player.
Of course Marshall did run the wrong way once.
just sayin’.
Off the top of my head… oh there was a game probably three years ago. He played the first series and then sat for a while, I don’t recall if it was the rest of the game. He was coming off an injury and there was speculation that he wouldn’t play. Maybe I’m blowing the severity his lack of playing time in that game out of proportion being that, as a Bears fan, I hate Favre. Sorry I can’t recall specifics, it probably sounds like I’m making shit up.
Hmm, I was probably thinking of the 11/19/06 game against the Patriots where he played a bit less than a half.
He left that game because he hurt his elbow during the game.
Marshall played in 19 additional.
That’s awesome! 
Marshall’s jersey is on display in the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton as “the NFL Iron Man” (or was a while ago) but but he is not enshrined there (probably because Page and Eller from his same DL are already in & he only played in 2 Pro Bowls).
I agree that it takes some kind of weird reasoning to put Favre’s achievement first
I think punters can be football players, it’s a matter of attitude. If the punter runs down with the coverage team and tries to hit someone, he’s a football player. I remember Derrick Frost giving out one of the more brutal special teams tackles I’ve seen.
I thought punters were generally coached not to do that, so they can be the last line of defense if everybody else gets beat.
Linemen face significant injuries, both during their careers and after. As exhibit A, I give you Mike Webster. It has been surmised by some that while he was an extreme case, the extreme is not too far removed from the norm.
While we admire toughness in football players, we should also recognize that what we admire can (and often does) reduce the quality and length of football players’ lives after retirement.
No question, however there are factors that distinguish those injuries from normal QB injuries. The type of injuries they get, and the demands of the position make it more likely that they can play through the injury. QB is a precision position, he has to do much more than just run around and slam into other guys. Injuries that any average lineman would play through can sideline a QB, because he can’t meet the demands of the position. That’s why I would generally consider a consecutive game streak more unusual in a QB than in a lineman.
One other thought on Feagles, he was known as being one of the best directional punters around. That style sacrifices total kick length for reducing the chances of a good return. Fewer good returns means fewer chances to get blindsided by a block, or injured trying to tackle the return man.
This generally seems to be the case. I’m not sure to what degree it’s strategy, and to what degree punters aren’t willing or physically able to be part of the coverage team. It’s an interesting question whether having the punter back there as a last line of defense would be more effective than having 11 guys downfield together (if, say, you had a linebacker-quality athlete who was capable of punting).
Hunter Smith is one of the three or four fastest guys on the entire Colts roster (so sayeth Dungy and Manning, anyway) and he does exactly what other punters do - stay in the backfield and hope it doesn’t come down to you.
To answer the OP, Ray Guy belongs in the Hall of Fame, but Jeff Feagles’ starting streak is not nearly as impressive as the other two.
Ray Guy could kick the shit out of the ball, but didn’t punt that well strategically, i.e. pin the other team deep with a coffin corner kick.
Dr. Z (Paul Zimmerman, who is a HOF selecter) said as much in a mailbag item in this column.
It looks like punters aren’t going to be getting any love from the HOF selecters any time soon.