Poster (PRNewsfoto/KMG Media)Brett Favre's iron man streak of 297 consecutive starts, and ultimately his career, came to an end late in the 2010 season when, playing for the Vikings at TCF Bank Stadium — a move to the great outdoors necessitated by the collapse of the Metrodome roof — he suffered a concussion against the Bears when his head was slammed on the frigid field.
Now Favre has a new concussion documentary set to debut Thursday that explores head-to-field hits, arguing that those kinds of hits in football, soccer and other sports are a hidden factor in the concussion discussion. The argument made in the documentary is that making turf fields softer will lessen the damage from such hits.
"Shocked: A Hidden Factor in the Sports Concussion Crisis" is a short documentary in which Favre serves as both subject and executive producer. It debuts at 5:30 p.m. Thursday on a variety of platforms via Stadium.
In the documentary (trailer below), Favre describes the sensation of his head ringing and bells in his ears when taking such hits, saying "most of those were from my head hitting the turf."
Favre also took several brutal hits in the 2009 NFC title game against the Saints. With the Vikings set to face New Orleans in the playoffs this weekend, the timing of the documentary's release seems at least fortuitous.
In making the rounds to promote the new documentary, Favre also appeared on the Rich Eisen show and talked about football safety in general.
"I got three grandsons," Favre said on the program. "I'm not going to encourage them to play football, I'm not going to discourage them, but I would much rather be their caddie for them in golf than watch them play football."
That's an interesting sentiment since Favre has served as an assistant coach on a high school team since his retirement after the 2010 season and this past summer talked about wanting to return to the NFL in a coaching or front office capacity.