Brett Favre couldn’t sleep more than an hour a night when he was addicted to Vicodin. Eventually, he reached a stage where his brain couldn’t take it anymore.
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Brett Favre is one of the biggest stars in the world of the NFL. In his two decade-long career, Brett shattered several records and gained a massive following.
One time Super Bowl champion and three time league MVP, Brett had 321 consecutive starts, the most in the league which is enough to prove how consistent he was at the highest level.
However, throughout his career, Brett got himself involved in a number of controversies as well. A couple of years back, Brett sat down for an interview with CBS in which he talked in detail about his painkiller addiction.
Brett Favre had three separate rehab stints to defeats Vicodin addiction
Although he eventually ended up defeating the addiction and prolonged his playing career, Brett’s confession about how easy it was for NFL players to get addicted to that kind of stuff really stirred up a lot of people.
“So basically the seizures were a result of not sleeping. I was taking 15 Vicodin ES every night. I took them all the time in season, out of season, it didn’t matter, I was addicted.”
“It kept me up. A normal person takes two Vicodin ES, so they are out like a light and don’t feel anything. Well it did the adverse effect to me, it felt good and I stayed up all night and never slept,” he said.
He claimed that he couldn’t sleep for more than an hour a night and his brain eventually gave up. “Basically my brain short circuited is how the neurologist explained it to me. I really wish there was a different alternative at the time.”
The former Green Bay star claimed that in the beginning, he used to take only two but slowly, the number went up to 15. “So after a game, if you had something bothering you (taking Vicodin) wasn’t uncommon, it was legal. Whether it was Vicodin or Percocet or whatever,” Brett continued.
“When the two didn’t work, I asked somebody else to get two more. And when four didn’t work, so I was just going to the guys and getting more and more pain pills. The guy that gave me two, he didn’t know I was getting two from the next guy. That’s how it worked back then,” Favre explained.
After three different stints in rehab, Favre was able to beat the addiction. He ended up playing for 13 more seasons without taking any painkillers.
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