On Monday, Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe scored a victory in the defamation lawsuit filed against him by Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre. A federal judge dismissed Favre’s lawsuit.
Unless Favre appeals the ruling, the case is over.
Sharpe commented on the situation in a Monday night podcast, contrasting his decision to hold firm with Pat McAfee’s willingness to resolve the case in exchange for a public clarification as to comments McAfee had made about Favre.
“Pat McAfee issued an apology,” Sharpe said, via A.J. Perez of FrontOfficeSports.com. “Me, I wasn’t going to issue an apology because if I had issued an apology, I would have felt I had done something wrong.”
McAfee didn’t actually apologize. He clarified his remarks. There’s a real difference between the two.
Sharpe had said that Favre “stole money from people that really needed that money,” when commenting on Favre’s alleged role in a Mississippi welfare fraud case. The judge found that “no reasonable person . . . 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.”
A pending civil lawsuit alleged that Favre stole the money indirectly, by misusing federal welfare funds earmarked for Mississippi.
“Hopefully, the people of Mississippi have their day in court and everything gets worked out about what transpired down there,” Sharpe said.
The lawsuit against Favre and others is ongoing. Favre is due to be questioned under oath on December 11. He smartest play, in my opinion, would be to settle the case before subjecting himself to aggressive questioning by a skilled and experienced lawyer who will twist Favre up in verbal knots.
