tonight, as millions of football fans gear up for a big weekend this super bowl sunday, we hear serious warnings about the sport's major concussion crisis with nfl hall of famer, brett favre, and the doctor who first discovered cte, the brain disease caused by blows to the head. amanpour on pbs was made possible by the generous support of rosslyn p. walter. good evening, everyone.

and welcome to the program. i'm christiane amanpour in london. the countdown is on for super bowl sunday. american football's season finale. can the new england patriots defend their title when they face the philadelphia eagles in minnesota? and there is another question about america's favorite sport, this multi-billion-dollar industry. it is under mounting scrutiny for the head injuries it causes, concussions and cte, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. it's a degenerative brain disease that has ended careers and even some players' lives. now y, boxing, andven soccer also make this a worldwide phenomenon that all rents can identify with. a few years ago, the film "concussion" starring will smith brought this crisis to light. the star played the doctor who discovered cte and told of his uphill struggle to get the nfl to recognize it. >> if you continue to deny my

work, the world will deny my work. but men, your men, continue to die. their families left in ruins. tell the truth. tell the truth. >> and now i speak to dr. bennett omalu and brett favre, one of america's most prominent players, a hall of fame quarterback, who suffered a bad concussion in his very last game. brett favre and dr. bennett omalu, welcome to the program. >> thank you so much. >> yep, thank you for having us. >> it's great to see you both. and you, brett, are a hall of famer. you are legendary in your sport. and i just wanted to ask you first, what thoughts are going through your mind right now, given that in a couple of days, we'll be watching the super bowl. >> oh, there's a game? this is the time of year when i do miss the game.

often, i get asked, do i miss it? this is the time where i think all players who spend any te in the nfl would say that they miss the game. so it should be an interesting matchup and, you know, new england's been there before and before and before and this will be a test for philadelphia. but i'm excited about it. >> so just quickly before i dig deeper into the concussion, what's your prediction, brett? who's going to win? >> well, my good friend, longtime friend, dear friend of mine is the head coach for philadelphia and that's doug peterson. great guy. has done a wonderful job there. and i'm pulling for him. but i would say, i'm not a betting man, but if i were, it would be hard to bet against bill belichick, tom brady, and the new england patriots. they continue to prevail year in

and year out. so i don't really have an answer for you. >> i see your heart is split, your head is split. but, you know, you say you miss it. in a way, i kind of understand, but i'm surprised, as well. because of the injury that you suffered and the incredible -- you know, crisis around nfl and head injuries. do you -- are you scared that somebody out there on the field, on sunday, might suffer a terrible injury to the head? >> yes. and when i say i miss it, i don't -- what i miss is the fellowship with the guys. i don't miss the physical part of it. i don't miss the mental stress that is required day in and day out, year in and year out. and now with all the concussion hysteria, if you will, over the last five to eight years, my last play as an nfl football

player was a major concussion. and before then, concussions were not as serious an issue or thought to be as serious as they are now. and of course, dr. omalu is responsible for that greatly. and it's very frightening, because here's one of the things that we're made more aware of today and that when i say "major concussion," if you had asked me eight years ago how many concussions i had during my playing career, i would have probably said two, maybe three. and i'm talking about where i lost consciousness for nine seconds, ten seconds, a minute. now we're finding out, dr. omalu can talk to this in much more detail, is that the old saying in football was, i got my bell rung. having your bell rung, seeing

stars, seeing fireworks things of that nature, hundreds, maybe thousands of times i could say the that happened to me. and that's what we're starting to discover is a concussion. so that's very frightening. and it's not a good thing. so i'm very fearful of what the future will bring. >> let me turn to you now, dr. omalu then. the same question that i asked brett to start, are you worried as you prepare to maybe sit down in front of the tv on super bowl sunday, maybe you won't watch it, are you concerned about it? >> thank you, christiane. i stopped watching football about five years ago, because i just couldn't get myself to watch it. as a physician and a brain expert, in every play of football, there is a blow to the head. in fact, a paper recently came out from stanford university

that showed that in just one game of football, a player is exposed to about 50 to 60 violent blows to the head. and some of those blows are like a car traveling at 30 miles an hour, slamming into a brick wall. and so we, we need to realize that it's not about the concussions. you can play through just one game. like on super bowl, after just one game, many of those players have suffered irrepairable brain damage. >> brett, i would like to show you this clip from the documentary "shocked" that you executive produced and were in and was just released. >> a guy just kind of bumps into me, harmless hit, no big deal, and as i'm falling to the turf, right side of my head hits the turf, and bam, the lights were out.

