The Megyn Kelly Show - First Person： Legendary NFL Quarterback Brett Favre on the Truth About Concussions in Football ｜ Ep. 873

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00:00:15.620 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at New East.

00:00:27.040 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly.

00:00:28.620 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.

00:00:30.680 Football is America's most popular sport by far.

00:00:34.820 And the NFL comes back next week.

00:00:37.060 But a dangerous element of the game continues plaguing this sport.

00:00:41.780 A brand new documentary is detailing the horrors of CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy,

00:00:49.920 through the life of one former NFL player who tragically died of an overdose, accidental,

00:00:55.960 after struggling with CTE.

00:00:57.460 The documentary is called Concussed, The American Dream, and it's out right now on Apple TV and

00:01:03.900 Amazon Prime, and it's also available at concussedfilm.com.

00:01:09.120 Legendary NFL quarterback Brett Favre is an executive producer of Concussed, and he is the

00:01:15.500 man behind this film, which I'll show you a preview of right here.

00:01:19.860 Former Hawkeye football star Tyler Sash diagnosed with CTE.

00:01:26.520 I guess if my son was Tom Brady or Brett Favre or some of those guys, it would get a lot more

00:01:33.000 attention from our country.

00:01:35.060 Atlanta has selected Brett Favre, quarterback, Southern Mississippi.

00:01:41.140 Brett Favre!

00:01:42.560 Would I have done it different?

00:01:45.040 Had I known?

00:01:47.340 I don't know that.

00:01:49.760 Tyler just had kind of this magnetic personality.

00:01:52.440 I can't tell you how many times my head hit the turf.

00:01:56.880 Concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury.

00:02:01.380 The Giants rookie suffered a concussion in the NFC Championship game.

00:02:05.100 Player down for the Giants.

00:02:07.460 That's Sash.

00:02:09.600 Well, I don't think he ever recovered from that.

00:02:11.660 I unequivocally think there's a link between playing football and CTE.

00:02:16.600 The stress and the trauma.

00:02:19.620 Players will not help themselves.

00:02:22.060 They're brought up in a culture of denial.

00:02:24.160 And that's scary.

00:02:25.660 Tyler Sash's story is just absolutely heart-wrenching.

00:02:28.680 And we meet his mom.

00:02:30.280 We meet his sister.

00:02:31.800 We meet his niece.

00:02:33.500 His former coaches.

00:02:34.760 You fall in love with this guy.

00:02:36.500 And it's tough because you know what's coming his way.

00:02:39.300 You just don't know exactly how.

00:02:40.880 But it's an important film.

00:02:43.080 And there's a reason that Brett Favre is its executive producer.

00:02:47.580 He's dealt with concussions firsthand.

00:02:50.320 Many of them as one of the greatest football stars to ever play the game.

00:02:55.500 And he joins us now.

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00:04:00.500 Brett, great to see you again.

00:04:02.120 Welcome to the show.

00:04:03.020 Well, thanks for having me, Megan.

00:04:04.240 It's always good to see you and visit with you.

00:04:08.100 Yeah.

00:04:08.480 All the best to you, and I know this is personal for you.

00:04:12.340 And the first time we spoke was back in 2018 when I was at NBC, and you came on and talked very openly about your own experience with concussions in the NFL.

00:04:25.660 And you put the number at just thousands.

00:04:28.920 You just said you thought you'd had thousands of concussions over the course of your career.

00:04:32.620 Well, I wouldn't have said that maybe a few years before you and I discussed it in, I think, 18.

00:04:44.900 But I had a conversation with Dr. Benjamin Amalu, who in the movie Concussion, many years ago, Will Smith portrayed Dr. Amalu,

00:04:55.460 who actually discovered CTE when he was a coroner, I believe, in the city of Pittsburgh.

00:05:05.080 And he had done these autopsies on what turns out to be four or five maybe Steelers players, former Steelers players, and discovered CTE.

