Gabriel Bouys / AFP/Getty Images

For his entire career, the term "Little Brother" followed Eli Manning as a quarterback. Last January, he changed that with a magical playoff run to a Super Bowl championship, breaking away from the fame of older brother, Peyton.

Brett Favre
I can’t say that professional athletes never waver when they announce their retirements. Many have foolishly returned to games they couldn’t live without. But Favre underlined and bold-faced his independent credentials by flip-flopping over past few years about quitting the NFL, then finally announcing tearfully that he was done with football, and now inching his way back to the Pack. No one else would have the decisiveness to be so indecisive.

Chad Johnson
Janis Joplin once said, “Freedom is just another word for nothin’ left to lose.” I don’t really know how that applies here, other than perhaps to point out that, in stating his independence, he has blasted the Cincinnati Bengals so many times and committed so many acts of mutiny that he must feel, “Well, I got all that off my chest. Time to play football.” He really has nothing left to lose, except a bunch of football games if he doesn’t shut his mouth and play.

Alex Rodriguez
He’s the toast of the town: Every tabloid reporter wants to make toast out of him. You would think that after the Scott Boras contract debacle and his failure to come through in the postseason A-Rod would lay low. You would think that after he was photographed with that stripper that he would be more discreet in his off-the-field pursuits. So what does he do? Well, if reports are to be believed, he’s messing around with Madonna, one of the most famous women on the planet. Leave it to a baseball player who has always been an island onto himself to act so independently.

Tiger Woods
Most Americans are trained to listen to their bodies. When something aches, slow down. When pain lingers, see a doctor and rest. Tiger doesn’t see it that way. He thinks out of the tee box. Even though his knee was telling him, “What are you, nuts?! I’m dying here!” he toughed it out and won the U.S. Open before having surgery and shutting it down for the season. Sometimes the independent spirit in athletes comes with a bottle of Tylenol.

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