(WHDH) — NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre teamed up with the Boston-based Concussion Legacy Foundation to launch a public service announcement urging parents not to let their kids play tackle football until the age of 14 because of the risk of severe head injuries.
In the PSA, a young boy can be seen talking to his parents about tackle football.
“I just learned about CTE, the brain disease caused by repeated hits to the head,” he says. “The more years I play, the more I’m at risk.”
It then shows the boy years later when he is in high school, saying he could already have CTE if he started playing tackle football at a young age.
Favre makes an appearance, saying that with CTE, “I could be fighting depresssion, struggling to keep my thoughts straight. I could become violent, even towards my own children.”
He goes on to say that a safe alternative for young children is flag football.
“There are so many things negatively impacting our youth and our adults from head trauma and so one thing we can control is whether we teach them tackle football or not tackle football,” Favre said.
CTE, which is short for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, is a degenerative brain disease found in athletes, military veterans, and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma, according to the Boston University CTE Center.
Research on CTE is continuously being conducted.
(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)