00:05:19.240 But in my conversation with him, I said, when is a good time to play tackle football?

00:05:25.460 And he said, never, which I thought was, you know, I thought maybe he would say 21, 20.

00:05:33.920 He said, there's never a good time for the human to play tackle football.

00:05:37.880 But he said, I know that's not, you know, that's never going to happen.

00:05:42.500 But we got to the discussion.

00:05:44.960 He said, how many concussions do you think you've had?

00:05:47.840 And I said, three, maybe four.

00:05:53.640 And he sort of chuckled and said, more like hundreds, maybe thousands.

00:06:01.360 And I said, no, three, three or four.

00:06:03.780 And he said, well, how many times do you think you were tackled or you fell, you hit your head on the turf,

00:06:12.800 and maybe your ears were ringing or you saw stars or fireworks?

00:06:19.700 You maybe were a little fuzzy, but you were able to play.

00:06:24.040 You didn't come out of the game.

00:06:25.520 You kind of shook it off.

00:06:27.740 And I said, almost every time I was tackled or I fell, and so he said, well, that is a concussion.

00:06:40.580 Everyone relates concussions to you see a boxer get hit, and his knees are buckling, or they look rubbery, his legs.

00:06:50.180 A player gets tackled, and he gets up, and he stumbles back to the ground.

00:06:55.980 We all know that's a concussion.

00:06:58.840 And that's what I was relaying my, what I thought concussions from a numbers perspective was exactly that,

00:07:11.740 where I may have blacked out for a period of time.

00:07:14.280 And he said, yeah, that's a concussion.

00:07:16.820 But we know that the fireworks or the ringing in the ears or the fuzziness is also a concussion.

00:07:24.920 And he said, in the long run, the small minor concussions, if you will,

00:07:31.040 and I don't think there is such a thing as a minor concussion, but he said, those do the most damage over time.

00:07:37.640 And that was, really was a wake-up call for me, to think that I've had hundreds, maybe thousands of concussions,

00:07:48.940 which would be very accurate, based on what he said.

00:07:53.820 It's, honestly, it's scary.

00:07:58.100 Right.

00:07:59.300 Right.

00:07:59.960 And the film, it's very powerful, by the way.

00:08:03.240 I watched it, and it was gripping.

00:08:04.740 The whole thing was gripping.

00:08:06.140 It's an hour and a half.

00:08:07.340 It's like, you can watch it in a decent amount of time.

00:08:09.500 It's not going to take your whole afternoon.

00:08:10.560 Right.

00:08:11.080 But you will not turn it off and walk away.

00:08:13.020 You will sit there and watch beginning to end.

00:08:15.360 And it juxtaposes your story, Brett, with the story of Tyler Sash, who, you know me, I don't know that much about sports,

00:08:22.760 and I didn't know Tyler's story, even though he played for the Giants, which is our team, our families.

00:08:28.880 Well, not my current family.

00:08:30.560 My husband's an Eagle fan, but my family of origin.

00:08:34.320 And it's absolutely heartbreaking, because he had an experience that I think so many American families,

00:08:42.180 so many American boys have, which is you go into peewee football, you play tackle, you move up the ranks.

00:08:49.480 He was a star athlete.

00:08:50.820 He was a star runner.

00:08:52.100 He was a star baseball player, basketball player, and football player, but really stood out on the football field

00:08:58.540 and was breaking records and so on and so forth, and then amazingly winds up getting drafted to the NFL, playing for the Giants.

00:09:05.840 This is like so many little boys' dream.

00:09:09.640 That's their dream.

00:09:11.580 And he didn't know the first thing about CTE, Brett, but unlike you, where, you know, you're in your 50s, right,

00:09:19.180 and you're, like, starting to realize there's some signs of, like, gee, I can't remember where my car keys are.

00:09:24.540 He didn't really have somebody to make clear to him what was going on.

00:09:28.340 Things started to deteriorate in terms of his behavior.

00:09:32.540 Correct.

