Court of Appeals challenges Brett Favre’s defamation suit against Shannon Sharpe

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court on Monday declined to revive a defamation lawsuit former NFL quarterback Brett Favre filed against a fellow Pro Football Hall of Famer — former tight end Shannon Sharpe.

Favre filed the lawsuit over comments Sharpe made in 2022 on a Fox Sports talk show amid a developing social media scandal in Mississippi involving millions of dollars siphoned off to the rich and powerful.

Mississippi State Auditor Shad White said Favre improperly received $1.1 million in speaking fees to go to a volleyball arena at the University of Southern Mississippi, where Favre had played football and where his daughter to play volleyball. The charges were from a nonprofit that spent money on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families with the approval of the state Department of Human Services.

Sharpe said Favre “took from the underprivileged,” that he “stole money from people who really needed that money” and that one would have to be a bad person “to steal from the least of the smaller”.

Favre was not charged with wrongdoing and paid back $1.1 million. White said in a February court filing that Favre still owed $729,790 because interest had caused the original amount he owed to increase.

Favre sued Sharpe for his criticism of the show. A federal district judge dismissed the lawsuit, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Favre’s appeal on Monday.

The ruling said Sharpe’s comments were constitutionally protected opinions based on publicly known facts.

“His statements are better viewed as strong opinions about the widely reported social scandal,” Judge Leslie Southwick wrote in the court’s opinion Monday on behalf of a unanimous three-judge appeals panel.

Southwick said alleged inaccuracies in Sharpe’s comments were corrected during the show by Sharpe’s co-host, who noted that Favre had not been criminally charged and had paid back the original $1.1 million. Sharpe himself said during the program that Favre claimed he did not know the source of the funds, Southwick said.

“At the time Sharpe made the statements, the facts on which he relied were publicly known, and Sharpe was entitled to characterize those publicly known facts in a caustic and unfair manner,” Southwick wrote.

The decision upheld the lower court’s ruling, but on slightly different grounds. The district court dismissed Favre’s suit, finding that Sharpe’s comments were rhetorical hyperbole and that no reasonable person would interpret Sharpe’s statements as literal allegations of theft given the context of the broadcast. The full 5th Circuit did not address that question, but upheld the dismissal on the opinion’s argument.

The nine-page ruling can be viewed here.

Top photo: Favre in 2015. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

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