The former Hall of Fame quarterback of the Green Bay Packers is advocating for NFL players to continue to play football through the current COVID-19 pandemic, but he believes some players will catch the deadly virus which can be spread asymptomatically.
“My opinion is, you play,” Brett Favre told “Carmen & Jurko” on WTMJ sister station ESPN Chicago on Wednesday. “There is a likelihood that guys will catch it. I tend to believe (most players) will get over it, but unfortunately, there are exceptions to the rule, but isn’t that the case with football anyway?”
Favre also says that teams should welcome fan attendance, and fans should have the right to decide whether to wear a protective mask or not.
“You understand the risk if you want to go and you want to wear a mask, a shield, by all means do that. The next person may or may not want to, and that’s their choice as well,” he explained.
As for the comments he made on the Load Management podcast last week about Aaron Rodgers going to the Chicago Bears, Favre said he wasn’t really serious.
“It was a joke, really,” said Favre. “Anything could happen. I never said I thought that would happen or should happen.”
He also said he could understand Packers fans not taking to the comment too well.
“Of course, Packers fans gave me a lot of grief.”
Favre also dove into how athletes are becoming more outspoken about social issues, and about how players are choosing to kneel in protest of conditions in society instead of standing for the National Anthem.
Though he said he would always feel proud to stand for the anthem when he played, he spoke about a need to be empathetic to other perspectives.
“I don’t know what it’s like to be black. It’s definitely not my place to say ‘You should’ or ‘You shouldn’t.’ Because I don’t know,” he said.
“I’m supportive, and always have been supportive, of equality,” Favre further explained. “There (are) very little issues within the locker room, the playing field. Guys love each other, regardless of race, what country, what state you’re from. Doesn’t matter. It was a safe environment. I think everyone should be treated equally. How anyone cannot think that way would be ridiculous.”