[Craic] HOW BRETT FAVRE’S FLAWS WERE HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

[Rob Anderson]

Ted, your man Dave Zirin strikes again, this time at Donald Trump’s golf buddy, the Southern Mississippi and Green Bay icon, Brett Favre. 

Who would have guessed more sports scandals with these entitled “idols.” The First Commandment might have provided a clue. 
Of course, the yellow brick road of gold stretches right from their junior days, through to their college “privileges” all the way to the hero’s mantle and celebrity armour that shield these “super heroes” from accepted norms of behaviour.  Is there any Alexander who can cut through the impossible “Gordian Knot” of sports culture so tightly entangled as it is with the prevailing cult of success, domination and the American myth of exceptionalism?

Bob





Hey Folks! Here's my latest
> All my best
> Dave Zirin
> ps - my NFL movie Behind the Shield is dropping early next week! Prepare your families!
> 
> https://www.thenation.com/article/society/brett-favre-laundering/?nc=1
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> HOW BRETT FAVRE’S FLAWS WERE HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT
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> Living on the grift and evading responsibility while being protected by fame, power and media complicity, describes more people than just Donald Trump. It is an apt description for his golf buddy Brett Favre. In the eyes of the sports media, Favre has lived a life less as a person than an idea: the “gun slinging” NFL quarterback. His play was his persona. He was daring. He was reckless. He was a tough guy who played more consecutive games than anyone in NFL history. His charm spanned the nation, beloved in his home state of Mississippi and also easily winning over the frozen tundra of Green Bay. He wore Wrangler jeans.
> But there was another Brett Favre hiding in plain sight. This Brett Favre was a maelstrom of demons that the people around him, including the press, regularly ignored or pursued with the softest of kid’s gloves. First, there was his addiction to Vicodin and booze. In 2021, long after his playing days, Favre revealed the true depths of his plight, saying, “It was two pills that gave me a buzz, and then it was four. At its peak, I was taking 16 Vicodin ES all at one time.” 
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> This was only discovered by a team doctor after Favre had a seizure. Yet even his addiction when first revealed was placed in the context of a good ol’ boy who was dedicated to the sport and would be willing to do anything to keep his bionic consecutive games streak alive. That Favre also had a self-described alcohol addiction, which suggests a darker pain he was trying to smother, was not explored. Brett Favre also projected an image as a family man. Yet as a gray-haired veteran quarterback for the New York Jets, Favre sent pictures of his penis to New York Jets reporter Jenn Sterger and also sent voicemails asking her to come to his hotel room. This despite the fact, as Sterger said in 2018, she didn’t even know him. Favre just assumed, like ordering a pizza, she would arrive at his door." A lot of people don't realize I've never met Brett Favre. I don't know him. I've never met him personally, never shaken his hand, never said hello, never introduced myself. So to this day, a lot of people don't realize I was cyber-bullied. I wasn't his mistress, I wasn't his girlfriend, we had no physical interaction at all, and I think that that's something, to this day, that still shocks people." 
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> Then when his camera vids were released, it was Sterger, not Favre, who paid the price with her career, as she became buried under the nonconsensual label, “The Brett Favre girl.”
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> It was Favre that kept on going, playing at an MVP level for the Minnesota Vikings, always the aw shucks gunslinger with whom the media was besotted. Post playing days, Favre has, far from a pariah, had a regular gig on Sirius XM radio, been feted at the Packers Lambeau Field and, of course, been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the first ballot. The media has loved Favre and while raking other scandal plagued athletes across the coals – often excused as if he was an extra in the Dukes of Hazzard, just a “good ol’ boy” and simply Brett being Brett. 
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> Knowing that culture of giving this man a privileged pass at every opportunity is critical to understanding how Favre could allegedly fleece the poorest residents of his home state of Mississippi by taking money earmarked for welfare recipients in order to funnel millions of dollars to his alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi, to build a volleyball arena (Favre’s daughter played volleyball for the school). Favre denies all charges being levied against him, saying he had no knowledge of any of this chicanery. But we have text messages that strongly imply Favre knew exactly what he was doing and was concerned that the press would find out. We also have indications from more damning texts that former Governor Phil Bryant was in on the grift. We will need to see how the legal system pursues this. But given the abject poverty in the state of Mississippi, and the horrific water conditions in Jackson, Mississippi – something the current Governor Tate Reeves seems to mind amusing – Favre’s alleged laundering and even Favre’s access to these funds is gobsmacking. 
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> Favre had already recently been cited – in yet another character warning – for taking money from the state of Mississippi to do “motivational talks” and then not doing the damn talks. Yet still, he was given the keys to the state’s cookie jar for the alleged welfare scam.. Why a quarterback would have such access to state funds is one story. Why someone who made more than 100 million dollars during his career would still have a taste for dreary, ugly grifts, is also surely a story unto itself. If nothing else, it speaks to the culture of protected, privileged impunity that has surrounded and cushioned his life. His affection for golf pal Donald Trump plays as at least a metaphorical understanding of this. Lives like theirs don’t only catch up to the individual. The collateral damage to others is profound.
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