Shannon Sharpe Defeats Brett Favre’s Appeal in Defamation Suit

Brett Favre lost his appeal in a suit conteding that fellow NFL Hall of Famer and television host Shannon Sharpe defamed Favre by saying he stole funds from a government program for the poor.

“At the time Sharpe made the statements, the facts on which he was relying were publicly known, and Sharpe had a right to characterize those publicly known facts caustically and unfairly,” Judge Leslie H. Southwick said, for the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. “Sharpe’s statements were his ‘strongly stated’ opinions ‘based on truthful established fact[s],’ and thus nonactionable.”

The Fifth Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling tossing Favre’s suit.

Favre sued Sharpe for his commentary about Favre’s involvement in a Mississippi spending scandal. The Mississippi Department of Human Services filed a civil lawsuit against Favre, and a slew of other defendants in May 2022. The civil suit sought to recoup Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds that were allegedly unlawfully diverted by MDHS officials through the Mississippi Community Education Center.

Mississippi Today reported Phil Bryant, the state’s former governor, helped Favre secure at least $5 million in welfare funding to build a new volleyball stadium at the University of Southern Mississippi—Favre’s alma mater and where his daughter played the sport.

The suit also alleged Favre received $1.1 million from TANF funds for speeches he never made. Although Favre has paid that money back, the state auditor demands he also pay $228,000 in interest. Favre denied all wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged with any crimes in the welfare scandal.

The Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments in the case in July over whether Sharpe’s use of the words steal, taking, and stole—language at the heart of the alleged defamation—were protected rhetorical hyperbolic speech under the First Amendment.

“'[O]pinion statements are actionable only if they clearly and unmistakably imply the allegation of undisclosed false and defamatory facts as the basis for the opinion,’” Southwick said, citing a 1984 Mississippi state court case. “This is because ‘nothing in life or our law guarantees a person immunity from occasional sharp criticism,’ and ‘no person avoids a few linguistic slings and arrows, many demonstrably unfair.’”

Because Sharpe’s statementse were merely “strongly stated opinions about the widely reported welfare scandal,” they don’t constitute actionable defamation in Mississippi, the appeals court said.

This defamation suit pitted two former NFL superstars against one another. Favre and Sharpe’s NFL careers overlapped in the 1990s and early 2000s. Sharpe’s brother, Sterling Sharpe, even played wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers and caught passes from Favre for three seasons early in Favre’s career.

Judges Stuart Kyle Duncan and Jeremy D. Kernodle, of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, sitting by designation, joined the opinion.

Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP; Michael J. Shemper of Hattiesburg, Mississippi; and Eric Herschmann of Austin, Texas represent Favre. Carroll, Warren & Parker, PLLC, Phelps Dunbar LLP, and Williams & Connolly LLP represent Sharpe.

The case is Favre v. Sharpe, 5th Cir., No. 23-60610, 9/16/24.