At least one legal expert believes Brett Favre has an uphill battle ahead of him regarding defamation lawsuits he filed against sports media personalities Pat McAfee and Shannon Sharpe.
“The main thing for McAfee and Sharpe’s purpose is this defense of actual malice,” sports attorney and law professor at New York Law School and Fordham University School of Law Dan Lust told Michael Grant of Awful Announcing. “Favre will have to show not just that the statement was false but essentially that McAfee and Sharpe … that they knew that the statement was false but said it anyway or they just recklessly proceeded without knowing if it was true or false. That’s a very high burden.”
It was learned earlier this month that Favre had filed defamation lawsuits against McAfee, Sharpe and Mississippi state auditor Shad White over comments made about the retired quarterback’s alleged involvement in a welfare scandal involving funding for a new volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi, Favre’s alma mater and where his daughter played the sport.
Lust pointed out that the lawsuit against the auditor isn’t surprising but that “there’s a heightened standard of what we refer to as actual malice” as it pertains to comments made about public figures.
For a piece published on Feb. 9, John Barr and Anthony Olivieri of ESPN noted that the lawsuit against Sharpe claims the Hall of Famer called Favre a “sorry mofo to steal from the lowest of the low” and said Favre “stole money from people that really needed that money” during the FS1 “Undisputed” program.
The lawsuit against McAfee alleges that the former punter called Favre a “thief” who was “stealing from poor people in Mississippi” while speaking on his “The Pat McAfee Show.”
A defiant McAfee vowed ahead of Super Bowl LVII that he will see Favre “in court” and would not offer a public apology. Lust suggested Favre’s legal team may simply be looking for a resolution “by someone issuing a retraction” before the cases go to trial.
“I think it hit kind of a fever pitch right around September,” Lust added about the initial Favre story. “That’s when the comments are attributed to Sharpe. But with respect to McAfee, his comments were in November and late December. He’ll argue that ‘Hey, I was just relying on others’ reporting that had been out there for months. What did I say that was different than what anybody else said the months prior?’ So, a little bit different arguments. Of the three, McAfee seems to have the most layers of insulation.”
Lust mentioned via Twitter that he favors McAfee over Favre in this matter (Warning: Video contains not-safe-for-work language from McAfee):
