Brett Favre says Naomi Osaka and other athletes should talk to the media or accept fines because of the money they make

• Brett Favre addressed Naomi Osaka's withdrawal from the French Open after her media-policy fine.
• Favre said he believed that athletes should talk to the media because of the money they make.
• He said that he once got fined for not talking to the media after a loss but that he regretted it.

Brett Favre doesn't exactly agree with Naomi Osaka's stance on talking to the media.

On his podcast, "Bolling with Favre," on Wednesday, the Hall of Fame NFL quarterback addressed Osaka's withdrawal from the French Open after she was fined for skipping a press conference.

"We should talk to the media. I'm not saying you have to; you chose to be fined or not," Favre said, later adding, "I do think athletes are held to a different level and a different standard, and rightfully so, because of the money we make."

Favre played in the NFL from 1991 to 2010, spending 15 of those seasons with the Green Bay Packers in the league's smallest media market. Still, as one of the most transcendent players at the time, Favre garnered as much media attention as any other superstar athlete, and he almost never shied away from speaking to reporters.

But there was one instance where Favre refused to do a press conference.

In 1998, after Favre's Packers lost 27-20 to the Detroit Lions, the disgruntled quarterback was so frustrated that he told the Packers' public-relations team that he wouldn't do his regular postgame conference. But he said he regretted that decision.

"They said, 'You've got to do it,' and I said, 'I'm not doing it,'" Favre said, later adding: "I should have done the press conference and just owned up. It was one of those things where I said, 'If I don't have anything good to say, I'm not saying anything at all' - well, go in there and say that!"

Favre said that he was fined $25,000 and that it helped to pioneer the NFL's current media-related requirements and fines.

"At the time, there was nothing written into the quote-unquote rule book for media. In other words, I was not required," Favre said, adding: "There wasn't anything that if I chose not to speak I would be fined, so I chose not to speak and was fined $25,000, and then that was written into the rule book after that."

Osaka had been fined $15,000 for skipping her media session. She said her decision was driven by mental-health concerns, as opposed to short-term frustration in Favre's case.

"I get really nervous and find it stressful to always engage and give you the best answers I can," Osaka said in a statement on Monday, adding, "I do feel like the rules are quite outdated in parts and I wanted to highlight that."

She had said in a previous statement: "We're often sat there and asked questions that we've been asked multiple times before or asked questions that bring doubt into our minds and I'm just not going to subject myself to people that doubt me."

Other athletes and media figures have had mixed reactions to Osaka's decision.

Favre joins a list of critics including the British journalist Piers Morgan, who called Osaka a "spoiled brat" in his Daily Mail column, and Ashleigh Barty, the top-ranked women's tennis player, who told The Associated Press that "press is kind of part of the job."

Osaka's supporters include Serena Williams, the Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps, and the actor Will Smith.