00:09:32.780 Yes, memory, but also emotional regulation to the point where his family around him was just utterly confused.

00:09:40.560 Right.

00:09:42.680 Well, he became something that no one was familiar with.

00:09:50.420 He was, everybody's All-American, certainly in Iowa.

00:09:55.260 He grew up as the most popular athlete, maybe in town.

00:10:00.560 Went to the University of Iowa, was heralded there and was loved, goes to the Giants and plays.

00:10:10.920 I think he played three or four years, but the thing about concussions that we do know, and by no means am I a doctor,

00:10:21.180 but I think I can speak for most doctors relating to this field, they don't know a whole lot about concussions,

00:10:33.000 but one thing that I've learned by being a part of this film, being an activist for concussions and safety,

00:10:44.920 is that it only takes one concussion.

00:10:47.340 You don't have to have multiple or thousands or hundreds of concussions to, for lack of a better term, go off the deep end.

00:10:58.220 It can happen after one concussion, and that should scare a lot of people.

00:11:03.000 So, you know, I mean, I think at one time, the thought was, you have hundreds of concussions,

00:11:13.160 you're likely to have something neurologically go wrong, short circuit at some point.

00:11:20.340 But what we now know is, that may be true with multiple or hundreds of concussions,

00:11:26.520 but it also may be true for the person who had one.

00:11:30.440 And so, you know, as I've talked to people about this, you know, I'd like to see the NFL.

00:11:37.960 I think they've done a good job with rule changes.

00:11:42.380 They've sunk a lot of money into equipment, helmets.

00:11:45.580 But the thing about the human head that Dr. Amalu really is about as simple as he could explain it.

00:11:55.180 He used a woodpecker as an example.

00:11:57.940 And I really didn't know where he was going with it.

00:12:00.780 I sort of laughed.

00:12:01.860 But he said a woodpecker hits a pole or a tree constantly, never gets a concussion.

00:12:07.100 Why?

00:12:07.740 He said because when the head hits the tree or the pole, the brain stops with the head.

00:12:14.080 And he said, that's very important.

00:12:16.300 And he said, it stops because it's sort of built in this cocoon or cork type enclosure.

00:12:24.720 And he said, the human head, on the other hand, when the head stops, the brain keeps going.

00:12:32.520 And he said, and then when the brain hits, you know, the skull, that's when bruising occurs.

00:12:39.860 And up until that point, I never thought about it.

00:12:45.260 He said, so helmets, no matter how good they are, they don't stop the brain from moving.

00:12:51.420 So when you, like my concussions, all were, I would say, from hitting my head on the turf.

00:12:57.660 I call it the whiplash effect.

00:13:00.420 You fall down, your head slingshots back, you hit the turf.

00:13:04.260 The head stops immediately, the brain keeps moving.

00:13:09.040 And he said, helmets will not stop the brain from moving.

00:13:13.680 He said, the human brain is, you know, sloshing around in fluid.

00:13:20.040 And when you, when you hit something, a high impact, the head stops, the brain keeps going.

00:13:26.400 We got big problems.

00:13:27.480 Yeah, the doctor was explaining that the woodpecker has a tongue that goes back and wraps around the brain, which is crazy.

00:13:35.840 I don't totally understand it, but whatever, they have a protection that we don't have.

00:13:40.560 And when you say that about hitting the turf, it makes sense.

00:13:42.720 It's like being in a moving car.

00:13:44.140 It makes perfect sense, and it's frightening.

00:13:46.280 Yeah, like the car, the car will stop, but if you don't have your seatbelt on, you will not stop.

00:13:52.160 And your brain does not have a seatbelt to stop it from hitting your skull.

00:13:55.560 Absolutely.

00:13:55.920 Absolutely.

00:13:57.800 The effects of this in your own life, so you're 54 now, I think.

00:14:04.080 54.

00:14:04.400 So when we spoke, it was six years ago, so you were 48.

00:14:09.180 And you told me in 2018 some of the memory loss.

