Favre admits to addiction, rehab stints

Retired quarterback Brett Favre said he made three trips to rehabilitation centers in his Hall of Fame career to fight his dependence on painkillers and alcohol.

Favre told Sports Illustrated he took as many as 14 Vicodin at one time in the 1995 season in Green Bay. Favre won the first of his three consecutive MVP awards that season.

“It is really amazing, as I think back, how well I played that year,” Favre said. “That was an MVP year for me. But that year, when I woke up in the morning, my first thought was, ‘I gotta get more pills.’”

Favre said his issues with pills caused him to spend 28 days at a center in Rayville, La., in the early 1990s. Favre also says he spent 28 days in rehab “strictly for drinking” in 1998.

The story also mentions a previously reported 72-day stint at a Kansas City rehab center in the mid-1990s to get off Vicodin.

“When I drank, I drank to excess,” Favre said. “So when I went in the second time, to the place in Kansas, I remember vividly fighting them in there. They said drinking was the gateway drug for me, and they were right, absolutely right, but I wouldn’t admit it.

“I will never forget one of the nurses. I would not admit the drinking problem. At the end, she said to me, ‘You’ll be back.’ I was back. 1998. Guess who was waiting there when I walked in — that same nurse.”

Favre played in the NFL from 1991-2010 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016.

Jets

Christian Hackenberg spent his final day with New York much as he did in his first two seasons. As a spectator. The Jets traded the 23-year-old quarterback from Penn State to the Raiders Tuesday for a conditional seventh-round draft pick next year, ending Hackenberg’s tenure with the team before he ever took a regular-season snap. “Some players, it takes a while for them to get going,” said Jets coach Todd Bowles, who announced the trade after his post-practice news conference was delayed for two hours as the deal was being completed. “We did everything we could to try to help him as best we could,” Bowles added. “Sometimes it just works out somewhere else.”

Chiefs

Tight end Demetrius Harris was suspended one game for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, the league announced.

Elsewhere

The NFL unanimously approved David Tepper’s $2.2 billion purchase of the team from Jerry Richardson, leading to immediate questions about the new owner’s thoughts on replacing 22-year-old Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. “What’s the name of the team? Carolina Panthers. It’s going to be the Carolina Panthers,” Tepper said. “And that means this team has to have some kind of presence in the Carolinas and last time I saw, how many are there? That’s right, there’s two of them.” Tepper seemed to be implying that he might consider other cities in North and South Carolina if efforts to build a new stadium in Charlotte fall through. The lease with Bank of America Stadium runs for only one more season.

“It is really amazing ... how well I played [in 1995]. ... When I woke up in the morning, my first thought was, ‘I gotta get more pills.’” Brett Favre