Brett Favre cuts promo urging non-tackle football for youths under 14

Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre knows a thing or two about concussions, and he is urging parents not to allow players 14 and under to play tackle football.

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Favre, 51, an advocate for concussion research, released a public service announcement through a partnership with the Concussion Legacy Foundation, “Today” reported.

The announcement explains that the longer a child plays tackle football, the more prone they are to develop chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a progressive and fatal condition, that is more commonly known as CTE.

“Mom? Dad? Let’s talk about tackle football,” a young football player says in the opening seconds of the one-minute video. “I just learned about CTE, the brain disease caused by repeated hits to the head.”

“If you put me in tackle today,” the video notes, shifting the focus to a high school player, “by the time I’m a senior in high school, I’ll have played 13 years of tackle football. I could already have CTE.

“And it will continue to destroy my brain, even after I’ve stopped playing.”

To drive home the point about who is advocating non-tackle play, the youth and high school player are both wearing No. 4, the number Favre sported during his 19 seasons in the NFL.

“So by the time I’m your age,” the video continues, now focusing on Favre himself, “I could be fighting depression, struggling to keep my thoughts straight. I could become violent, even toward my own children.”

Favre, a three-time MVP during his 19 seasons in the NFL, also played high school and college football. He told “Today” that he might have experienced “numerous” traumatic brain injuries. In 2018, Favre told Megyn Kelly in an interview that he was experiencing short-term memory losses.

The quarterback, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, told The Associated Press that he had at least three or four known concussions during 302 regular-season and 24 postseason games.

“I don’t know what normal feels like. Do I have CTE? I really don’t know,” Favre told “Today.” “Concussions are a very, very serious thing and we’re just scraping the surface of how severe they are.”

Favre notes in the video that glory in sports does not compare to quality of life in later years.

“When I’m your age, what will matter to me is not my youth football career,” Favre says in the video, “but that like you, I’m a great parent, and I can provide for my family.”

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