my next memory was of our trainer was shaking me. come on, buddy. and i just remember snoring. and i kind of came to. and i said, hey, was i snoring? he said, yeah, you had a concussion. and then it started kind of like, you know, you know, what just happened here? and got up and he said, hey, hey, buddy, you were out for about 10 to 20 seconds. >> brett, it's really dramatic. and that was the last play of your career. and that was when you knew that you had suffered a concussion. take us back to that day. >> yeah, it was a cold, very cold day. we played at the university of minnesota, because the metrodome had collapsed. so it was extremely cold. the field was icy. it was very hard and i was closing in on 41 years old, as i was standing on the sidelines, i thought, you know, if there was ever writing on the wall, this is it.

again, concussions are never -- there's never a good time to have them, but at 40 years old, if i question whether or not i should come back and play, at that point right then and there, i knew it was time to leave the game. because concussions just started, they had just implemented a new protocol, or the on the protocol for a concussion in the nfl. and so the talk just started kind of heating up. and so i knew that this was not a good thing. >> can you describe for me your symptoms? have they got worse since then over the last eight years? and does it make you afraid? >> i am afraid of not only my future, but of other players

like dr. omalu said, intentionally playing the game, knowing that the repercussions could be life threatening. so, you know, i have -- and in that documentary, i spoke about my three grandsons. i have one who's 8, 3, and a newborn. and they have not decided yet, at least the 8-year-old, has not decided to play football. i'm not going to encourage him to play football. i'm not saying i would discourage him, but i would be cringing every time that i saw my grandson get tackled. because i know, physically, what's at stake. i'm able to function the way i so choose, at least up to this point. i stay active. but, you know, again, i refer to dr. omalu and what he has talked about in depth. tomorrow maybe totally different.

and tomorrow i may not remember who i am. i may not know where i live. and that's the frightening thing for us football players. >> right. dr. omalu, i see you reacting to that. you discovered cte. you discovered this chronic traumatic injury to the brain in 2002, when a hall of famer, essentially, arrived on your autopsy table. take us back to that moment. >> yes, please, christiane, thank you so much. you know, i'm becoming emotional, because this was the same about mike webster. mike webster, after retirement, went into this downward spiral. but nobody understood him. in fact, he was further victimized, ridiculed. so my autopsy table, i'm a christian. i'm also a physician, i practice my faith in my science and my science in my faith. i saw mike webster as i would

see my brother, my father. and just like brett is talking now, i'm becoming emotional. these guys are human beings. and nobody had answers for mike webster and his family. and i said to mike, mike, guide me to the truth. i will do everything within my means to rehabilitate you, to vindicate you. when i opened up his skull, his brain looked normal. going by my science, i would have stopped there, but it was my faith that pushed me through, kept on prodding me, bennett, keep on going. you need to identify the truth to vindicate us all. this is not about concussions. this is about each and every intentional blow you receive to your head. with or without a helmet.

if you play these games, eve ju for one season, you have a higher risk of die young before the age of 42 through violent means. you have a 46 times increased risk of committing suicide, of suffering from psychiatric illnesses, including depression, suffering from this inhibition, becoming a drug addict, abusing alcohol, losing your intelligence, losing your memory, losing your ability to engage in complex thinking. you're more likely to drop out of high school, not to attend college. you're less likely to keep a job, as an adult. and that is why it's always been my position, knowing what we know today, there is no justifiable reason whatsoever that any child under the age of

