Brett Favre didn’t stop at lobbying for millions of dollars of Mississippi welfare money to go toward a new volleyball stadium at the university where his daughter was playing volleyball, or at taking $1.1 million in state welfare money for speeches he never gave. He followed that up by lobbying for millions more in state welfare money to pay for an indoor practice facility for the football team at the University of Southern Mississippi, texts between him and then-Gov. Phil Bryant show.
While texts released earlier show Bryant boosting the Mississippi Community Education Center, the criminal nonprofit run by Nancy New and her son Zachary New, as it spent public funds for the volleyball stadium, the new set of texts—included by Bryant’s lawyers in court filings—show him putting the brakes on Favre’s pleas for the football practice facility. His lawyers contend that Bryant did not know about the welfare money being used to build athletic facilities until texts from Favre in July 2019. In late June 2019, Bryant had raised concerns about possible fraud with the state auditor.
RELATED STORY: Mississippi officials misused welfare money to build NFL Brett Favre's daughter a volleyball stadium
Favre had texted with Bryant about the volleyball facility in 2017, asking for his help raising money for it. But in the July 2019 texts, he directly referred to New and to John Davis, who was appointed by Bryant as director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services in 2016 and forced out by Bryant … in July 2019.
”I want you to know how much I love Nancy New and John Davis,” Favre texted. “What they have done for me and Southern Miss is amazing.”
In the newly released texts, Bryant warns Favre that spending welfare money on sports facilities would be illegal, saying that federal welfare funds are “tightly controlled” and “improper use could result in violation of Federal Law.”
At the time, Favre was both trying to get help cover debt on the volleyball stadium and in funding the football practice facility, which he said would give the Southern Mississippi program “instant credibility.” He met with Bryant on Sept. 4, 2019, texting Bryant after the meeting, “We obviously need your help big time and time is working against us” and suggesting that the volleyball facility could be named for Bryant. By this time, Bryant seems to have been getting nervous. He responded, “We are going to get there. This was a great meeting. But we have to follow the law. I am to old for Federal Prison.”
Brett Favre was paid nearly $140 million in NFL salary through his career, in addition to a laundry list of endorsements and a key cameo in There’s Something About Mary. Since 2018, he’s hosted a weekly SiriusXM show (now on hold because of this scandal), and he continues to serve as a “brand champion” for athletic apparel maker Copper Fit. The man is extremely wealthy. But he spent years trying to get the state to pay for a lavish volleyball facility for a team his daughter just happened to play on, out of federal funds designated for Mississippi’s neediest.
Texts released earlier show that Favre was concerned about the media finding out about the $1.1 million in welfare funds he personally received, so he knew he was into some extremely sketchy stuff here. At the same time, the families the money was intended for were being turned away and forced to live in poverty.
“That same year, MDHS confirmed to the Clarion-Ledger that it had approved just 1.42% of poor families who applied for assistance through the TANF program, or 167 out of 11,700,” Ashton Pittman and William Pittman reported for Mississippi Free Press. “For those MDHS did approve for TANF benefits, a family of three would receive just $170 in assistance per month at that time. It has since risen to $260. To be eligible, a caregiver must either be pregnant or the parent of a child younger than 18; a three-person household must earn no more than $680 in gross monthly income.”
Brett Favre is definitely one of the bad guys here. A very bad guy. But while he and Nancy New broke the rules—broke the law—about what money intended for low-income families can be spent on, what’s allowed within the law is bad enough. Mississippi’s system does everything it can to avoid giving money directly to the people who need it most. It’s in that context that criminals are able to brand a volleyball stadium for a rich guy’s daughter as a “wellness center” that will be leased by a nonprofit for use on “educational services and training programs.” Mississippi was looking for ways to spend federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families money on things other than directly helping needy families—and that opened it up to this kind of scam.
Pssst. Want to learn how competitive your House district is? Daily Kos Elections just released a massive new data set that breaks down the results of the 2020 presidential election for every last one of the nation's new congressional districts, so we're dissecting on The Downballot what it all means with longtime DKE writer Stephen Wolf. Wolf explains why these numbers closely predict the outcome of most House elections, how they show the way in which the overall playing field has grown even more tilted toward Republicans, what the most evenly divided district in the country is, and much more.
