Brett Favre says he played through a concussion for the Minnesota Vikings during the 2009 NFC Championship Game against the New Orleans Saints.

Favre was asked during a conference call ahead of the premiere of his documentary "Shocked: A Hidden Factor in the Sports Concussion Crisis," about his memories of that game, which he said was the most violent he'd ever experienced after playing 20 years in the NFL.

The game later came under investigation as part of New Orleans' bounty scandal in which several members of the franchise were accused of paying out bounties for intentionally hurting opposing players.

The quarterback said the Saints "came after me with everything they had" but detailed the symptoms he was experiencing as they related to the hits he took that game, which appear to be the sign of a concussion.

"A concussion doesn't necessarily have to be knocked out cold and removed from a game, although the new protocol is in place to remove you from a game even if you're not walking sideways or your arm goes stiff or whatever," Favre said.

"You may even be able to function as if you didn't have a concussion, but if you have head ringing or fireworks or any kind of fogginess, protocol says you should be removed from the game. In that game, there was some head ringing, there was some fogginess. There were two times in which I was hit by [former Saints safety] Darren Sharper late. He lunged at my head and both of them were pretty devastating hits, but I stayed in the game. One they threw a flag, one they didn't. Why they didn't throw the other, I have no idea. If head ringing or fireworks is a concussion, yeah, I did have that."