Brett Favre admits he checked into rehab more than people knew about
In his final column after 29 years of writing for Sports Illustrated, Peter King unveiled never-before-known Brett Favre news.
Favre, an admitted pain-pill addict during the early years of his career, informed King that he went to rehab three times for addiction issues in the 1990s, only one of which – a 72-day stay at a drug clinic in Kansas City – the public was aware of.
"I actually went to rehab three times," Favre told King.
The Hall of Fame quarterback said he checked in for pain pills in 1993 or 1994, spending 28 days at a rehab facility. He went back for pain-pill addiction during his MVP season with the Packers in 1995.
Once he kicked his Vicodin habit he began to drink in excess, admitting that his alcohol abuse led to a third rehab stint in 1998.
"This time it was strictly for drinking. I didn’t go back to the pills," Favre said. "I admitted my problem, I was in there 28 days, and it worked. When I got out, the toughest thing was the first three months, because I had to change my thought process.
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"When I played golf before, I realized the only reason I wanted to play was to drink. After a while, instead of thinking, 'How many beers can we drink in 18 holes?' I fell into a pattern of what could I do to get good at golf. I realized with each passing day I really didn’t like drinking."
While King and Favre say his 72-day stay in rehab happened in 1995, previous interviews with Favre note that it happened in 1996. You can hear Favre's stories of taking 15 Vicodin every day in the video below.
Favre was a three-time NFL MVP, winning the award three straight seasons (1995-97).
He finished his career with two seasons, 2009 and 2010, with the Vikings.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.