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It has been just under a month since former NFL quarterback Brett Favre was exposed in text messages that suggested former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, helped fund a volleyball stadium for the university Favre’s daughter attends by shifting at least $5 million of the state’s welfare funds at the rich ex-pro football player’s request. Since then, Favre lost his NFL show for SiriusXM, and people have even been calling for him to be removed from the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
So, it’s a bit strange that instead of immediately denying that he’s a whole welfare queen who intercepted funds meant for the poorest and most vulnerable Mississippi citizens, he waited damn near a month to come out and essentially say: “Nah—I didn’t know sh** about where that money came from.”
“I have been unjustly smeared in the media,” Favre said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “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,” he continued. “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.
“State agencies provided the funds to Nancy New’s charity, the Mississippi Community Education Center, which then gave the funds to the University, all with the full knowledge and approval of other state agencies, including the State-wide Institute for Higher Learning, the governor’s office and the attorney general’s office,” Favre wrote in a statement. “I was told that the legal work to ensure that these funds could be accepted by the university was done by State attorneys and State employees.”
Favre should expect that the only part of his statement a lot of people might find to be true is the part where he says, “it is past time to set the record straight.” Because, yeah, he should’ve been said something if the allegations about him are false. Some might argue that he had to stay silent for legal reasons—like maybe an attorney told him to hush for a month—but what’s the difference between mid-September, when Mississippi Today published the story about the text messages, and now?
More importantly, Favre’s Johnny-come-lately statement doesn’t explain why, according to the texts, Favre asked New, “If you were to pay me is there any way the media can find out where it came from and how much?” to which New responded, “No, we never had that information publicized.”
Why is Favre afraid of the public finding out where the money came from if the deal was so innocent? He now claims he’s being “smeared” in the media, but he was already concerned that the media would find out where the funds he was gifted were coming from. Why?
“Those sorts of text messages suggest that he didn’t want the information out, that he knew that there was something that suggested that this would not be favorable if it came out,” state auditor Shad White, who first discovered the welfare fraud scandal, told Fox News Digital. “And there are also text messages that show that information had been communicated to him by somebody at the university that they would be nervous about the money flowing for some of these projects.”
As for Favre’s claims that everything was on the up and up legally speaking, White appeared to call bullsh** on that as well.
“The volleyball court needed to be used to benefit the needy in Hattiesburg,” White said. “And fast-forward to today, what we know now is that the volleyball court has not been used to benefit the needy. So, this is an unallowable use of TANF funds for a few different reasons. And for those reasons, it doesn’t matter that the attorney signed off on this. What matters is that it simply is not an allowable use of TANF funds, and it’s our job in the auditor’s office to point that out when we see it.”
So, Favre still has a lot of explaining to do. If he thinks this tardy-to-the-welfare-party statement here is going to get him out of the hot water he’s in, he’s sorely mistaken.
I mean, this is some “incomplete pass” energy right here.
SEE ALSO:
Mississippi Welfare Scandal Sparks Calls For Brett Favre To Be Kicked Out Of Football Hall Of Fame
Brett Favre Loses Radio Shows Amid Widening Mississippi Welfare Fraud Scandal
