Hall of Fame QB Favre admits to rehab stints

Retired quarterback Brett Favre says he made three trips to rehabilitation centers during 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 during the 1995 season in Green Bay. Favre won the first of his three consecutive Most Valuable Player 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 mid1990s to get off Vicodin.

Soccer

BRAZIL’S NEYMAR PRACTICING >> Neymar was back in training to give Brazil a big boost ahead of the World Cup. Neymar had been sidelined since February after having surgery on his right foot, but spent an hour training at Brazil’s Granja Comary training ground in Teresopolis. AC MILAN FACES SANCTIONS AFTER SETTLEMENT BID REJECTED BY UEFA>> AC Milan faces UEFA sanctions after an attempt to reach a settlement over a breach of financial fair play regulations was rejected by European football’s governing body. Milan last year spent more than nearly $250 million on new players amid questions over the financial stability of the Chinese-led consortium that bought the club from Silvio Berlusconi for $800 million in April 2017. Milan took a loan from U.S. private equity fund Elliott worth more than 300 million euros. UEFA says Milan breached the requirement on clubs to break even and financial investigators say there are continuing “uncertainties in relation to the refinancing of the loan and the notes to be paid back in October 2018.”

Cycling

YATES’ GIRO D’ITALIA LEAD SURVIVES TIME TRIAL >> Simon Yates is still in control of the Giro d’Italia after the British rider limited his losses to closest rival Tom Dumoulin in the individual time trial.

Dumoulin was more than two minutes behind Yates heading into the 16th stage and, as a time trial specialist, it was thought to be his best chance of taking the pink jersey from Yates. However, Yates still leads Dumoulin by 56 seconds with five stages left.