Some sad news to report.
Brett Favre, one of the roughest, toughest quarterbacks to ever put on a football helmet and certainly the most fun to watch as a Green Bay Packer, has been diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)/Parkinson’s Disease.
Favre joins the ranks of famous athletes with CTE like boxers Muhammed Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Graziano, and Irish Micky Ward, American football players like Junior Seau, and OJ Simpson, hockey players like Bob Probert and Derek Boogaard, rugby league players like Paul Green, and even a professional bull rider, Ty Pozzobon.
CTE is a debilitating neurodegenerative disease, which has been linked to repetitive mild traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). This disorder is preferentially observed in subjects at risk for TBI like American football players, boxers, wrestlers, ice hockey players, mixed martial arts combatants, rugby and soccer players as well as war veterans. Other risk factors include prior domestic violence, and repeated banging of the head.
Lead EpicentRx therapy, RRx-001 (nibrozetone), is a neuroprotective small molecule with the potential to prevent and treat CTE, for which currently no drugs are approved or available. Given the current lack of treatment options, the focus is on prevention, so what happened to Brett Favre doesn’t happen to others.
Certainly, Brett’s unbridled enthusiasm and rough-and-tumble style made him a joy to watch, and we were genuinely sad when he retired. Looking back on it, however, it’s safe to say that all those hits to the head, which he fought through like the tough and resilient hombre he was, did him no Favres.