00:14:12.640 You talked a little bit about the symptoms that you've been having.

00:14:15.020 I'm just going to play that clip now.

00:14:16.500 Here it is, 32.

00:14:19.840 One of the things I think that helped me throughout my career was I was able to,

00:14:23.500 I can't say that I was the best player, but I remembered defenses and names and plays.

00:14:29.960 And in fact, I could go back and call the high school plays that I had ran.

00:14:34.860 And to a certain degree, I can still do that.

00:14:37.940 But I find that more short-term memory, someone I met six months ago,

00:14:44.520 has, in other words, it has gotten a lot worse in regards to short-term, simple words that normally would come out easy in a conversation.

00:15:01.500 I'll stammer.

00:15:02.380 So how are you doing now, six years after that?

00:15:08.880 I look a little skinnier today than I did then, first of all.

00:15:12.620 You do look skinnier.

00:15:13.760 You look good.

00:15:15.080 Well, thank you.

00:15:16.600 I look like I was eating well at the time.

00:15:18.880 But, you know, there are a couple of things that right now, let me back up.

00:15:31.400 I'm very thankful for a lot of reasons.

00:15:35.580 I'm very blessed.

00:15:38.020 That's not to say that I don't have issues, because I do.

00:15:42.580 There are a couple of things that I have that I'm dealing with.

00:15:46.060 But one has nothing to do with concussions.

00:15:50.680 It's back-related issues that started about two years ago and have been a thorn in my side.

00:15:58.120 I've had two surgeries and a hip replacement, really, in the last almost two years.

00:16:05.700 But mentally, from that time in our last interview to now, not a lot has changed, I don't think.

00:16:16.060 But, you know, in regards to just the overall mental makeup or, you know, where I am at this point today as opposed to then.

00:16:28.920 But there are a couple of things that I can't talk about yet.

00:16:32.500 But, and there are reasons for that, but things that I'm trying to work through and that are related to, maybe related to concussions, maybe not.

00:16:46.420 And I'd love to completely talk about it today, but I can't.

00:16:51.880 And I think you'll understand at some point when I do.

00:16:54.680 Okay.

00:16:54.980 But, but, uh, we're here when I can, but it, but it's, uh, I'll just say this.

00:17:02.180 I can speak volumes about where I am and what I've done and how that has affected me from a concussion or head trauma point of view.

00:17:14.880 So, um, I'm not just, it's just not hot air that, um, you know, I'm not, I'm not doing this.

00:17:23.520 Did I expect to make any money by doing this documentary?

00:17:27.280 Honestly, if it makes money, great.

00:17:30.220 If it doesn't and, and, and affects people in a positive way somewhere down the road, great.

00:17:37.440 Do I expect this to be a blockbuster hit?

00:17:39.580 No, uh, most people will probably just write it off as another documentary.

00:17:46.320 I've seen them all.

00:17:47.880 Um, but I do have a personal experience.

00:17:51.740 Um, that's, that's, uh, you know, I think, uh, will be an eyeopening.

00:17:59.640 Um, you know, I don't know.

00:18:03.320 It will, it will paint my crusade for, you know, a treatment or a solution to concussions

00:18:12.440 somewhere down the road.

00:18:13.960 It, you know, it will justify that at some point.

00:18:16.940 Yeah.

00:18:17.140 That, because there is, there isn't one, there isn't a cure.

00:18:20.220 No, there's not.

00:18:21.000 There's really even, uh, an official way of diagnosing somebody with CTE until they've died.

00:18:25.920 They have to dissect your brain. 0.95

00:18:28.500 That's the only way.

00:18:29.360 When you came on, we had on, uh, Kurt Warner, uh, who of course is a star player as well.

00:18:36.640 Right.

00:18:37.040 Wambach, who's a, uh, soccer player, David Ross, who's a star baseball catcher, all of

00:18:42.640 whom were talking about this and believe they had CTE, but couldn't be diagnosed because

00:18:47.260 you, you have to pass in order for that to happen.

