Former Vikings quarterback says he probably had ‘thousands’ of concussions

Former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre recently talked about some of the injuries he sustained during his NFL career.

Over the course of his 20-year NFL career, Brett Favre endured a multitude of injuries. Everything from a separated shoulder, to a bruised hip, to a sprained ankle, to a broken thumb, to a number of concussions, Favre dealt with a lot of pain during his time in the league.

Despite his numerous injuries, the quarterback was still able to stay on the field for 297 straight games. A streak that sadly came to an end when Favre was a member of the Minnesota Vikings in 2010.

On Thursday, the former Vikings quarterback appeared on Megan Kelly Today and was asked about how many concussions he believes he sustained during his NFL career.

"“That I know of? Three, four, maybe. But as we’re learning about concussions, there’s a term that is often used in football, and maybe in other sports, that ‘I got dinged’. As Dr. (Bennet) Omalu has said, ‘dinged’ is a concussion. And if that is a concussion, I’ve had hundreds, probably thousands throughout my career.” Minnesota Vikings The Viking Age 0d - 6 biggest draft steals in Minnesota Vikings history More headlines around FanSided: 1d - Former Vikings first-round pick could reportedly return to NFC North 1d - Bears analyst has extremely embarrassing Kirk Cousins take 1d - 6 Vikings who (maybe) won't make the 53-man roster in 2023 2d - Which teams could be drafting a quarterback next year? 2d - Predicting what the Vikings will do in the 2023 NFL Draft based on 2022 More News at The Viking Age"

Thousands? Sheesh, that seems like a very high number. But it also could be true based on what is now known about what exactly classifies something as a concussion.

A player no longer has to be knocked out cold in order to be diagnosed with a concussion. For former NFL players like Favre, the precautions with concussions that exist in today’s league did not exist when they were on the field.

In 2017, diagnosed concussions in the NFL were actually up 13.5 percent from a year ago. A good portion of of these last season were due to self-diagnosis (28 percent). So some current players are at least making an effort to prevent their brains from turning to mush.

Concussions will never be eliminated from the game of football (they would basically have to abolish tackling for that to happen), but the league and its players seem to be doing what they can to at least decrease the severity of these specific injuries.

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Unfortunately for Favre and other former players, the damage has already been done.