Brett Favre, former Green Bay Packers star quarterback and Super Bowl champion, has recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, he announced during congressional testimony on Tuesday.

Favre, 54, shared his health diagnosis during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing focused on welfare accountability. Favre was previously accused of accepting $8 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funding that was originally intended for poor families in Mississippi. Instead, Favre is accused of diverting the funds to himself, a new volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi — where his daughter plays volleyball and he is an alumnus — and investments in a pharmaceutical company, Prevacus.

“Unfortunately, I also lost my investment in a company that I believed was developing a breakthrough drug for concussions that I thought would help others,” Favre said Tuesday during the House hearing. “As you can imagine, it’s too late for me — I’ve recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s — but this is also a cause that is close to my heart.”

Parkinson’s disease is an “age-related, degenerative brain disorder,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. It causes a range of symptoms, including loss of muscle control and balance, tremors, slowed movements and more.

Favre also denied any wrongdoing in the embezzlement of TANF funds.

“…Certain Mississippi officials have failed to protect federal TANF funds from fraud and abuse, and are trying to unfairly blame me. These challenges have damaged my reputation and are worse than anything I have ever experienced in football,” he said during his testimony.

Favre, who played 20 seasons in the NFL from 1991 to 2010, including an NFL-record 297 consecutive games, previously estimated he suffered “thousands” of concussions during his career.

“What we know now is that concussions happen all the time,” Favre said during an appearance on Bubba the Love Sponge Show in 2022. “You get tackled and your head hits the grass, you see the flashing lights or the ringing in your ears, but you can still play. Based on that, there had to be thousands of them, because every time my head hit the grass, there was a ringing or stars going off, flashing lights, but I could still play.”