Future Hall of Famer and former Green Bay Packers quarterback, Brett Favre is opening up about concerns brought on by concussions suffered while playing football.
As a star athlete, he did it all, High School, College, and the ultimate, professional football with the NFL.
However, now he says he is starting to see what may be the signs of all the hits he took during his long career.
Speaking with Matt Lauer of NBC’s TODAY Show, Brett Favre voiced his concerns:
“I’ve talked to several doctors, asking them about symptoms, and one of them is not being able to finish a sentence,” Favre told Lauer in the exclusive interview that aired Monday. “Or not remembering a word — a specific word. I’ve noticed lately, if there’s any symptom at all, that one being the one that shows the most.”
Sobering words from the 44-year-old who started in 297 consecutive games, a record in the NFL.
Referring to the gaps in his memory, Brett Favre said he first became aware of them while talking to his wife.
“I think to me the wake-up call was (wife) Deanna and I were talking recently, and she was talking about Breleigh, our youngest, playing soccer. I’ve pretty much made every game that she’s ever played (in) basketball, volleyball. She played softball one year, she played basketball a couple years. As I find out, she played soccer. I don’t remember her playing soccer. She played right over here, and that was probably where my first inclination that something ain’t right.”
Even though Brett Favre told Matt Lauer he can’t say for sure, indications and studies suggest that the hits he took during his 20-year career, primarily with the Packers, could be to blame for his memory problems.
Favre was sacked 525 times, more than any quarterback in history. Being hit by a football player has been compared as being in a car crash by experts.
“I can’t say for certain,” Favre said. “I would assume so, and I think most people would assume. But I’ve got to believe that after 20 years, and if you go back, I played four years in college and played every game and then in high school, the toll has got to be pretty high.”
Brett Favre, who does not have a son, said he would be very weary of letting him play football:
“I would be real leery of him playing” football. “In some respects, I’m almost glad I don’t have a son because of the pressures he would face. Also the physical toll that it could possibly take on him, not to mention if he never made it, he’s gonna be a failure in everyone’s eyes. But more the physical toll that it could take.
“In all honesty, I would have a hard time just throwing him out there.”
The former quarterback finds himself in a tough position, trying to bring awareness to the dangers of the repeated hits players take and a desire to keep the integrity of the game.
“Don’t want to knock football at all,” Brett Favre said. “I think that’s unfair. I knew what I was getting into. To think that I could help maybe ease maybe some of the potential trauma, but still keep the integrity of the game, I’m willing to do that.”
Favre is not the only legend to play football that faces potential problems that could be associated with playing football, Tony Dorsett former running back for the Dallas Cowboys recently revealed he has memory problems as well.
Dorsett has been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a progressive degenerative brain disease found in some athletes with a history of repetitive brain trauma.
During a previous interview Favre said, “God only knows the toll” of all those hits.
Brett Favre is the only quarterback in NFL history to throw for over 70,000 yards, over 500 touchdowns, over 300 interceptions, over 6,000 completions, and over 10,000 pass attempts.