The quarterback who set numerous NFL records while with the Green Bay Packers - and who may pay a hefty physical price for the rest of his life - wants a national ban on tackle football for younger kids.
"The state level is a start, but we have to adopt this plan and all do it together," said Packers legend Brett Favre in the Daily Mail. He's referring to Illinois' Dave Duerson Act currently under consideration in that state's legislature, banning tackle football for kids under 12 years old.
"The body, the brain, the skull is not developed in your teens and single digits. I cringe. I see these little kids get tackled and the helmet is bigger than everything else on the kid combined. They look like they're going to break in half."
A study in Boston cited by the Daily Mail said that among 211 football players who were diagnosed with CTE after they died, those who started tackle football at 11 years of age or younger started having symptoms of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative neurological disease, in their mid-20's.
The same article says that according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, 19 percent fewer young people between 6 and 17 years of old played tackle football between 2011-16.
Favre himself has suffered long-term affects from acute head trauma which he endured while setting the all-time NFL record for most consecutive games played with 297, 255 with the Packers from 1992-2007. He said that in that span of time, he may have had "hundreds, possibly thousands of concussions."
The legendary Packer also said that the only way to stay safe in football is "do not play" in an interview with CNN. He has even stated he does not want his grandchildren to play the sport.
