Packers legend Brett Favre stars in new PSA warning parents about the dangers of CTE and urging them against enrolling their kids in tackle football until they're 14

Green Bay Packers legend Brett Favre is continuing to push for an end to youth tackle football in a new public service announcement in which he warns about the long-term dangers of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

'Having kids play before high school is just not worth the risk,' Favre said in a statement for the Concussion Legacy Foundation, which is aiming to reduce to the risk of CTE by encouraging children to play flag football prior to enrolling in high school.

Boston University researchers found in 2020 that each year of playing tackle football increases the odds a player will develop CTE by 30 percent, and a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said those who play tackle football are 15 times more likely to suffer a head injury in a game or practice.

'CTE is a terrible disease, and we need to do everything we can to prevent it for the next generation of football players,' said Favre.

CTE, as the degenerative brain disease is known, can only be diagnosed posthumously, but Favre suggested to NBC's Today Show on Tuesday that he's at high risk.

'I don't know what normal feels like. Do I have CTE? I really don't know,' Favre said while promoting his PSA with the Concussion Legacy Foundation. 'Concussions are a very, very serious thing, and we're just scraping the surface of how severe they are.

'There no telling how many concussions I've had, and what are the repercussions of that, there's no answer.'

Favre's concern about youth football isn't new, and he told DailyMail.com in 2018 that he may be the person who could put an end to it.

'I think it's going to take someone who has poured his blood, sweat and tears into it,' Favre said.

Favre is pictured in the video telling parents about the dangers of the brain disease, CTE 

Boston University researchers found in 2020 that each year of playing tackle football increases the odds a player will develop CTE by 30 percent, and a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said those who play tackle football are 15 times more likely to suffer a head injury in a game or practice

Favre's video for the Concussion Legacy Foundation begins with a youth football player addressing his parents.

'Let's talk about tackle football' the boy began. 'I just learned about CTE — the brain disease caused by repeated hits to the head. The more years I play, the more I am at risk.

'By the time I'm a senior in high school, I'll have played 13 years of tackle football,' he continued, speaking as a high school-age player. 'I could already have CTE, and it would continue to destroy my brain even after I stop playing.'

'So by the time I'm your age, I could be fighting depression, struggling to keep my thoughts straight, I could become violent, even towards my own children,' Favre said, replacing the high school player's voice. 'When I'm your age, what will matter to me is not my youth football career, but that like you, I'm a great parent, and I can provide for my family.'

The young boy then returns to the PSA video: 'So please, keep me out of tackle football until I'm 14.'

There is still a lot to learn about CTE, Dr. Erin Manning, a neurologist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, told DailyMail.com in 2018.

'We don't know why people get CTE,' Manning told DailyMail.com. 'I think the most that it's been looked at is in football players, but all that we know is what the brain looks like after they die. We don't know what happens during people's lives. We also don't know how the findings correlate with people's symptoms.'

Favre isn't sure how many concussions he suffered during his career, but he did start 297 consecutive games in spite of the traumatic head injuries 

As Manning explained, there is no established link between football and CTE, nor is there an established link between concussions and CTE: 'There's a lot of research that needs to be done to fill in the blanks there.'

It's not difficult to understand how the public came to be convinced that football is directly linked with CTE.

To many, the 2017 Boston University CTE Center study that posthumously diagnosed 110 out of 111 former NFL players with the disease seemed rather convincing, if not conclusive. Others have accused that study of having a selection bias because all of the brains were donated by concerned family members of football players who had reported cognitive problems.

Since then, CTE has remained in the news partly due to fallout from the suicide of former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who was found to have Stage 3 CTE at 27 even though researchers had never seen that degree of the disease in anyone under 46.

Favre's career came to an end as a member of the Minnesota Vikings in 2010 when he was knocked out in a game against the Chicago Bears. After stumbling to his feet, the befuddled Favre asked a member of the training staff, 'What are the Bears doing here?'

That would be bad enough by itself, but the violent head injury Favre suffered was simply the last incident in over three decades of abuse, some of which was self-inflicted.

'You would never come out of the game for a concussion because nobody thought concussions were that bad,' Favre told DailyMail.com in 2018. 'It was a matter of toughness. You didn't come out of a game because you were dinged, you saw stars, or fireworks are flashing - which are all results of a concussion, as we know now. Ear ringing, kind of like the dinner bell dining - 'time to come eat' - that should be a wake-up call: You just suffered a severe brain injury.'

At the time, though, the signs of acute head trauma were less a cause for concern and more of a source of laughter.

The Concussion Legacy Foundation begins with a youth football player addressing his parents. 'Let's talk about tackle football' the boy began. 'I just learned about CTE — the brain disease caused by repeated hits to the head. The more years I play, the more I am at risk'