Packers Morning Buzz: Brett Favre concerned he played too long

Welcome to your Morning Buzz, rounding up news and views regarding the Green Bay Packers from around the web and here at PackersNews.com.

We'll start with Packers legend Brett Favre — who turns 50 on Thursday — telling Peter King of NBC Sports that he's concerned about whether he played too long and the toll his 20-year NFL career may take on his long-term health.

King writes:

Favre told a story of the former Steelers doctor, Julian Bales, reaching out to him after he retired. Bales wanted to do some testing on Favre, to investigate whether he might have elevated levels of Tao protein, the indicator that a person could have Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Bales told Favre there was no known treatment for elevated Tao levels. “No disrespect,” Favre said he told Bales. “But I’d rather not know.”

I asked if he had thoughts that he stayed in football too long.

“Absolutely,” Favre said. “Absolutely. I wonder every day what tomorrow will bring just from [how] I did play. John Wayne was cool then. Maybe not so cool now.”

I asked if he was glad he played football. “Absolutely. Absolutely,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade any of it, the good and the bad.”

You can read more about King's sitdown with Favre here:

Aaron Rodgers was a guest Tuesday on the weekly SiriusXM NFL Radio show Favre does with co-host Bruce Murray. After asking Rodgers what he planned to give him for his 50th birthday, Favre joked, "I'm expecting something very ... like a Porsche, maybe?" When the talk turned to the Packers' fast start this season, Rodgers was asked how long it will take for new coach Matt LaFleur's offense to become a finished product.

“I mean, I don’t know," Rodgers said. "Mike (McCarthy) and I were together for 13 years and a lot of those years I was starting and I think you go through, you know, the process of figuring each other out and understanding what calls you like in certain situations and reading my body language on the field if I love a call or I’m like, eh, I don’t know about a call. And that’s part of the process of quarterback and play caller and I think we got into a vibe, Mike and I, the first year, really the second year and the third year we really started taking off, I think. Hopefully it’s a little quicker with Matt but this is a new system for all of us and we’re still trying to figure out how we can best use the guys that we have in this system.

"It doesn’t matter what system you bring to the table, you still have to use the guys you have in place and put them in the best position to be successful, and I think as we’re seeing Aaron Jones getting his opportunities, he’s obviously a dynamic player. We got to keep finding ways to get Jimmy (Graham) involved, and Big Dog (Marcedes Lewis) involved. But I like the way we’re going and I’m not going to put a timetable on when everybody is going to feel totally comfortable. I’m just going to say that I’ve seen progress since Week One where we struggled and Week Two we came out and played a little better. Three and then four, you know, we got the passing game going and a couple days ago we got the run game really rolling.

"I like the way we’re going, I really enjoy our team. I think it’s a bunch of really good guys. I enjoy the staff and I’m not going to put any timetables, expectations on it, I’m just going to say that I’m really having a lot of fun right now and I think the guys are too and it’s kind of contagious and we’re going to embrace that feeling.” 

You can check it out here:

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And finally: 

Contact Stu Courtney at (920) 431-8377 or scourtney@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stucourt