Copeland's Corner: September 28, 2022
Where is the media coverage and the outrage over Brett Favre?
I recently watched the Ava Duvernay-produced Colin Kaepernick Netflix limited series, Colin in Black and White. The series follows Kaepernick’s life as an African American child raised by white adoptive parents in Turlock, California, to his struggles to get a football scholarship to college when he was known primarily as a star baseball pitcher. The series is narrated and presented by Kaepernick himself and bookended with social commentary on the plight of African Americans in this country. A lot of what he shows, I wasn’t aware of. I found it enlightening and entertaining. Especially since my son, Adam, faced him at the plate a few times in high school at various baseball tournaments. Like most batters, Adam couldn’t get a hit when Kaepernick was on the mound.
After watching the show, I thought about the turns Kaepernick’s life has taken since that time. After turning down a multitude of full rides from colleges to pitch and being turned down by a multitude of colleges to quarterback, he stuck to his guns and persisted until he was finally offered an opportunity by the University of Nevada, Reno, and ultimately fulfilled his dream to play for the NFL, playing six seasons for the San Francisco 49ers. His dream ended when he had the unmitigated gall to kneel during the national anthem in a silent and respectful protest against racial injustice in America. He was met with an avalanche of mostly negative media coverage that continues to this day as well as right wing scorn and indignation for having the effrontery to suggest that cops shooting unarmed black citizens was wrong. It’s cost him his career. People still bitch about what he did. My question is, where is the media coverage and the outrage over Brett Favre?
Favre, a Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback, has been implicated by a mountain of damning evidence in what auditors are calling the largest case of fraud in Mississippi state history with at least $77 million in federal funds allocated for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, a welfare program for the state’s poorest citizens, misspent. At least $8 million went to Favre projects, including $5 million for a volleyball stadium at University of Southern Mississippi (Favre’s alma mater and the school at which his daughter was playing volleyball), a $2.15 million investment in Prevacus (a pharmaceutical startup developing a concussion drug in which Favre holds a major stake), and a $1.1 million contract and prepayment to Favre’s company, Favre Enterprises, to promote a poverty program called Families First for Mississippi. The contract included making two speeches which Favre neglected to make.
So far, there have been three arrests in the widening probe that began with a 2020 audit. Among those charged are former Mississippi Department of Human Services head John Davis, (who has pleaded guilty to fraud charges) and Nancy New, the founder of the Mississippi Community Education Center, that was to spend tens of millions of federal welfare funds on helping the poor but allegedly funneled some of that to Favre for his enterprises and projects. New has pled guilty to 13 felony counts of racketeering, bribery and fraud. Both New and Davis, who also helped facilitate funds to Favre, are cooperating with the investigation.
As for Favre and the other alleged member of this fraudulent conspiracy, former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, zip. There have been no official accusations of wrongdoing or criminal charges. Favre paid back the $1.1 million after the scandal broke, although he is being sued for $228,000 in interest on the money. He has been questioned by the FBI about the matter exactly once, two years ago. He was asked only one question that he later laughed with his attorney about, “Have you ever been to Tupelo (Mississippi)?” One of the speeches Favre was paid to make was in Tupelo.
Favre claims that he didn’t know that the money was for the poor, yet text exchanges between Favre and the other alleged conspirators have surfaced, including such gems as Favre asking New regarding the $5 million misspent on the volleyball stadium, “If you were to pay me is there anyway the media can find out where it came from and how much?” Favre’s attorneys claim that Favre was just being humble and didn’t want to publicly tout his philanthropic deeds, something he has never had a problem doing in the past. There are also texts with Bryant about how to transfer the money in a way that appears legal, texts with Favre’s partner in the drug company on “compensating” New and Bryant with thousands of shares of stock in the startup and Davis with a new pickup truck, as well as Favre’s attempts to get help from New and Davis in using funds to pay off over $1 million in debt he and his wife incurred in personal pledges regarding the volleyball stadium at USM.
Despite all of this, the coverage of this whole messy story is primarily in Mississippi Today, which has done an excellent job of investigating and laying this whole thing out. There are snippets of coverage of the affair in other news sources, but little about its full extent. My question is… where is the outrage? If you ask most people about this story, they haven’t heard anything. If you explain it to them, many will brush it off by saying, “He paid the money back,” as if repaying the $1.1 million for speeches he didn’t give somehow negates the damage he caused by instigating the diversion of at least $8 million dollars in aid that would have gone to the poorest people, in the poorest state in the union. Over 20% of Mississippians live below the poverty line vs. 13.4% nationally. They are mostly people of color.
I am outraged that a rich, connected man who stole millions from the needy gets less public scrutiny, anger and media attention for it than a guy who quietly kneels to bring attention to civil rights. Then again… that’s just me.