00:18:50.140 She is donating her, her brain to science, but it's just another reminder that it's, well,

00:18:55.980 football is definitely the highest, you know, they seem to have the highest likelihood of

00:19:01.140 causing this problem.

00:19:02.420 You can get it in baseball from all the balls to your head.

00:19:05.260 You can get it in soccer from all the heading of the ball.

00:19:08.480 And there are other sports where you can get hit in the head a lot.

00:19:11.280 And the football is just, you know, a repeat type sport.

00:19:14.760 So now here you are, you, you believe you have it.

00:19:18.420 I understand why you're doing this documentary about poor Tyler and just how much pain he was

00:19:24.380 in, it was an accidental drug overdose that took his life with pain medications, but he

00:19:28.180 was really suffering with headaches and bad symptoms.

00:19:32.500 Um, you look back, Brett, and just for those of you listening, Brett played 16 seasons for

00:19:38.380 Green Bay.

00:19:38.880 He led the team to 11 playoff appearances.

00:19:41.060 He remains the first and only player to win three consecutive MVP awards.

00:19:45.920 He helped the team appear in two Superbowls.

00:19:49.220 Was it worth it?

00:19:53.420 Great.

00:19:55.200 I guess, um, at this point, I would say yes.

00:19:59.520 Um, there, I'll, I'll be honest with you.

00:20:02.980 There's, um, there's, there is a, a certain amount of fear that not all the time, but there's

00:20:12.540 probably not a day that goes by.

00:20:15.280 And if there is, you know, a day or two that goes by, it's not, you know, at least several

00:20:23.280 times a week, I, there's this fear of what tomorrow will bring.

00:20:27.400 And, um, and that, that wasn't the case when, when I was playing, first of all, because

00:20:34.280 at that point, concussions were not looked at as, you know, it was just a minor bump, you

00:20:41.300 know, get your butt back in the game, go play. 0.56

00:20:43.460 And I don't blame anybody because then no one thought concussions were a major issue, including

00:20:51.760 me.

00:20:52.140 Now you see Tyler Saj, Junior Seau, Dave Dorson.

00:20:58.360 And I, and I could go on and on guys that love life.

00:21:04.280 Like Junior Seau is great player.

00:21:06.880 And if there was a person that I would have said that person will live forever and will

00:21:14.140 love every day that he's, he's living, that would have been Junior Seau and boom, he kills

00:21:21.280 himself.

00:21:21.680 And, you know, so I see those, I hear about those and I think I would never be that, that

00:21:32.160 way.

00:21:33.300 And I'm sure Junior Seau would have said the same thing.

00:21:37.020 Tyler Sash would have said the same thing.

00:21:39.400 Dave Dorson, as an example, would have said the same thing, but yet it happened to them.

00:21:44.500 And, you know, ALS, excuse me, for example, they don't know a lot about ALS, Lou Gehrig's

00:21:53.880 disease, but what, one thing they do know is that head trauma, the more head trauma you

00:21:59.580 have, concussions, it ups your chances of having a neurological disease and doesn't guarantee

00:22:09.640 it, but it certainly doesn't help.

00:22:11.560 So that being said, I often, you know, I don't pinch myself, but I think, boy, I have

00:22:20.420 probably haven't done myself many favors.

00:22:23.240 Would I do it over, do it the same way over again if I had the chance or would I change

00:22:28.740 the way I played or how long I played?

00:22:31.900 I don't know.

00:22:33.380 I don't know.

00:22:34.180 Maybe I would have been more cautious, like my last play in history from fifth grade to

00:22:42.900 my last year of retirement just happened to be a major concussion where I was out for

00:22:47.300 a minute or two.

00:22:48.780 When I woke up on the field, I was snoring and had no clue what the Chicago Bears were

00:22:54.660 doing in my living room as I thought I was in.

00:22:57.600 And there's no good time to have a concussion.

