Former Quarterback Brett Favre Admits Memory Loss
NPR
Friday, October 25, 2013
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Brett Favre, bottom, was a quarterback for the Green Bay Packers for much of his career. This image is from a game in Dec. 4, 2005, against the Chicago Bears. He is tackled by Charles Tillman. Favre said in an interview that he has experienced memory loss after a 20 year NFL career. (Jeff Roberson/AP)
Brett Favre, most well known as the quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, says 20 years of NFL football took a toll on him.
During a radio interview, Favre said he can’t remember his daughter playing youth soccer one summer and the loss of that memory scared him.
Favre is 44 years old and a grandfather, and he made the comments after reports that teams wanted him to come out of retirement.
What does Favre’s admission portend for the NFL, which has only recently begun to implement rules that make the sport safer — such as disallowing players who are concussed from returning to play and outlawing head-to-head hits.
“I think it means that this is something that is not going away, the discussion over head trauma,” Peter King, a longtime NFL reporter who writes for Sports Illustrated tells Here & Now’s Robin Young. “If one of the biggest stars in NFL history, Brett Favre, is 44 and cannot remember wide swaths of his life, what’s he going to be like at 54? I’d like high school and college athletes to listen to that interview with Favre. You have to manage how you’re hit.”
Guest
- Peter King, veteran reporter on the NFL with Sports Illustrated, and the SI blog, MMQB. He tweets @SI_PeterKing.
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