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While texts released earlier show Bryant boosting the Mississippi Community Education Center, the criminal nonprofit run by Nancy New and her son Zachary New, as it spent public funds for the volleyball stadium, the new set of texts—included by Bryant’s lawyers in court filings—show him putting the brakes on Favre’s pleas for the football practice facility. His lawyers contend that Bryant did not know about the welfare money being used to build athletic facilities until texts from Favre in July 2019. In late June 2019, Bryant had raised concerns about possible fraud with the state auditor.
RELATED STORY: Mississippi officials misused welfare money to build NFL Brett Favre's daughter a volleyball stadium
Favre had texted with Bryant about the volleyball facility in 2017, asking for his help raising money for it. But in the July 2019 texts, he directly referred to New and to John Davis, who was appointed by Bryant as director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services in 2016 and forced out by Bryant … in July 2019.
”I want you to know how much I love Nancy New and John Davis,” Favre texted. “What they have done for me and Southern Miss is amazing.”
In the newly released texts, Bryant warns Favre that spending welfare money on sports facilities would be illegal, saying that federal welfare funds are “tightly controlled” and “improper use could result in violation of Federal Law.”
At the time, Favre was both trying to get help cover debt on the volleyball stadium and in funding the football practice facility, which he said would give the Southern Mississippi program “instant credibility.” He met with Bryant on Sept. 4, 2019, texting Bryant after the meeting, “We obviously need your help big time and time is working against us” and suggesting that the volleyball facility could be named for Bryant. By this time, Bryant seems to have been getting nervous. He responded, “We are going to get there. This was a great meeting. But we have to follow the law. I am to old for Federal Prison.”
Brett Favre was paid nearly $140 million in NFL salary through his career, in addition to a laundry list of endorsements and a key cameo in There’s Something About Mary. Since 2018, he’s hosted a weekly SiriusXM show (now on hold because of this scandal), and he continues to serve as a “brand champion” for athletic apparel maker Copper Fit. The man is extremely wealthy. But he spent years trying to get the state to pay for a lavish volleyball facility for a team his daughter just happened to play on, out of federal funds designated for Mississippi’s neediest.
Texts released earlier show that Favre was concerned about the media finding out about the $1.1 million in welfare funds he personally received, so he knew he was into some extremely sketchy stuff here. At the same time, the families the money was intended for were being turned away and forced to live in poverty.
“That same year, MDHS confirmed to the Clarion-Ledger that it had approved just 1.42% of poor families who applied for assistance through the TANF program, or 167 out of 11,700,” Ashton Pittman and William Pittman reported for Mississippi Free Press. “For those MDHS did approve for TANF benefits, a family of three would receive just $170 in assistance per month at that time. It has since risen to $260. To be eligible, a caregiver must either be pregnant or the parent of a child younger than 18; a three-person household must earn no more than $680 in gross monthly income.”
Brett Favre is definitely one of the bad guys here. A very bad guy. But while he and Nancy New broke the rules—broke the law—about what money intended for low-income families can be spent on, what’s allowed within the law is bad enough. Mississippi’s system does everything it can to avoid giving money directly to the people who need it most. It’s in that context that criminals are able to brand a volleyball stadium for a rich guy’s daughter as a “wellness center” that will be leased by a nonprofit for use on “educational services and training programs.” Mississippi was looking for ways to spend federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families money on things other than directly helping needy families—and that opened it up to this kind of scam.
Pssst. Want to learn how competitive your House district is? Daily Kos Elections just released a massive new data set that breaks down the results of the 2020 presidential election for every last one of the nation's new congressional districts, so we're dissecting on The Downballot what it all means with longtime DKE writer Stephen Wolf. Wolf explains why these numbers closely predict the outcome of most House elections, how they show the way in which the overall playing field has grown even more tilted toward Republicans, what the most evenly divided district in the country is, and much more.
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