I don’t think the painkillers helped, they’re an opiate, so he was would have been “high”, but he wouldn’t have felt the pain of his injuries.
I’m not so sure he was using Vicodan while playing, I think he was using uppers when he was playing, like a lot of players always have.
If you remember the classic “miked up” segment with him and Holmgren, Favre comes to the sideline and Holmgren says “no more rocket balls” and Brett says “I’m chinged up”, and Holmgren says “I know”.
“Chinged Up” means you’re on speed, amphetamines. Tons of football players, many starting in High School take “greenies” “black beauties” etc. to get wired for a game. Major League Baseball with it’s long season have always had players taking greenies and drinking coffee before games to stay alert and feel “up”.
Taking speed before the game and taking “Vike’s” (lol, fitting now) after the game for pain, mix in a few beers and you’re on your way to trouble. In the article it said he had a seizure and that was his wake-up call that these pills aren’t all fun and games. Some guys go their whole career doing this, it appears Brett got out of that cycle when this article came out in 1996.
That’s how a ton of young pro wrestlers die, they’re always banged up so they take prescription pain meds, muscle relaxers (Soma Coma) mix in some alcohol and you’re playing russian roulette every night.
The Vicodin is a narcotic analgesic, so yes it would have dulled pain and made it possible to play through loads of stuff.
The article implied, through team comments, that the team doctors did provide certain amounts of Vicodin to Brett, but that he got the rest of it from “friends.”
I don’t remember that “chinged up” comment — wow, that sort of blows my mind that not more was made of that. I’m sure players do use (as the author said) a “pharmaceutical assist” to get in the zone sometimes. (Remember Bill Romanowski using steroids not so much to get big, but to get crazed and deliberately violent.)
I have to say Favre is such a “new man” this season, someone watching the game with me did muse about whether maybe Brett had become so fed up (desperate) with his vaunted comeback not really coming back that he relapsed into using Superman pills to get him over December. Brett also looks like he feels diametrically opposite to what he used to in very cold weather.
I’m just saying all the circumstances make it reasonable to ponder. But that’s not the reason I posted this thread!