00:23:01.300 There's certainly, you know, a major concussion having it at 40 years old.

00:23:07.960 I remember walking off the field.

00:23:10.000 I said, I'm done.

00:23:11.340 Now, did I do it a little too late?

00:23:16.000 I hope that I did.

00:23:18.120 And so that's that fear of what tomorrow will bring.

00:23:22.500 And again, I'm very blessed.

00:23:25.340 I'm able to do a lot of the things I enjoy doing.

00:23:29.620 I think there's some memory issues.

00:23:31.620 I think sometimes my speech is affected.

00:23:34.040 Is that a result of the concussions in football or just being over 50?

00:23:40.860 And maybe the answer is a little bit of both.

00:23:44.520 But that if I'm able to perceive like I am now, that would be OK.

00:23:51.220 But I certainly don't want to progress into something like Tyler Sash or Junior Seau, Dave

00:23:59.520 Dorsen, those examples.

00:24:03.300 So there's that theory.

00:24:05.080 What's your message then, Brett, to moms and dads who have eight-year-olds who want to join

00:24:11.120 Pee Wee Tackle Football?

00:24:14.060 Who have kids who are going through high school who want to play tackle football?

00:24:17.340 They don't know how, but they they look forward to doing it.

00:24:21.560 What's your what's your advice?

00:24:24.140 First of all, there should not be tackle football for Pee Wee, even junior high.

00:24:29.480 They should play flag football.

00:24:31.020 Now, I have thought hell from a lot of people for saying that in the past.

00:24:35.580 Oh, how dare you?

00:24:37.120 You know, the quote unquote toughest man in football is saying play flag football.

00:24:42.680 Well, if there was anyone you should listen to, I'm not saying I'm the expert, but there's

00:24:49.160 no reason for a eight to 10 to 12 to 14 year old kid to play tackle football.

00:24:56.840 Teach the fundamentals.

00:24:58.660 Let them play flag football.

00:25:00.140 Let their head mature just a little bit more.

00:25:03.820 Keep in mind what Dr. Malou said, there's never a good time to play tackle football.

00:25:07.360 But if you can protect the youth just a little bit from head injuries, isn't that a good thing?

00:25:17.380 And that's what I try to get across to parents.

00:25:19.380 I have three grandsons.

00:25:20.600 The oldest is a ninth grader.

00:25:23.040 The next is a sixth grader and then a third grader.

00:25:27.480 And they, the three combined have never once said they wanted to play football.

00:25:36.580 And I will never encourage them to play football.

00:25:39.800 I'm not knocking football, but if they said they wanted to play, I would support them.

00:25:45.180 But I can't go to the peewee league and say, no tackle, play flag, unless everybody does.

00:25:51.960 I just think that it's our responsibility to protect our youth.

00:25:57.820 And this is one good way of doing it.

00:26:00.060 But you got to do it.

00:26:01.660 One state can't do it and the other will do it.

00:26:05.380 We all need to do it.

00:26:07.840 And this fear of, well, they're going to lose their toughness.

00:26:12.960 I think it's a bunch of belonging.

00:26:15.020 If you're tough, you're tough.

00:26:16.740 And so be it.

00:26:17.980 But if you can't have an opportunity.

00:26:19.400 I mean, you got some kids that go out and play tackle that are twice as big as the other kid.

00:26:24.480 They don't know anything about form or fundamentals.

00:26:29.080 And one kid.

00:26:30.820 So we need to be the one to protect them.

00:26:35.200 Yeah, that is so true.

00:26:36.500 Even our son, they had to play it in school.

00:26:39.720 And he spent just a couple of months on the team like, oh, my God, because it was seventh and eighth grade combined.

00:26:45.120 And so you got kids, you know, eighth grade.

00:26:49.240 By the time you finish eighth grade, some of these kids are like almost 15 in some circumstances, especially because people are starting their kids later now.

00:26:56.800 They look like men versus the beginning of seventh grade when the kids were late bloomers.

