Aaron Rodgers understands Brett Favre’s grim reality better than most: ‘Mortality … thrown in our face’

Aaron Rodgers shared a quarterback room with Brett Favre for his first three NFL seasons, backing up the Hall of Famer with the Packers before taking over the starting job in 2008.

Rodgers said that it was “tough” to learn of the 54-year-old Favre’s revelation Tuesday that he recently was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

“The older you get, and some of you know this, but mortality kind of gets thrown in our face a little bit more,” Rodgers said before Jets practice Wednesday in Florham Park. “It’s actually, unfortunately, more normal to hear about a death or a cancer diagnosis or a diagnosis like this. It doesn’t desensitize it for me.

“I mean, I feel bad for him, and [wife] Deanna. It’s unfortunately part of our game. That’s part of the risk of playing in the league, and we all in the back of our minds know that could be a reality at some point. We hope medicine at some point can catch up and either make the symptoms easier or eradicate some of these issues that we have.”

Favre, who retired from the NFL in 2010, made the announcement Tuesday while testifying at a congressional hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee on welfare misspending and reform.

“Sadly, I also lost an investment in a company that I believed was developing a breakthrough concussion drug I thought would help others,” Favre said in prepared remarks. “I’m sure you’ll understand, while it’s too late for me because I’ve recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, this is also a cause dear to my heart.”

Parkinson’s disease is a movement disorder of the nervous system that worsens over time with no known cure.

Favre, who started an NFL record 297 consecutive games, was referring in his testimony to Prevacus, a now-defunct concussion drug company of which he was an investor.

Favre previously had been linked to the 2020 Mississippi welfare scandal; he was accused but not criminally charged for misusing welfare money on personal projects.

That included costs for a new volleyball center at the University of Southern Mississippi, his alma mater, where his daughter also was a student-athlete.

When Rodgers was asked about being 321 passing yards from 60,000 for his career, he also invoked how Favre used to handle reaching milestones.

“I remember when I was a young player, there were a lot of records Favre was getting,” Rodgers said. “I think he got 421 touchdowns to pass [Dan] Marino at the time. All the yard markers that he had, the consecutive games played, and he used to always say, ‘it just means I’ve been around a long time.’ And I was like, I think it’s a little more than that.

“I’m in the position now, and that’s what it feels like. It feels like I’ve been playing a long time, and naturally this will be part of the process, but I’m thankful to be playing still, and that there’s milestones like this to hit … But I’m thankful for all the guys that caught passes from me and all the guys that blocked for me. I couldn’t name them all, but give me a little time.”

Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley (toe) did not practice Wednesday after sitting out last week’s game against the Patriots, and his status for Sunday against the Broncos could be another game-time decision.

“It’s going to come up to it,” coach Robert Saleh said. “We’ll see how things go, but we were planning on giving him some vet days anyway. We’re going to, I don’t want to say be overly cautious, but we’ll just make sure that this toe doesn’t become a problem.”

The Broncos will be without linebacker and leading tackler Alex Singleton, who will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL.