Brett Favre says he suffered 'thousands' of concussions in his NFL career

One of the biggest issues today in the NFL remains the concerns around concussions and, eventually, CTE down the road for their players. New helmets, techniques and protocols are doing their best to protect the player’s heads. Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre has recently come out, though, and shared a concerning part of his career.

In an interview on ‘The Bubba Army‘ radio show, Favre said he estimates that he suffered ‘thousands’ of concussions during his career. Based on studies and symptoms, he realizes he likely had more than he realized at the time.

“Concussions happen all the time. You get tackled and your head hits the turf. You see flashes of light or ringing in your ears but you’re able to play…That’s a concussion,” said Favre. “So, based on that, (I’ve suffered) thousands. Every time my head hit the turf, there was ringing or stars going, flash bulbs…but I was still able to play.”

This raises serious questions over how many other players ignore signs of concussions to continue playing. While it likely doesn’t happen on every hit, comments like these suggest it happens even more than fans realize.

Brett Favre is a model example as the third-most-sacked QB all-time with 525 sacks taken in his career. He says the scariest thing is that he continued to get up and play the game through them.

“That’s what’s kind of frightening about the concussion thing. It’s the ones that seem minor that do the damage because you’re able to play and keep going,” Favre said.

Tackling and hits are natural parts of the game. There is no way to remove it completely and all the NFL can do from here is try their best to minimize the harm. Even so, comments like these from Favre could cause plenty to wonder to what end?