00:27:02.100 They're scrawny and small.

00:27:04.080 And we were like, what what's happening?

00:27:06.780 Like it was it was scary.

00:27:08.900 So you're absolutely right about that.

00:27:11.100 You know, that's a little young to be doing tackle football.

00:27:13.360 But what is where does this lead us, Brett?

00:27:15.880 Because as we kicked it off by saying, and I don't have to tell you this, Americans love football.

00:27:22.020 They love the NFL.

00:27:24.280 I mean, it seems like to me, if I'm queen for a day and I can do whatever I want, I should get rid of this.

00:27:30.620 I should stop.

00:27:31.400 I don't want to see these players get hurt.

00:27:33.180 We saw that.

00:27:34.780 I can't pronounce his name.

00:27:36.140 It's Taglio Viola of the Dolphins.

00:27:39.720 And that just call it to Tua. 0.98

00:27:41.840 He got hurt so badly and we were all watching like, oh, no, I mean, does NFL football need to go away?

00:27:49.820 Does it need to continue but be softer somehow?

00:27:52.940 It seems like they kind of tried that, but it hasn't.

00:27:55.920 Well, you and I know this and this this we know for a fact football is not going away.

00:28:03.700 NFL football is not going away.

00:28:06.860 People love it.

00:28:07.760 But there's tremendous amounts of money involved in the teams, the owners, what they make, what the players are making.

00:28:17.260 And quite frankly, the fans are still paying top dollar for whether it be, you know, a streaming service for a game or an in-stadium experience.

00:28:31.700 People are still paying that.

00:28:33.020 So that's it's not going away.

00:28:34.520 But I think that the, you know, I'm not going to say easiest in regards to coming up with a, you know, a cure for that.

00:28:46.180 That may be a little more complicated, but I think that's what we need is that we have to find something that will treat a concussion.

00:28:53.020 On the sidelines, on the playground, immediately after a car wreck, slipping on the basketball court, hitting your head on the, you know, an elderly person slipping on the ice, hitting their head.

00:29:08.240 There's endless ways you can get a concussion, but having a treatment that can alleviate the swelling, because for lack of a better term, concussion is swelling of the brain, bruising of the brain.

00:29:24.000 If you had a way to alleviate that swelling or stop that swelling, I would think that that would do wonders for the lack of progression of a concussion.

00:29:36.180 What about that, Brett?

00:29:36.800 Because I, forgive me, I don't remember the name of the medication, but I remember when you guys were on in 2018, there was some sort of nasal spray that you were promoting, saying this, this is a possibility.

00:29:46.460 Did that ever go anywhere?

00:29:48.320 No, it's, it's, it's been bought by a couple of different companies and still, as I've learned about the medical field, which I don't know a lot, but there's a lot of red tape you got to get through, a lot of red tape.

00:30:02.300 And to get through the clinical trials, it's not easy.

00:30:08.660 And even if it, you know, it keeps and continues to pass, you would think, yes, well, the bureaucracy and politics plays a part in it.

00:30:19.120 And, but I think, you know, yeah, I think at this point, there needs to be a medical solution, not a helmet.

00:30:29.460 Helmets are not going to deter, I mean, it may protect a bruise to the head, but not a bruise to the brain, if that makes sense.

00:30:39.480 Yeah, it does.

00:30:40.100 But we got to find a medical solution that can stop the swelling in his tracks on the sideline.

00:30:46.960 Yeah, they used to say that, um, I'm having the cast of Reagan come on the show on Thursday, and we're going to talk about the new movie Reagan.

00:30:54.620 And there's, there's a scene in there of Reagan playing football when he was super young, and they had these soft little helmets.

00:31:00.580 It was basically fabric, leather.

00:31:03.220 And fewer guys got head trauma back then, because they understood very well playing like that to protect their heads, and that they shouldn't be hitting each other's heads, and that their brain was very much exposed.

00:31:14.680 It's like the stronger we've made the helmets, the more in danger the guys have gotten.

