Hall of Fame quarterback and Green Bay Packers legend Brett Favre has opened up about his battle with Parkinson’s disease about one year after he revealed his diagnosis.
Favre, 55, shared his health update during an interview with former ESPN anchor Sage Steele on “The Sage Steele Show” on Wednesday.
“Everyone attributes Parkinson’s with shaking, and most people [tell me], ‘I don’t see much shaking.’ I have a little shaking, but not like Muhammad Ali or Michael J. Fox,” Favre said. “Mine is rigidity and stiffness. The problem with that is I have rigid and stiff joints on my right side – really on both sides, but the right side is bothering me. So the Parkinson’s is making it worse.
“I have a hard time swallowing. One of the doctors, out of the blue, said ‘How’s your swallowing?’ And I was like, ‘It’s not as easy as it was.’ He said that’s one of the things that’s affected. There are times where I think I’m choking. So it’s sort of scary because they can’t fix that,” he added.
Favre, who played 20 seasons in the NFL from 1991-2010, said he takes medicine every four hours throughout the day to help slow the progression and alleviate the symptoms of his Parkinson’s disease.
“I can only imagine what I look like, but I feel like a pretzel,” Favre said of his symptoms. “Everything is so rigid. I take the medicine and 20 minutes later, at least in my mind, it’s like a total new body.”
During his interview, Favre also discussed his late father, who died at age 56 in 2003 due to a heart attack. Favre noted how he’s almost the same age his father was when he died, and said he’s mindful of how he takes care of himself as he ages.
“So all in all, here I am at 55, and I know we were talking about my dad, and he died at 56. I’m almost there,” Favre said. “But I have taken way better care of myself, even though [playing] football is not taking real good care of yourself.”
Favre said, in addition to his medication, he exercises every day to help combat the symptoms and progression of Parkinson’s. Still, despite his optimism for a future cure to Parkinson’s, he admits the disease can take a toll on his mental health, too.
“I try not to think about it,” Favre said. “I try to focus on getting after the day and making the most of each day. But there are oftentimes during the day, maybe at night, when I decompress and I think I’m progressing a little bit.
“I wake up every day and think, ‘Did I progress 2%? Am I staying the same? Am I looking into the progression more than I should?’ All of those thoughts go through my mind,” he added.
Favre won three NFL MVP awards and one Super Bowl during his 20-year NFL career. He played his first 17 seasons for the Packers before playing one season with the New York Jets and his final two with the Minnesota Vikings.
Favre is among the most accomplished quarterbacks in NFL history, ranking third in career pass attempts (10,169) and completions (6,300) and fourth in passing yards (71,838) and passing touchdowns (508). He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016.
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