If there have been any justice on this planet, NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre would have been canceled way back, after two therapeutic massage therapists for the NY Jets sued him again in 2011, claiming they misplaced their jobs because of a crude textual content message Favre despatched to one of many girls. Favre denied the allegations and the lawsuit was ultimately settled. But it sounds awfully acquainted to a textual content Favre allegedly despatched to a different unsuspecting Jets’ worker. The one everybody is aware of about. (This is the place we inform you that the sufferer in that unwholesome incident had by no means even MET Breff Favre earlier than he —allegedly — texted her.) But as we at all times say, professional athletes can do something to girls in the event that they’re adequate on the sphere. Favre has denied any wrongdoing, each then and now.
Alas, Brett Favre was not canceled. In reality, he was rolled out not solely as an elder statesman of the sport by the NFL, however as a celeb spokesman for corporations like Copper Fit, Sensodyne, Wrangler, and Hyundai. And it’s due to that adulation regardless of alleged horrible habits that Brett Favre was in any place to do what he’s accused of doing down in Mississippi.
Part of Favre’s “aw shucks” small-town boy picture was his attachment to his house state of Mississippi, the place he was born, performed his faculty ball, and presently resides. Brett Favre ain’t no sissy left coast elitist! He’s a superb ole boy from down Mississippi, goll darn it!
That common man schtick and love of his house state is what makes Favre’s alleged position in diverting welfare cash from the needy in Mississippi, the poorest state within the Union by a number of totally different metrics, so galling. Here’s what our Eric Blum needed to say in regards to the allegations in opposition to Favre again in November:
As if Brett Favre’s blunders in (allegedly) diverting $5 million of Mississippi’s federal welfare cash to construct a brand new volleyball facility at Southern Miss wasn’t loopy sufficient, two concussion drug corporations he backed which might be additionally entangled within the scandal overstated the identified effectiveness of their medicine to boost cash, in keeping with an ESPN report.
Favre, who was paid over $138 million in his NFL profession, was additionally funneled $1.1 million to advertise a state initiative, a portion of the $77 million in misspent welfare funds, for speeches that he by no means delivered. Those funds had been reportedly a backchannel to his volleyball area venture. An audit launched in 2020 stated that New’s Mississippi Community Education Center paid Favre Enterprises $500,000 in December 2017 and $600,000 in June 2018 to make speeches for at the least three occasions. In 2020, Favre was ordered to repay the funds, however nonetheless owes almost $228,000 in curiosity.
Favre has stated he was unaware the funds directed to him for his speeches had been welfare-designated funds.
If the odious allegations are true, they’ll’t be understood with out mentioning that lower than two % of those that apply for welfare in Mississippi truly get it, the bottom acceptance price within the nation. So, poorest state within the county + lowest welfare acceptance price = an entire lot of people that wanted that cash rather more than the University of Southern Mississippi’s volleyball group did.
Favre has denied the allegations and blamed the media, saying in a press release to Fox News (after all), “I have done nothing wrong, and it is past time to set the record straight. No one ever told me, and I did not know, that funds designated for welfare recipients were going to the University or me. I tried to help my alma mater USM, a public Mississippi state university, raise funds for a wellness center. My goal was and always will be to improve the athletic facilities at my university.”
That could be a way more plausible argument had the Mississippi Free Press not launched textual content messages from Favre to non-profit founder Nancy New, who has since pled responsible to bribery of a public official, fraud in opposition to the federal government, and wire fraud, asking if there was any manner the media may learn the way the place the diverted funds got here from. Good pondering, Brett.
The complete story is lengthy and horrible and devastatingly unhappy for needy households in Mississippi. But Brett Favre has been horrible for a very long time. Sad it took sports activities followers this lengthy to determine that out.
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