18 should continue to play these games. >> well, obviously, it is a very controversial choice. and i want to play a little bit of the film "concussion," that was about you, starring will smith, and is about the mike webster incident. >>he m in the mile is quite deceptively the most violent position on the field. the slaps, the punches, the forearm, it's an unremitting storm of subconcussive blows. the head as a weapon on every single game, every single practice from the time he was a little boy to a man culminating into an 18-year professional career. by my calculations, mike webster sustained more than 70,000 blows to his head. >> and so just to point out the graphics, cte has been found in 99% of deceased nfl players' brains that were donated to scientific research. this is according to "the journal of the american medical

association." it was identified in 110 out of 111 former nfl players. so, i guess, now the question to both of you. and let me ask you, brett, how does one make the game safer? and are the ways that the nfl has responded sufficient? >> well, i think, first of all, how do you make the game safer? you don't play. you know, i mean, is that going to happen? no, i think the nfl is here to stay, obviously. and that being said, i think we -- we have started the ball rolling, if you will, in the right direction, by instituting a concussion protocol. there's, i think it's a neurologist who is at every game and if he even thinks you have a concussion, you're supposed to

be removed from the game. you know, that's better than it was years ago. i think we need to look at treatment rather than prevention, because we're not going to prevent them. if you have 200, 300-pound guys running at full speed and they collide or the whiplascth effe one in five concussions are when your head hits the turf, there's only so much that helmets can do. so look at it from a treatment standpoint. and the only other option is to not to play. >> you speak even now about helmets as sort of being, you know, a helpful device, a protective measure. but a lot of people talk about helmets being kind of a weapon. people charging each other with those helmets, in the head. and the other thing you talked about, which not very many do talk about, is the fact that so many people are saying, it's the astroturf, it's the surface

that's almost as dangerous, if not more, than the helmets. >> well, you're right. the helmet is used as a weapon. and they have tried to deter that by fines and more education on how to properly make a tackle. but ultimately, it's going to happen. the violent nature in which the game is played is not going to go down. and you're right. the turf, i think, is a major issue. it's gotten better, i'll say that, from my first few years of playing. but i think they need to look at providing a softer, underlying surface that will reduce the violence in which you impact that surface. >> dr. omalu, do you take any satisfaction or do you see a sort of a learning curve when you see that young boys, between the ages of 6 and 12, have

dropped by 20%, those people, you know, playing football. o child deserves tha his life robbed from him intentionally by just the excitement of a touchdown. we could do better. this is the 21st century. children should play the non-contact sports. the potentially dangerous contact sports should be for adults. like we have done with every potentially dangerous factor like alcohol, cigarette smoking, skydiving, deep sea diving. knowing what we know today, yes, we may not have known 20 years ago, but knowing what we know today, let me give you an instance. do you -- do you realize that in 1957, eight years before i was born, not even eight years, 11 years before i was born, the american academy of pediatrics published a paper in the pennsylvania medical journal

stating that no child under the age of 12 in america should play football, wrestling, and boxing. >> so, brett, you know, so the nfl obviously wants to avoid what happened with tom savage. in december, the quarterback from houston returned to the field, just a few minutes after convulsing from a brutal hit and then he left the game for good. so, you know, even though the nfl has instituted certain new protocols, do you think it's doing enough? and as everybody says, why can't the game be changed to make it safer? why can't you move from tackle football to flag football for adults, even? >> well, we -- i think we all know that that will never happen, because the nfl's too big. there's way too much money, excitement, you name it, involved with nfl otball. andr. omaltouched on it. adults can make their own

choice. children.ed to protect our i do believe there is a movement, it may take some time, to eliminate tackle football, at least up to the age of 14, maybe 15. you know, that's better than it is today. but i do believe that our children, we should protect them by play flag football. if everyone does it, then the playing field is equal. but, you know, there are holes and there are flaws in the protocol, obviously, and you just mentioned one. where a player was thought to have had a concussion, but was allowed to go back into the game. and, you know, i think there's numerous times in my career where i would have been diagnosed with a concussion in today's format, but went back

