WASHINGTON (AP) – Brett Favre was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in January after he began having trouble using his right arm and was unable to hold a screwdriver steady, the Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback said in an interview with TMZ Sports.
Favre disclosed he has the disease Tuesday as part of his testimony to a congressional committee about a welfare misspending scandal in Mississippi.
Favre revealed the diagnosis to TMZ Sports in late August but requested it not be reported, the outlet noted in the story it posted Tuesday. He gave permission for his diagnosis to be reported after the congressional hearing.
Favre said he suspected something was wrong when his right arm would get “stuck.” He said he didn’t notice a decrease in strength but was unable to hold a screwdriver with one hand. He said he notified his physician about the problem when he struggled to put on a jacket.
“I felt my arm, the strength was there, but I could not guide it,” he told TMZ Sports. “And it was the most frustrating thing.”
Favre said five Parkinson’s specialists told him they believed head trauma played a role in his developing the disease.
“Well, hell, I wrote the book on head trauma,” said Favre, who once estimated he had “thousands” of concussions.
Favre said one of his doctors told him people typically show more effects of the disease by the time they are diagnosed.
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who was Favre’s teammate for three seasons in Green Bay, said Wednesday it is “unfortunately” part of the game.
“You know, the older you get, and some of you know this, like the mortality gets kind of thrown in our face a little bit more,” Rodgers said. “It’s actually unfortunately more normal to hear about a death or a cancer diagnosis or a diagnosis like this. And it doesn’t desensitize it for me. I mean, I feel bad for him and (his wife) Deanna, but it’s unfortunately part of our game. That’s part of the risk of playing.”
Favre, who does not face criminal charges in the welfare case, has repaid just over $1 million in speaking fees funded by a welfare program in the state. He also said he had been an investor in a biotech company with ties to the case. The biotech firm has said it was developing concussion treatments.
Favre was known for his durability during his Hall of Fame career. He had an NFL-record streak of 297 consecutive starts, a figure that goes up to 321 if playoff games are included.
He won three straight MVP awards with the Green Bay Packers from 1995-97. Favre led the 1996 Packers to their first Super Bowl title in nearly three decades and brought them back to the Super Bowl the following year.
Favre was with Green Bay from 1992-2007 and also played for the Atlanta Falcons (1991), New York Jets (2008) and Minnesota Vikings (2009-10).
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