Brett Favre pushes to revive lawsuit against fellow Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe
Attorneys for Brett Favre have asked a federal appeals court to revive a defamation lawsuit the former NFL quarterback brought against fellow Pro Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe amid a Mississippi welfare scandal.
A federal judge in Mississippi dismissed the lawsuit in October, arguing that Sharpe made constitutionally protected statements during a sports broadcast when he criticized Favre’s involvement in the Social Security embezzlement case.
Favre’s attorney, Amit Vora, told a New Orleans appeals court that the lawsuit should be revived, arguing that Sharpe accused Favre, who has not been charged with a crime, of theft.
Sharpe said during a September 2022 broadcast of the Fox Sports show Skip and Shannon: There is no question that Favre “took money from the less fortunate,” that he “stole money from people who really needed it” and that it would take a person of terrible character “to steal from the lowest of the low.”
“That is real defamation, because the reasonable listener takes the word stealing literally and not figuratively,” Vora said.
Sharpe’s attorney, Joseph Terry, told the judges that Sharpe’s comments were clearly an opinion he gave when asked about a news report about the Mississippi Social Security scandal and how the reports would affect Favre’s estate.
“When you read his comments in context, it’s clear he was expressing his views rhetorically,” Terry said.
The panel gave no indication when it would rule.
Mississippi State Auditor Shad White has said the Mississippi Department of Human Services wasted more than $77 million from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program between 2016 and 2019 — funds meant to help some of the poorest people in the U.S.
Among White’s findings was that Favre improperly received $1.1 million in speaking fees from a nonprofit that spent TANF money with Department of Human Services approval. The money was intended for a $5 million volleyball arena at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he attended and where his daughter played the sport.
Favre has paid back $1.1 million, but White said in a February court filing that the former quarterback still owes $729,790 because interest increased the original amount owed.
Favre, who lives in Mississippi, denies wrongdoing and does not face criminal charges. He is one of more than three dozen people or companies being sued by the state’s Department of Human Services.
U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett’s October ruling found that Sharpe’s comments about the case constituted constitutionally protected “rhetorical hyperbole.”
“No reasonable person listening to the broadcast would think that Favre actually went into the homes of poor people and took their money – that he committed the crime of robbery/theft against a specific poor person in Mississippi,” Starrett wrote.