Brett Favre diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

I want to get this out of the way right at the outset: I saw a lot of people on Twitter and other social medias reacting to this story with, ‘#karma,’ responses. I know the last 20-ish years have not been great as it relates to Favre’s likeability. I would counter by saying that over his years in the NFL he raised millions upon millions of dollars for people in need, spent countless hours working with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, etc. Does that give him a pass for (allegedly) taking welfare money from the state of Mississippi in order to build a volleyball stadium at Southern Miss? Nope. Do past good deeds make up for him sending a Jets intern unsolicited Crocs-only pictures? Nope. Do they give him a pass for likely stepping out on his wife while she was still battling cancer? Absolutely not.

So yeah, the last 20 years haven’t been great. Especially for people my age who grew up as 8-14 year-old’s during Favre’s heyday and the Packer renaissance. We idolized him. And on a personal note, Packer games and Brett Favre were a big bonding experience for me and my dad. Memories of Favre making plays and celebrating with my dad, watching those games every Sunday and doling out high-fives, those are core memories for me. So it can be hard to reconcile the stories we’ve heard about him since 2008 with the person we thought we were rooting for from 1992-2007.

All of that on the table, this was tough news to hear yesterday. The more we’ve learned about concussions and brain injuries, the more we’ve learned about the after-effects of playing football, the more I would wonder about how Favre’s later life would treat him. And up until yesterday it seemed like he had dodged a bullet. But at 54-years old, a Parkinson’s diagnosis.

Now in a lot of the Favre-related articles I read yesterday, I saw stats that generally pointed to a 65-70% increase in likelihood of getting Parkinson’s for former NFL players. Some of that is CTE related (which is sounds like Favre also believe he has some form of), but those repeated blows to the head increase your chances almost exponentially.

This is also tough news to digest as it relates to Favre because a big part of his legacy is his toughness. The consecutive games streak, taking BRUTAL hits and staying on the field, we rejoiced in it, reveled in it, at the time. “You can’t knock him out of a game!” I can’t find any recent interviews where he talks about it, but I wonder how he would have approached some of those hits at the time if he/we would have had the knowledge then that we have now. I think a LOT of players would probably have done things differently.

Anyhow, even though I recognize his extremely flawed off-the-field character, this was still a gut-punch yesterday. I wish him and his family the best and assume he will attack this health crisis with the same toughness he displayed on the field.

PS: Thinking back to the ‘BountyGate’ game when Favre was with the Vikings playing against the Saints in the NFC Title game is almost nauseating to replay now. The montage of hits he took in that game and stayed on the field almost defies logic.