10 years ago, former Packers quarterback Brett Favre talked about concussions and other injuries during his 20-year NFL career

(This story was updated to add photo galleries.)

Former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre testified Tuesday at a congressional hearing on federal welfare reform where he said he was “recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.”

Favre played 16 of his 20 NFL seasons in Green Bay , where he never missed a game due to injury.

In November 2014, then-Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Tyler Dunne visited Favre’s 465-acre home in Sumrall, Mississippi, and interviewed him for the story “Brett Favre, Found.”

Here is an excerpt from that story that relates to some of the injuries Favre sustained during his 20-year NFL career:

Stage 2: Realization

He flaps his right thumb to demonstrate. There's no bend, no mobility. And that's not all.

"Here's the reason they wanted to do surgery," he says.

Favre presses his palms together and stares at his thumbs. By a full centimeter, at least, his right thumb is shorter than his left. It "shrunk." That knuckle, he explains, broke off.

He flashes back to Oct. 19, 2003. Favre's hand smacked the shoulder pad of guard Mike Wahle at St. Louis on a release and he felt a pop. Thinking he only jammed it, Favre pulled on his thumb all game. Tests later revealed a break. Favre convinced team physician Pat McKenzie to let him play and then, splint and all, won at Minnesota the next week.

Threw for 32 touchdowns that season. Led the Packers to within a fourth and 26 of the NFC Championship. Played on.

All season the thumb "hurt like hell." Yet the velocity of his passes didn't dim one RPM. The sensation that overcame Favre that three-touchdown day inside the Metrodome was the same sensation that masked all injuries.

"It was just like, 'Damn, you can do this.'"

Broken thumbs, severely sprained ankles/knees, torn biceps, dislocated shoulders, blackout hits to the head, he channeled it all into adrenaline. Now he wonders aloud if it was all worth it. Favre sees his own mortality.

He points to a black trash bag near an outdoor fireplace, where his dog is licking up some liquid. After Minnesota lost the NFC Championship to New Orleans, his ankle and thigh turned that color, he says.

How many concussions? No clue. Seeing stars was common. So was "ringing," he says, twirling a finger around his ear.

The result, 297.

He expects someone to eclipse the record some day, but it does mean a lot to him.

"You have to be hardheaded," Favre says, "and you have to be a little bit insane."

Two concussions come to mind for Favre, the last two.

Near the goal line in New England, Week 8 of 2010, a hit underneath Favre's chin took 10 stitches to close. Sprawled on the turf, he looked up into the sky. One thought crossed his mind: It's a weird time to have fireworks going off.

Still, if the Vikings hadn't sent him to the locker room for stitches, he would've played on.

Then, there was the blackout on the final snap of his career.

He doesn't want to call it a hit; rather, Favre says, Chicago's Corey Wootton "pushed" him onto this sheet of ice at the University of Minnesota. When trainer Eric Sugarman arrived, Favre was snoring. Sugarman shook him awake and told the quarterback he had suffered a concussion. He was out cold for 15 seconds.

Favre was confused. Why were Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs clapping? Why were the Chicago Bears here?

"But I could've kept playing," he says. "And in previous years I probably did that — I don't know how many times. What's the long-term effects? I don't know.

"I don't know."

He hopes he can help the next generation. Favre recently invested in Prevacus, a company developing a product that it says would limit the effects of a concussion when immediately sprayed into the nose. It won't help him.

Concern pales his face. For a moment, Favre is not at peace.

"It's scary. It is scary. But for me, the damage is done. And the long-term effects remain to be seen. That is scary.

"I'm hoping that I'm going to be the exception and don't have residual effects. And then I think, 'Well, you played 20 years. You played for 20 years.'"

Eyebrows slanted, Favre looks away for a second toward nothing, then turns back to you.

Exactly as everything ended in Green Bay, he tries not to look back.

Only forward.

More: Brett Favre said he has Parkinson’s disease, which is among those covered under the NFL concussion settlement

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 10 years ago, former Packers quarterback Brett Favre talked about concussions and other injuries during his 20-year NFL career