into the game, never even left the game, quite frankly. and maybe was a little woozy, had some headaches for a couple of plays. but was able to call a play, was able to go back in and function, so no harm, no foul. well, there is a harm. there is a foul. and that's the long-term effects that dr. omalu has talked about. >> and just, finally, you are backing a medical procedure, right. a sort of medicine that you hope can mitigate, brett, some of the immediate effects of a hit, of a contact, of a violent contact. >> well, yes. it's a nasal spray that is about to get started as far as clinical trial studies, the human trial studies. and if this product works like we hope it does, this could be

a -- i hate to say a game changer, but it would be on the sidelines, in playgrounds, homes, anywhere where concussions could be an issue. and, again, if it works, immediately after what you think is a concussion, you spray this nasal spray and within a matter of minutes, would reduce the swelling and basically control at least the effects of a concussion. and i'm not saying get you back on the field right away, although is that could be possible. but we have to go through the human trial studies first and foremost. but we, we hope we have something that can work as far as the treatment, because to my knowledge, there's nothing in treatment, except for time. >> dr. omalu, would you back such a mitigating substance if it worked? >> well, what i most want, you know, the truth can be inconvenient. we don't want to misappropriate the science. it is not about concussions. it is not. it's more about the seemingly innocuous blows you receive

without any symptoms. by the time you've suffered a concussion, the damage is done. concussion damage, nothing mild about it. you have membrane, skeletal, and vascular injuries. on a microscopic level, a concussion is a severe type of injury. and once the concussion has occurred, there is no protocol the nfl will put in place that would reverse your iury. th is a fact. so when i hear about protocol, about sprays, it doesn't make any difference. once the concussion has occurred, there is nothing no doctor could do for you to cure the concussion. the brain is about 60 to 80% water. is a post micotic organ meaning it does not have the ability to reasonably regenerate itself to create new brain cells. so parents must know, by the time your child has suffered a concussion, there is no neuropsychiatric test, there is

no protocol that would cure that concussion and it is a permanent injury. people need to know that. >> iust am going to ask you one last question, though. if you were to look into the lens and address the nfl, what would you say to them today on the eve of this super bowl and in light of the discussion we've been having? >> i think the nfl is working in the right direction. i think they're still a long ways to go. but i think we need to focus also not as much on prevention as we do some type of treatment. because we know football is here to stay. and concussions are here to stay. they're not going to get any better. so i totally agree with dr. omalu and what he's saying. it's a very serious issue. and once a concussion has happened, it has happened.

so we need to maybe spend more money and not so much in the heets and in the prevention, but more into the treatment side of i >> brett favre, dr. bennett omalu, thank you so much for this really, really incredible and important discussion. >> thank you so much. >> thanks for having us. >> such an honest look at america's favorite sport on this particular weekend. and just another note, our exclusive interview with brett favre is already making waves in the national football league. we did release a sound bite where you heard him say that while he thinks progress is being made, the only truly safe thing, which me admits will never happen, is simply not to play at all. and this is how the nfl commissioner, roger dpoogoodell responded. >> recently, brett favre was interviewed about the safety of the game and his response was, you just don't play. the helmet can do but so much. what are the plans for the nfl to make the game safer from the youth level all the way up to the nfl levels when the hall of

famer is saying, "don't play." >> well, i don't think that's exactly the way the interview went, as i heard it. but i would tell you this, that this has been a major focus. for us in trying to make our game safer at our level and all the way through every level of football. the game of football is much safer than when i played it. but that's part of our responsibility. and we take that seriously and something we'll continue to focus on. >> something everybody will be thinking about as they watch the super bowl this sunday. that's it for our program tonight. thanks for watchi ining "amanpo on pbs and join us again tomorrow night. "amanpour" on pbs was made possible by the generous support of rosalind p. walter. katty: y'd

100 days" on pbs. that was quick. he's and unity did not last in washington. christian: the president is back on twitter slamming democrats ahead of a republican party retreat. katty: mr. trump used his speech to stall the victories of his administration and criticize the other side. president trump: it tells you that they would rather us not do well than to see our country do great, and that is not good. katty: spicy is back. sean spicer joins us to talk about life at the podium. christian: also on the program, while theresa may is busy drumming up trade in china, a row erupted bat