'I can't remember my daughter's childhood' NFL legend Brett Favre reveals memory loss caused by football career

• Green Bay Packers quarterback forced to retire at 44
• Memory loss has heightened health fears for father-of-two

By Daniel Bates

Published: 10:21 EST, 25 October 2013 | Updated: 10:43 EST, 25 October 2013

Brett Favre has revealed that he has forgotten memories of his daughter growing up because of the damage caused to his brain by big hits while playing football.

The NFL legend said he found it ‘pretty shocking’ that he cannot remember his grown-up daughter playing youth soccer one summer.

He said he fears he has been damaged by his time in the game and that for the first time in his life it ‘put a little fear in me'.

Out of action: Vikings quarterback Brett Favre, who is suffering memory loss, says he will not return to the game

Favre said: ‘I think after 20 years [in the NFL], God only knows the toll’.

To have such an icon of the game talk about the damage it has caused him will put the NFL under new pressure to do something about brain-related injuries.

Favre started 321 consecutive games and threw 552 touchdown passes in his career, during which he was known for his toughness and playing through injuries.

Now aged 44, the former Green Bay Packers quarterback, who also played for the Vikings, was forced to retire last season after sustaining a knee injury.

Since then he has enjoyed spending time with wife Deanna, their daughters, Brittany, 24, and Breleigh, 14, and his three-year-old grandson.

Speaking to ESPN’s Sports Talk 570, Favre said that he had no desire to return to the game - but his memory was becoming a pressing issue.

He said: ‘I don't remember my daughter playing soccer, playing youth soccer, one summer.

Memory loss: Favre with his daughter Breleigh. The quaterback says he struggles to remember parts of eldest daughter Brittany's childhood

Pain barrier: Favre is tackled by New England Patriots player Myron Pryor in 2010

‘I don't remember that. I got a pretty good memory, and I have a tendency like we all do to say, "Where are my glasses?" and they're on your head. 

‘This was pretty shocking to me that I couldn't remember my daughter playing youth soccer, just one summer, I think. 

‘I remember her playing basketball, I remember her playing volleyball, so I kind of think maybe she only played a game or two. I think she played eight. So that's a little bit scary to me.

‘For the first time in 44 years, that put a little fear in me.’

The NFL is under mounting pressure to do something about brain injuries to veterans of the game and hardly a week goes by without a former star speaking out.

Benjamin Utect, a former tight end with the Indianapolis Colts, has spoken about how he fears his life and mind are about the fall apart at the age of just 30.

The father-of-three has been suffering disturbing episodes of memory loss which he fears are brought on by the heavy hits he sustained during his career.

Among the others affected was legendary tight end John Mackey, who died at the age of 69 after struggling with dementia.

By the end of his life the hugely popular former Baltimore Colts player could barely speak and did not recognise the jacket he was given when he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Green Bay Packers defensive tackle Ryan Pickett, who played with Favre and is still in the game, said: ‘I didn't know what to think about that.

Rough: The Vikings quarterback has fears about memory loss after his successful football career

‘I mean he's been out of football for a couple of years, so I was shocked. That's crazy’.

Football and hockey players who suffer bangs to the head during their careers have chronic traumatic encephalopath (CTE) diagnosed long before they should do.

The condition causes early onset dementia and was first noticed in boxers in the 1920s who suffered memory loss and problems with concentration.

More than 20 dead NFL players had CTE diagnosed in recent years, with a string of cases causing widespread alarm.

A study commissioned by the NFL In 2009 found that if the sample of people they tested was multiplied out across the 4,000 NFL retirees aged 50 and above, 244 of them would have cognitive disease.

The normal rate is 48.

Among men aged 30 to 49 the NFL rate would be 57, but the normal rate should be just three.