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Brett Favre says he used to take a month's worth of painkillers in 2 days

joewilly12

By joewilly12
in NY Jets Forum

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joewilly12

joewilly12

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Brett Favre says he used to take a month's worth of painkillers in two days

The former Packers quarterback opens up about his use of Vicodin

 
 
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Brett Favre's struggles with painkillers during his time as an NFL player are well known. The former Packers quarterback and soon-to-be Hall of Famer battled addiction to pills during his tenure in Green Bay (notably in 1996 when he voluntarily entered the league's substance-abuse program) as he became the model for an iron man quarterback.

He has discussed them before, during a book he wrote, but the subject came back up during an interview on In Depth With Graham Bensinger, and Favre dropped some pretty heady information as to his usage during that time.

For instance, he once took 15 Vicodins at a time.

"I tell people all the time that I took 15 Vicodin ES at one time. And they're like, 'It didn't knock you out?' It did totally the opposite -- I was up. And that's kind of the way with addictions, too. What it's supposed to do, it doesn't," Favre said. "So when you take two pain pills, you're knocked out and you don't feel pain and you wake up, what, four, five, six hours later. I would be up just talking, I didn't want to sleep. Until about 10 o'clock the next morning when we were in offensive meetings was about the only time I wanted to sleep. Not a good time to sleep! And I would doze off, leaning back into a coat rack in our quarterback's meeting room.

"This went on for a long time. It wasn't just '96. That's when people knew about it because of the announcement. I don't know, it started three years before? I was taking pain pills before that but maybe not abusing them."

Fifteen Vicodin is a lot of Vicodin. Favre didn't magically decide to take them all one day or anything -- he told Bensinger he "gradually" worked his way up to the total.

"I don't remember the dynamics of how it worked, but say two gave me an effect I liked," Favre said. "After a month, two didn't do anything, so you needed three. And it may have been less [time] than that. And then four and then so on and so forth. I don't remember how long it took until you had to graduate to more, but I knew 15 was hard to come by."

Fifteen was a half a month's prescription for the painkiller, meaning Favre not only was knocking back two weeks worth of painkillers every single day, but he also was going around and asking teammates for pills on a pretty frequent/awkward basis.

"A month's prescription is 30 pills or whatever, depending what they prescribe to you, and I was going through that in two days," Favre said. "So I was having to hustle. I'd ask this guy for pills and that guy for pills. After a while I was going back around pretty quickly. I was the last one to know, it's one of those things. No one knows what's going on. 

"Like my wife says, everyone knew. But I thought no one knew."

brettfavrepainkillerusageinterview.jpg
Favre used to take 15 pain pills a day as a player. USATSI

Favre also detailed how he quit, going full cold turkey one day when he hit rock bottom and decided to flush the last four pills he had down the toilet. The next month was not a fun one -- Favre even said it was worst month recovery-wise of his life and/or career. 

"I shouldn't say kind of, I know things around me seemed like they were good, but internally I hit rock bottom and I said, I'm going to flush these down the toilet, the remainders," Favre said. "And I remember when I poured them in the toilet and it started to flush, I almost crawled into the toilet to go after them. Because I thought, what in the world did you just do, because I had such a dependency on those. I was taking 15 a night. Any expert would tell you that's not the way to ween yourself off. 

"I just went cold turkey -- I don't say that braggingly, I just know that was the worst month, in terms of any kind of recovery, I ever went through. I shook every night, cold sweats, it was a constant battle."

The interview, which can be found below, is worth watching in its entirety, but the craziest thing about the whole story? This was the year Favre and the Packers finally broke through and won the Super Bowl, toppling the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI.

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Gas2No99

Gas2No99

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33 minutes ago, T0mShane said:

Same.

 

32 minutes ago, joewilly12 said:

So thats your excuse? 

Lethally Razor Sharp Wit like @T0mShane MUST be dulled so as to not kill off the rest of the internet and its simple drones who can only take so much snarkiness. 

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NoBowles

NoBowles

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1 minute ago, jetstream23 said:

Addiction is a horrible thing.  I feel for anyone going through it or anyone who has gone through it.

With that said, the Jets should issue 15 Vicodins to each fan for each game of the season.  It really is the least they could do.

I’ve never taken Vicodin before, but how much different can that be then listening to Bowles talk in the presser?

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Patriot Killa

Patriot Killa

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2 minutes ago, jetstream23 said:

Addiction is a horrible thing.  I feel for anyone going through it or anyone who has gone through it.

With that said, the Jets should issue 15 Vicodins to each fan for each game of the season.  It really is the least they could do.

I would not oppose......

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Patriot Killa

Patriot Killa

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8 minutes ago, joewilly12 said:

Say what? 

Image result for paperboy pics

Isn’t life so much easier when you can ride other people’s genius??

SAR better copy right the phrase before you come along and make so much money off of it that you never have to worry about overpriced apple sauce again.?

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joewilly12

joewilly12

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Posted
15 minutes ago, Patriot Killa said:

Isn’t life so much easier when you can ride other people’s genius??

SAR better copy right the phrase before you come along and make so much money off of it that you never have to worry about overpriced apple sauce again.?

Image result for cool story bro gifs

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Saul Goodman

Saul Goodman

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1 hour ago, Patriot Killa said:

Hey, but don’t you dare overdose on 15 marijuanas.

I actually just came to post about weed. These guys are destroying their bodies and brains for our entertainment (and huge paychecks). 100% injury rate! It’s just wrong to not permit them to use weed as part of pain management. Safer than a Tylenol, and farrrr safer than opioids. 

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jgb

jgb

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2 hours ago, Miss Lonelyhearts said:

15 vicodin es at a time is a ******* sh*t ton of acetaminophen for a person with a drinking problem to be consuming over a significant period of time. The dope is obviously a lot too but as far as ramping up an opioid tolerance it's not unheard of or anything. Good grief his liver tho.

aecetaminophen = Tylenol

vicodin = Hydrocodone

Whole different league.

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jgb

jgb

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1 hour ago, Miss Lonelyhearts said:

Vicodin es is acetaminophen and hydrocodone. Same league. Same pill. Shut up.

That’s like saying because vodka is ethanol+water that water can mess you up. Ditch the pride. You done goofed.

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