By Hayden Kulick
While he wears Wrangler jeans and Copper Fit, he can’t find a way to wear any prides.
Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre has been recently accused of fraud for using $5 million of the state of Mississippi’s welfare fund in order to build a volleyball facility.
According to NBC, while the former All-Pro quarterback has yet to be indicted of anything, he is a piece to a much bigger puzzle that includes $70 million being taken away from the state’s fund for needy families and given to him, a professional wrestler, a horse farm and a volleyball complex.
“Mississippi is both the blackest state and the poorest state,” senior writer for ESPN David Dennis Jr. said. “There has not been safe water to drink in Jackson Mississippi for months.”
The state of Mississippi also gets $87 million dollars in welfare money every year, yet it rejects 90% per NBC.
“Two percent of people get approved for the welfare fund in the state,” Dennis said. “Yet they have given $5 million to Brett Favre.”
The three-time MVP was also paid a combined $1.2 million in 2017 and 2018 for speeches that he did not give. That money was from the same welfare fund that is supposed to be used on poor and needy families in the state of Mississippi. He eventually paid away those debts for the speeches, however he still owes the state $228,000 in interest.
The one time Super Bowl champion’s lawyer has declined all interviews relating to the subject, claiming that Favre has “done nothing wrong and never understood he was paid with money intended to help poor children,” per NBC.
This isn’t Favre’s first run in with the law either. Back in 2011 Christina Scavo and Shannon O’Toole, former massage therapists for the New York Jets, filed a lawsuit against Favre for Inappropriate and unsolicited text messages. On multiple occasions, he messaged various women in the Jets organization about meeting up and asking for sexual favors.
Jenn Sterger, a former sideline reporter for the Jets, also experienced similar behavior from the quarterback when he was finishing his career as a player. She received inappropriate text messages and voicemails from the NFL legend.
The man has faced few consequences for his seemingly many indiscretions, outside of one $50,000 fine for failure to cooperate with a league investigation.
Let’s compare that to the punishments of some players of color.
Wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons, Calvin Ridley, was suspended indefinitely for placing a $12,000 bet on his own team to win a game.
Tennessee Titans wide receiver Josh Gordon, was suspended from December of 2014 to November of 2017 for violation of the leagues drug policy.
Pro bowl running back Ezekiel Elliott, was suspended for a domestic violence accusation that ended up being a false claim.
Dating back 30 years ago, Super Bowl champion Dexter Manley was given a lifetime suspension for an addiction to crack cocaine.
And Colin Kaepernick lost his career to kneeling during the National Anthem.
Brett Favre has violated the NFL’s policies many times, yet he continues to barely be penalized. If he were a person of color, he would’ve been kicked out of the Hall of Fame.
