NFL legend Brett Favre reveals he has Parkinson’s disease

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Eric Garcia

Washington Bureau Chief

Retired NFL legend Brett Favre revealed he’s been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in a shocking address to Congress as he testified about a welfare misspending scandal on Tuesday.

The former quarterback, 54, disclosed the diagnosis as he testified before the House Ways and Means Committee during a hearing on welfare reform. Favre, who has never been criminally charged, was accused in a civil lawsuit of misusing funds from Mississippi’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and receiving $1.1 million, which he has since returned, for motivational speeches that he never gave.

In an admission to the court, Favre said: “Sadly, I also lost an investment in a company that I believed was developing a breakthrough concussion drug I thought would help others, and I’m sure you’ll understand why it’s too late for me because I’ve recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

"This is also a cause dear to my heart.

“Recently, the doctor, running the company pleaded guilty to taking (public) money for his own use."

Favre, a former Green Bay Packers legend, did not reveal how long he has known of his diagnosis, but Parkinson’s is a progressive brain disorder that causes deterioration to the nervous system and daily movement. While there is no cure, symptoms can be treated and managed.

Symptoms of the disease can vary from person to person, but the condition is typically defined by nervous tremors, speech difficulty, and muscle stiffness, according to the National Institute on Aging.

Favre was just one of dozens of defendants in the lawsuit over the misappropriation of about $77 million in state welfare funds. The football icon has denied ever knowing that the money was meant for welfare.

A Mississippi state audit showed that $5 million ultimately went toward a volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi — which Favre and his daughter attended — and another $1.7 million went to Prevacus, the company he invested in as it was working on a “breakthrough” concussion drug.

“The challenges my family and I have faced over the last three years — because certain government officials in Mississippi failed to protect federal TANF funds from fraud and abuse, and are unjustifiably trying to blame me, those challenges have hurt my good name and are worse than anything I faced in football,” Favre said Tuesday.