American football legend Brett Favre has revealed he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
The 54-year-old former quarterback shared his diagnosis as he gave testimony to a congressional committee about a welfare misspending scandal in Mississippi.
Favre, who does not face criminal charges, has repaid more than $1m in speaking fees funded by a welfare programme in the state and was also an investor in a biotech company with ties to the case.
The ex-Green Bay Packers star told the committee he lost his investment in the company that he believed was developing a “breakthrough concussion drug” to help others.
“As I’m sure you’ll understand, while it’s too late for me – I’ve recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s – this is also a cause dear to my heart,” Favre said.
Favre won three straight MVP (most valuable player) awards with the Green Bay Packers from 1995 to 1997 and led the team to Super Bowl victory in 1997.
He played for Green Bay from 1992 to 2007, with his other teams including Atlanta Falcons, New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings.
At the time of his retirement in 2011, Favre had multiple NFL career passing records. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016.
He told Sky’s US partner NBC News in 2021 that he suffers from memory loss after taking numerous hits to the head during his career.
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“[There’s] no telling how many concussions I’ve had, and what are the repercussions of that, there’s no answer,” Favre said.
“I can’t remember someone that I played six years with in Green Bay… but the face looks familiar. Those type of issues that make me wonder.”
At the time, he also said he wondered if he has chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) – a neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated trauma to the head – and said: “Concussions are a very, very serious thing and we’re just scraping the surface of how severe they are.”
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The NHS website says Parkinson’s disease is a condition in which parts of the brain become progressively damaged over many years.
As the condition progresses, symptoms including involuntary shaking can get worse, which can lead some patients to become more severely disabled. There is no known cure.
Multiple studies have linked CTE to Parkinson’s disease. In 2017, a study found CTE was detected in 177 of 202 American football players’ brains.
