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Federal Judge Intercepts Brett Favre's Defamation Suit Against Shannon Sharpe

Keep suing, eventually we'll stop talking about it.

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American Family Insurance Championship – Round Two

(Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

Yesterday a federal judge in Mississippi gave Brett Favre a lesson in First Amendment law when he dropkicked a defamation suit the Hall of Fame quarterback filed against sports talkshow host Shannon Sharpe, also a Hall of Famer. He also schooled the retired athlete on the phenomenon known as the “Streisand Effect” with a ruling that thrust Favre’s role in the diversion of welfare funds back into the news cycle.

For the past three years, Mississippi has been roiled by a massive corruption scandal that saw $77 million in federal welfare funds siphoned off to projects associated with allies of then-Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant. Favre, who returned $1.1 million in “speaking fees,” is alleged to have helped steer $5 million to upgrade the volleyball facility at his daughter’s college. He also helped arrange for $2 million of that sweet, sweet TANF cash to go to a biotech startup he’d invested in — which doesn’t exactly scream “Temporary Aid to Needy Families.”

A normal person would take his lumps, apologize, and go put himself in time out for a minute. But Brett “Green Crocs” Favre is used to showing whole ass to the world. So naturally he’s screaming bloody murder that his good name is being besmirched by association with this scandal.

Toward that end, he hired former Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann to sue sports talkshow hosts Shannon Sharpe and Pat McAfee, themselves both NFL veterans, for defaming him in comments on their respective programs.

In his complaint, filed in the Circuit Court of Lamar County Mississippi in February, Favre wrote:

Defendant Sharpe, on his popular national sports television program, which has an audience of hundreds of thousands of viewers daily, has made egregiously false and defamatory statements that Favre, the Hall of Fame quarterback and native son of Mississippi, was a “sorry mofo to steal from the lowest of the low” that Favre was “taking from the underserved [in Mississippi],” and that “[Favre] stole money from people that really needed that money.” There is no basis anywhere for these outrageous falsehoods, which Sharpe made knowing that they were false or, at a minimum, with reckless disregard for the fact that they were false.

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Both cases were immediately removed to federal court, and Favre dismissed his suit against McAfee in May after McAfee apologized on air. But Sharpe did not back down, defending his statements as protected hyperbole. And that argument carried the day with Judge Keith Starrett, a GWB appointee in the Southern District of Missouri, who dismissed the case yesterday.

After recounting the allegations against Favre based on public reporting, the court rejected the claim that listeners came away from “Skip and Shannon: Undisputed” convinced that Favre personally tackled impoverished Mississippi residents and stole their food stamps.

The reference to “taking” and “stole” figuratively refers to the diverting funds from the TANF for purposes other than helping the underprivileged. Similarly, Sharpe’s use of the words “people that really needed that money,” the “lowest of the low,” and “the underserved,” again are examples of protected, colorful speech referring to needy families in Mississippi.

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. Sharpe’s comments were made against the backdrop of longstanding media coverage of Favre’s role in the welfare scandal and the State’s lawsuit against Favre.

Applying Mississippi precedent, Judge Starrett found that a normal person would understand that the entire point of sports talkshows is shittalking, AKA “rhetorical hyperbole — robust language used to express Sharpe’s strong views about the new information that emerged about Favre’s participation in the welfare scandal.”

“Undisputed is not a news outlet where viewers expect genuine initial reporting of events,” he continued. “It is a debate format sports entertainment talk show with lively, pointed banter, and Sharpe’s comments are properly seen in that context as constitutionally-protected speech.”

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But Favre will get one more shot at that trophy, as he’s sued Shad White, the state auditor who uncovered the scandal. That case is proceeding in state court, so perhaps Favre will get some more money out of the Mississippi’s coffers by suing a civil servant. Not as fun as stealing welfare money from poor people, but you take your fun where you can get it.

Judge dismisses Brett Favre defamation suit, saying Shannon Sharpe used hyperbole over welfare money [AP]
Favre v. Sharpe [Docket via Court Listener]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.

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