Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre said Tuesday that children under the age of 14 should not play tackle football.
During an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show, Favre discussed his new partnership with the Concussion Legacy Foundation, co-founded by former WWE wrestler Chris Nowinski, and unveiled a PSA that says children have a higher chance of developing chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) if they play tackle football before they’re 14 years old.
Favre, who played 20 seasons in the NFL, has said he doesn’t know if he has CTE but added that he is already experiencing memory loss due to the traumatic concussions he experienced during his playing career, according to NBC News.
“[There’s] no telling how many concussions I’ve had, and what are the repercussions of that, there’s no answer,” Favre, who played for the Green Bay Packers during the bulk of his NFL career, said on “Today.”
“I wasn’t the best student, but I still can remember certain things that you would go, ‘Why would you even remember that?’ But I can’t remember someone that I played six years with in Green Bay … but the face looks familiar. Those type of issues that make me wonder.”
Favre also said he hasn’t encouraged his three grandsons to play football in the future, saying that there’s too much risk to play in a sport where’s there no treatment for brain injuries.
This comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this year shared a study that said children are 15 times more likely to suffer head impacts if they participate in tackle sports.
The NFL reached a landmark settlement with players in 2015 regarding concussions and has paid about $800 million in claims so far. The league recently vowed to stop the practice of treating minority players differently when assessing brain injury claims.