Brett Favre Reveals Sobering Diagnosis

Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre, who recently appeared before an overcapacity crowd at the Little Rock Touchdown Club Aug. 26, has revealed he has Parkinson’s.

Favre made the revelation Tuesday during his testimony before  the House Ways and Means Committee investigating Mississippi’s misuse of welfare funds, multiple media outlets have reported. The revelation came as Favre was facing lawmakers as to the scandal, which has tarnished the NFLer’s reputation and which he claims to have been duped into participating.

At one point in his testimony, Favre noted his personal financial loss as an investor in a hoped-for concussion drug from the now-defunct drug company Prevacus, at which time he dropped the bombshell news about his condition.

“I also lost an investment in a company that I believe was developing a breakthrough concussion drug I thought would help others, and I’m sure you’ll understand why it’s too late for me because I’ve recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s,” Favre said.

Favre, who appeared in Little Rock wearing a t-shirt that read “Everything Hurts,” was notably slower to answer questions onstage and seemed to struggle to collect his thoughts during a radio interview with Justin Acri and D.J. Williams of 103.7 The Buzz.

Favre at Little Rock Touchdown Club. Photo by Ryan Parker.

In recent years, neurological experts have paid increasing attention to contact sports, namely football, and their impact on athletes’ long-term health. Parkinson’s is among the conditions believed to have traumatic brain injury at its root.

Spending 20 years in the NFL at a high-target position like quarterback would put any player in the crosshairs of an untold number of hits, but Favre’s reputation for toughness put him at even higher risk than usual. He didn’t miss a single game from 1993 to 2009 and set a record for consecutive starts.

In a 2022 interview with TMZ Sports, Favre estimated he had suffered “thousands” of concussions according to current definitions in his football career.

An 11-time Pro Bowler and three-time MVP, the 54-year-old is one of the most prolific passers in league history. He’s fourth all-time in both passing yards (71,838) and touchdowns (508). On the downside, he became addicted to prescription painkillers during his playing career, landing him in rehab three times. It is a battle he has openly shared with audiences, including the Little Rock crowd where he told the audience at his worst, he was taking 16 Vicodin at once every night.

“Sixteen pills is hard to swallow at one time, and I would throw up and would pick them up out of the throw-up,” he said. “That’s what addiction can do to you, and I knew at the time this ain’t good, but yet I had won three MVPs in a row, and part of me was like, I’m doing something right, but meanwhile, I was definitely heading in the wrong direction.”

Favre also commented in Little Rock about appearing in an upcoming documentary, “Concussed: The American Dream,” about concussions and the NFL.

“Concussions are serious,” he said. “They’re very serious, and yeah, we look at them differently today, but the same problems still exist.”

Through it all, he said, he told the crowd he had no regrets.

“I never tried to be something I wasn’t,” he said. “You live and learn from things, but for me, it all came down to I love playing. That’s what I grew up doing. I love my teammates and love to compete with them, compete against them, the battle part of it, but at the end of the day, I was just doing what I loved, and people appreciated it.”