Brett Favre played 20 years in the NFL, made 298 starts, and threw 10,169 passes during his career. He played until he was 41, took 525 career sacks, and was hit countless more times. It sounds like all the years of playing professional football have taken their toll on the former MVP quarterback.
Favre joined The Sports Reporters with Andy Pollin on Sports Talk 570 in Washington on Thursday to talk about the rumor that the St. Louis Rams were interested in signing him. During the interview, Favre revealed that he has suffered from scary memory loss that he believes is related to concussions.
“I don’t remember my daughter playing soccer, playing youth soccer, one summer,” he said. “I don’t remember that. I got a pretty good memory, and I have a tendency like we all do to say, ‘Where are my glasses?’ and they’re on your head. This was pretty shocking to me that I couldn’t remember my daughter playing youth soccer, just one summer, I think. I remember her playing basketball, I remember her playing volleyball, so I kind of think maybe she only played a game or two. I think she played eight. So that’s a little bit scary to me. For the first time in 44 years, that put a little fear in me.”
Favre also said in the interview that agent Bus Cook exaggerated slightly last month when he described the type of conditioning and working out the quarterback has been doing. But Favre did say he is in the best everyday shape of his life and dropped about 25 pounds.
Favre says he thinks a few teams have inquired about his availability but it’s come to the point that Cook doesn’t really even ask if he has interest in returning to a team. He also thinks the Rams had interest in him because he is familiar with the offense Brian Schottenheimer runs.
For someone who captured headlines and was the talk of the league for multiple years, Favre has gone away from the game pretty silently. He says he enjoys spending the time with his family now.
As for the memory loss, I’m sure many people feel this way as they age. But the way Favre described it, he sounded pretty serious about the problems. He also expressed concern about the studies that have shown how players suffer after their career end.
H/T USA Today
