Brett Favre Is Asking An Appeals Court To Reinstate His Defamation Lawsuit Against Shannon Sharpe

NEW ORLEANS — Lawyers for retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre will ask a federal appeals court on Tuesday to reinstate a defamation lawsuit he filed against a fellow Pro Football Hall of Fame member, former tight end Shannon Sharpe, amid a Mississippi welfare scandal, one of the state’s largest public corruption cases.

In October, a federal court in Mississippi dismissed the claim, ruling that Sharpe used constitutionally free expression on a sports broadcast to attack Favre’s involvement in the welfare misspending case.

Brett Favre | AP News Image

Brett Favre Is Asking An Appeals Court To Reinstate His Defamation Lawsuit Against Shannon Sharpe

Favre hopes the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will restore the lawsuit.

Sharpe stated on the Fox Sports show “Skip and Shannon: Undisputed” in September 2022 that Favre was “taking from the underserved,” “stole money from people who really needed that money,” and that someone would have to be a terrible person “to steal from the lowest of the low.”

Mississippi State Auditor Shad White claims that between 2016 and 2019, the Mississippi Department of Human Services misappropriated more than $77 million from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which was supposed to assist some of the country’s poorest people.

Among White’s findings was that Favre fraudulently collected $1.1 million in speaking fees from a nonprofit organization that spent TANF funds with Department of Human Services clearance. The funds were to build a $5 million volleyball arena at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he and his daughter played.

Favre has repaid $1.1 million, but White stated in a February court filing that the star quarterback still owes $729,790 since interest increased the original sum.

Favre, who resides in Mississippi, has denied wrongdoing and is not facing any criminal charges. The state Department of Human Services is suing more than three dozen persons or corporations, including him.

According to U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett’s October judgment, Sharpe’s comments about the case were constitutionally protected “rhetorical hyperbole.”

“Here, 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 theft/larceny against any particular poor person in Mississippi,” according to Starrett.

Brett Favre | AP News image

Brett Favre Is Asking An Appeals Court To Reinstate His Defamation Lawsuit Against Shannon Sharpe

Favre’s lawyers argued in a brief that the ruling misrepresented Sharpe’s words. “Here, a reasonable listener could and would have interpreted Sharpe’s repeated statements to the effect that Favre ‘stole money’ from ‘the underserved’ as factual assertions about Favre,” according to them.

Sharpe’s lawyers contended in documents that Starrett was correct, referring to Sharpe’s words as “loose, figurative language between media commentators about a significant public controversy important to the discourse of our nation.”

SOURCE | AP