Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre has said he went to rehab three separate times during his NFL career. Favre says he went twice for prescription painkillers and once for alcohol.
MMQB’s Peter King revealed these comments on Monday after a conversation with Favre. The height of his addiction was during the 1995 season, he stated took 14 Vicodin pills at one time. He also threw for 4,413 yards and 38 touchdowns that season and was named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in the same year.
“I was the MVP on a pain-pill buzz,” he said. “The crazy thing was, I’m not a night owl. Without pills, I’d fall asleep at 9:30. But with pills, I could get so much done, I just figured, ‘This is awesome.’ Little did I know [fiancee and now wife] Deanna would be finding some of my pills and when she did, she’d flush them down the toilet
Favre calls his recovery a “constant battle” and looking back is not sure how he handled it all. Favre also added some comments about how he managed to keep getting pills during an interview with Graham Bensinger
“A month’s prescription is 30 pills or whatever, depending what they prescribe to you, and I was going through that in two days,” he said. “So I was having to hustle. I’d ask this guy for pills and that guy for pills. After a while, I was going back around pretty quickly. I was the last one to know, it’s one of those things. No one knows what’s going on.”
These comments could add some fuel to the argument that NFL players are given prescription pills to easily and have too much access to them. Favre also speaks on his concussion problems during and after his playing career.
“If a ‘ding’ is a concussion, I’ve had hundreds, probably thousands throughout my career,” he told NBC’s Megyn Kelly last month
Brett Favre earned 3 NFL MVPs, 11 ProBowl Selections, a SuperBowl Championship and was elected in the Pro Football HOF in 2016.
