Parkinson's diagnosis came after Favre began struggling with his right arm, he tells TMZ Sports

Brett Favre was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in January after he began having trouble using his right arm and was unable to hold a screwdriver steady, the Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback said in an interview with TMZ Sports.

Favre disclosed he has the disease Tuesday as part of his testimony to a congressional committee about a welfare misspending scandal in Mississippi.

Favre revealed the diagnosis to TMZ Sports in late August but requested it not be reported, the outlet noted in the story it posted Tuesday. He gave permission for his diagnosis to be reported after the congressional hearing.

Favre said he suspected something was wrong when his right arm would get “stuck.” He said he didn't notice a decrease in strength but was unable to hold a screwdriver with one hand. He said he notified his physician about the problem when he struggled to put on a jacket.

“I felt my arm, the strength was there, but I could not guide it," he told TMZ Sports. "And it was the most frustrating thing.”

Favre said five Parkinson's specialists told him they believed head trauma played a role in his developing the disease.

“Well, hell, I wrote the book on head trauma,” said Favre, who once estimated he had “thousands” of concussions.

Favre said one of his doctors told him people typically show more effects of the disease by the time they are diagnosed.

New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who was Favre’s teammate for three seasons in Green Bay, said Wednesday it is “unfortunately” part of the game.

“You know, the older you get, and some of you know this, like the mortality gets kind of thrown in our face a little bit more,” Rodgers said. “It’s actually unfortunately more normal to hear about a death or a cancer diagnosis or a diagnosis like this. And it doesn’t desensitize it for me. I mean, I feel bad for him and (his wife) Deanna, but it’s unfortunately part of our game. That’s part of the risk of playing.”

Favre, who does not face criminal charges in the welfare case, has repaid just over $1 million in speaking fees funded by a welfare program in the state. He also said he had been an investor in a biotech company with ties to the case. The biotech firm has said it was developing concussion treatments.

Favre was known for his durability during his Hall of Fame career. He had an NFL-record streak of 297 consecutive starts, a figure that goes up to 321 if playoff games are included.

He won three straight MVP awards with the Green Bay Packers from 1995-97. Favre led the 1996 Packers to their first Super Bowl title in nearly three decades and brought them back to the Super Bowl the following year.

Favre was with Green Bay from 1992-2007 and also played for the Atlanta Falcons (1991), New York Jets (2008) and Minnesota Vikings (2009-10).

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Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, center, arrives to appear before the House Committee on Ways and Means on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre appears before the House Committee on Ways and Means on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, left, arrives to appear before the House Committee on Ways and Means on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre arrives to appear before the House Committee on Ways and Means on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre appears before the House Committee on Ways and Means on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre arrives to appear before the House Committee on Ways and Means on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre arrives to appear before the House Committee on Ways and Means on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre appears before the House Committee on Ways and Means on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre appears before the House Committee on Ways and Means on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Vice President Kamala Harris has pledged to build an economy that is both pro-business and helps the middle class. In remarks Wednesday at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh in battleground Pennsylvania, she said she “would take good ideas from wherever they come” as she promised to double the number of people being trained in registered apprenticeships and outlined her support for more home ownership.

Meanwhile, Republican Donald Trump offered his own competing vision of the economy while visiting a furnituremaker in Mint Hill, North Carolina. He defended his idea for a special lower tax rate for U.S. manufacturers and pledged to impose tariffs high enough that there would be an “exodus” of auto factory jobs from Japan, Germany and South Korea.

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the latest:

There’s an unlikely star in Kamala Harris ′ push to win North Carolina: Mark Robinson.

The state’s embattled Republican candidate for governor, Robinson is featured in conversations this week with Harris volunteers and voters on the phone and at their doorways. Democrats wave signs warning of Trump-Robinson extremism at their news conferences. Billboard trucks circulate in key cities warning that Robinson, also the state’s lieutenant governor, is “unhinged.” And Harris is running a new television advertising campaign highlighting Donald Trump’s history of lavishing Robinson with flowery praise.

No Democrat has carried this Southern state since former President Barack Obama in 2008, whose victory stands as the only Democratic win on the presidential level here in a half-century. But Trump held North Carolina by just 1.3 percentage points four years ago, and it is again emerging as one of the most competitive states in the final weeks before Election Day.

Launchpad Strategies was incorporated less than a year ago and has since received $15 million from Donald Trump’s election fundraising machine.

For what is mostly a mystery. Campaign finance records indicate the limited liability company was hired to provide online advertising, digital consulting and fundraising. On its website, the firm boasts it is a “full-service Republican digital agency run by expert strategists.”

Yet, those expert strategists aren’t identified. An online contact form doesn't appear to work. And business registration records in Delaware provide no clues as to who owns or runs the firm. The campaign’s checks are sent to a P.O. Box in North Carolina.

Campaign finance experts say Launchpad Strategies was built for anonymity and is the latest example of how the Trump campaign has used secretive businesses to obscure its spending from the public.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, in Mint Hill, N.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

This combination of photos shows Vice President Kamala Harris, left, on Aug. 7, 2024, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on July 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris addresses the Economic Club of Pittsburgh on the Carnegie Mellon University campus in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)