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Source: Milwaukee Journal SentinelSept.新蒲崗迷你倉 06--GREEN BAY -- There is a statistic for almost everything in football, but how can you measure a man's hunger? Determination? Tenacity?Toughness?You cannot.You have to see it, and really in Johnny Jolly's case, you had to look for it.The defensive end made his improbable return to the NFL just 95 days for Green Bay Packers minicamp. He couldn't even participate in a full practice after his three-year punitive absence from football. He just started with team drills and even those left him gulping air, streaks of perspiration running down his temples. His sometimes hunched posture gave away his fatigue. He was carrying around too much weight. His cardio stamina was gone.But his eyes were in it. They were alert. They were on fire.He was fighting.As Green Bay finalizes its last preparations for the rematch with the San Francisco 49ers, the defensive Packers are over the moon to have their Johnny Jolly back, the one they knew in 2009, who set the club record for swatting down 11 passes, but also the one known for chasing after players half his size and twice his speed."Johnny is tough, he's a tough player," said nose tackle Ryan Pickett. "He's not dirty, he's not going to do anything like that, but he's like a street fighter. He's going to go hard and fight, every down. No matter what, you know you're going to get that from Johnny."I love it, man, because it's contagious. You just love going into a game with a guy like that. He will do whatever it takes to win. And then he'll expect that from everyone around him."It's not the team alone that welcomes him back. If the Packers won't admit their lack of toughness in their 579-yard, 45-point surrender to the 49ers in the playoffs, others seem eager to look for a little grit from the men in green and gold in the season opener at Candlestick this time around."Johnny Jolly brings the toughness back," former safety LeRoy Butler said in his video with JSOnline this week. "You play the Seattles and the San Franciscos of the world, the Giants -- although they were terrible in the secondary, but their front four traditionally have been good. If Johnny Jolly can add some toughness back to this defense, they'll be good."Leaner now, with obvious stamina, and his performances improving with each preseason game, this tough-guy image is still a little hard to believe in talking to Jolly when he's away from that environment. He's soft-spoken, careful of what he says, sensitive about some topics. And who will blame him? The last time he played was the 2009 season and even then the first codeine charges hung over him. He fretted it would affect his teammates.But he kept making mini storageistakes and he lost the next three years, the prime years really, of his NFL career, suspended for violating the drug policy. He's been humbled in court and locked behind bars. There's no way he isn't a changed man."It made me hungrier," said Jolly, quietly.Think back to 2009, his best season. He was described as a hard charger. He led the defensive line with 835 snaps (78.9%) and was third in tackles per snap. Jolly also had four turnover-producing plays, the most then by a defensive lineman since Aaron Kampman had four in '06.He was well-liked, too, joking with his teammates that his great athleticism translated to being the best basketball player in the locker room.Now that he's back, it's a lot to ask the 30-year-old to be the answer to the Packers' lack of toughness. And so no one in Green Bay will go that far. But they will not hesitate to acknowledge that Jolly can be a catalyst for what they hope is an improved defense."He does bring an intensity -- I don't know about nastiness," said left defensive end C.J. Wilson. He is the starter, with Pickett and B.J. Raji, and Jolly is his backup. "Johnny is a good guy, on and off the field, despite his past. I'm just excited to have him as a teammate because he's got a lot of energy every day. I would say he's a great leader, a vocal leader. I look for great things for him this year."Jolly has been very grateful for his teammates who went to bat for him and implored general manager Ted Thompson to bring him back. Maybe his constant aggression is a combination result of regret over time missed and a debt he'd like to pay. Or maybe it's just him."I really don't have a definition for it," said Jolly. "I'm going to play how I play -- with a lot of passion. I'll be tough, physical. I'm just a passionate player, I love the game. I love doing it. Hopefully I can do this for 10 more years. I'm going to go as hard as I can every chance I get."A lot of players mentally rehearse a positive image of what they want to be successful. And so Jolly will give this game a great deal of thought, a vision of him making a tackle for loss, an image of him rejecting a pass. And that will take care of any nerves in his first game since Jan. 10, 2010."Of course," said Jolly. "The night before the game, you think about stuff like that, you picture stuff like that. I will probably get a little edgy feeling before the game, as always. It's game time. When the ball is snapped, it's on. There's no time for butterflies. You get that out of your system. It's big boy ball."Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Visit the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel at .jsonline.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesself storage