'Powerless' Brett Favre aiming to reinstate defamation lawsuit against Shannon Sharpe: Report
Brett Favre is not letting go of his vendetta against Shannon Sharpe and is arguing that what the former NFL tight end and commentator said should not be part of protected speech.
The Hall-of-Fame quarterback has been accused of allegedly benefiting from money that the state government of Mississippi was supposed to spend on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). He reportedly redirected funds towards pet projects like a volleyball court of his alma mater Southern Miss, where his daughter was part of the team.
Brett Favre denies all such allegations but when the reports first emerged, Shannon Sharpe used the word 'stole' to describe the quarterback's purported involvement in the scandal. The former Packers legend sued for defamation and the District Court ruled against him, saying that what the legendary tight end said was protected under the 'doctrine of rhetorical hyperbole'.
But Brett Favre does not seem to agree as he has taken it to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and is arguing that the defamation lawsuit should be reinstated.
His lawyer, Amit R. Vora, contended that what Shannon Sharpe said was a "lie" and that viewers believed it despite his client maintaining that there is no evidence that he did so. Because any such proof that exists might not become public, it puts the quarterback at a disadvantage, the quarterback's advocate claimed.
Vora's comments during the oral argument were reported by A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports, as follows:
“He’s [Favre] unable to counteract this insidious and spreading lie. There’s readily available evidence that viewers, in fact, took this accusation literally [and] that this accusation harmed Favre’s reputation. In fact [Favre] has never stolen money from anyone, and yet that evidence may never see the light of day... It renders Favre powerless to counteract this attack on his reputation.”
Why did the District Court dismiss Brett Favre's lawsuit against Shannon Sharpe?
At the previous stage of this legal battle between Brett Favre and Shannon Sharpe, the defamation lawsuit was dismissed by U.S. District Court Judge Keith Starrett, who had written in a filing, as reported by ESPN,
"Because Sharpe's comments are constitutionally protected rhetorical hyperbole using loose, figurative language, they cannot support a defamation claim as a matter of law."
It also wrote about the quarterback's conduct that was publicly known and said,
"The Court also acknowledges that from the reports in the public arena after government investigations, forensic audits, civil litigation, Favre's text messages, and Favre's own implicit admission by returning $1.1 million dollars to the State, it appears to be widely believed that the money obtained by Favre for himself and USM [University of Sourthern Mississippi - Favre's alma mater] came from welfare funds."
Brett Favre had at that time said that he disagreed with the court's rulings and was looking at further options, which brings us to the events now at the Appeals Court.