00:31:18.360 That's a great point, Megan, and, um, and I really didn't think about that until you said that, because it makes me think about rugby.

00:31:26.780 No equipment, no equipment, as violent, if not more violent than NFL football, seems to be, and I don't know, like, I've never looked at the exact numbers, but it seems to me that the, the, the injuries that you see a lot of in professional football, you don't see in rugby, mainly concussions.

00:31:50.560 And they don't wear helmets, but I think that's a great point that you make, that maybe you are more cautious, more protective, not that you don't play as hard or as reckless, but there's a certain amount of you that says, I don't have the protection that I, I would have with NFL football.

00:32:12.140 So I have to be a little more cautious, and maybe fundamentally more sound in how I play.

00:32:19.980 Everyone out there understands the risks, and they behave accordingly.

00:32:23.940 Brett, you're very brave to come talk about this.

00:32:25.980 Honestly, I, I think this takes a lot of guts, and I know you're not doing it for yourself at this point.

00:32:30.000 You're doing it for my boys and everyone's sons.

00:32:33.840 I guess there's several girls out there, too. 1.00

00:32:35.240 And, um, I really appreciate, you've always been so honest and, and vulnerable about your own struggles.

00:32:42.760 And I hope, I hope they are, they have maxed out and that the rest is gravy and you get to enjoy.

00:32:48.160 I can't believe you're old.

00:32:49.480 You're my age and you got three grandkids.

00:32:51.500 You got started early.

00:32:52.760 Yeah, I got one now.

00:32:53.880 I have to pick him up at high school, you know, and I'm like, I'm picking up my grandson at high school.

00:33:01.280 What in the hell is going on here?

00:33:03.840 You started as a young man. 0.67

00:33:05.560 Yeah.

00:33:05.840 I did.

00:33:06.420 I did.

00:33:07.700 But it's all good, Megan.

00:33:08.780 Many, many years of enjoyment and fun on the football field, and now you're helping us out in a different way.

00:33:16.300 It's great to see you.

00:33:17.100 Stay well, my friend.

00:33:18.500 You too, Megan.

00:33:19.400 Thanks for having me.

00:33:21.620 Wow.

00:33:22.680 What a guy.

00:33:23.260 What a guy.

00:33:24.000 What a story.

00:33:25.600 Again, that's Brett Favre.

00:33:27.360 And the new documentary, Well Worth Your Time.

00:33:29.520 Again, it's 90 Minutes.

00:33:30.440 It's called Concussed the American Dream.

00:33:33.980 You can get it at concussedfilm.com or, as I said, on Apple or Amazon Prime.

00:33:39.360 Do it, okay?

00:33:40.200 Especially if you are thinking about playing your kid in football.

00:33:43.480 What's happening now is more and more wealthy families are not playing their kids in football,

00:33:49.420 and less privileged families are, you know, at, like, the shot, the shot at, like, improving their lives.

00:33:55.340 And that could lead to a very dark situation where those who are most vulnerable when it comes to finances and economic security wind up taking all the risks.

00:34:06.960 That's not, we don't want any kids taking unnecessary risks.

00:34:10.500 But the system we have right now is not working.

00:34:13.000 It's not working.

00:34:13.920 Kids are endangered.

00:34:15.660 And these young men are endangered.

00:34:17.840 You know, they want a shot at something better in their life.

00:34:20.540 But why have we settled for this, that they have to risk their lives, their adulthood, their senior years, their brain health in order to do it?

00:34:34.380 It's, it needs more attention.

00:34:37.260 Concussed the American Dream.

00:34:38.960 Available now.

00:34:40.880 Concussedfilm.com.

00:34:41.920 We'll see you soon.

00:34:45.280 Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show. 0.94

00:34:47.460 No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

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The Megyn Kelly Show - August 29, 2024

First Person： Legendary NFL Quarterback Brett Favre on the Truth About Concussions in Football ｜ Ep. 873

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