Brett Favre: 'I almost wanted to kill myself'

Green Bay Packers and NFL Hall of Fame Quarterback Brett Favre's battle with pain killers is well-documented, but Favre shed new light on just how rough his struggle with opioids was in his latest podcast episode.

In a March 23, 2021 episode of "Bolling with Favre," a podcast Favre co-hosts with Eric Bolling and guest Dr. Phil, Favre illustrates how his addiction to painkillers led him to contemplate suicide.

In an incident that occurred at an undisclosed time following the 1996-97 Super Bowl win, Favre was low on pain killer medication and feeling "as low as I could possibly be."

In that moment, Favre describes he had to make one of two choices. 

"It's one of two things; I die, or I flush these pills down the toilet,'" he recalled. "I contemplated it. I sat by the toilet for two hours. Eventually, I dumped the pills in the toilet, flushed them. I could almost want to kill myself because of doing that. I could not believe that I had actually done that. I was so mad at myself, because now what was I going to do?" 

Favre detoxed pain killers by going "cold-turkey" and after many months successfully got over the strongest urges of his addiction.

The 51-year-old former quarterback said he began taking pain killers and got addicted in 1994 after suffering an ankle injury.

Favre has stated he's been sober of pain killers ever since that incident and has not had a drop of alcohol after overcoming an addition with drinking in 1998.