Brett Favre is suing Pat McAfee for defamation, and Pat McAfee is already using that lawsuit for content on his show.
Favre’s alleged involvement in the Mississippi Welfare Case has been widely reported, with the former quarterback being accused of improperly receiving funds from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Thursday night, Favre, who denies knowledge of the misspent welfare funds despite damning evidence against him, filed defamation lawsuits against Shannon Sharpe and Pat McAfee, along with Mississippi state auditor Shad White.
Ladies and gentlemen.. I am being sued by Brett Favre#PMSinAZ pic.twitter.com/QIm0i0ohUV
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) February 10, 2023
“I’m getting sued by Brett Favre,” McAfee said to begin his Friday show from media row at the Super Bowl. “I’m getting sued alongside Shannon Sharpe and an auditor from Mississippi by Brett f*cking Favre. Brett Favre’s suing me in a defamation lawsuit, saying I defamed his name to try to earn a profit.”
According to McAfee, he received two letters in recent days from Favre’s New York lawyers warning him of the defamation lawsuit if specific action was not taken.
“First letter was, ‘we would like you to go back and erase every single video that has Brett Favre’s name mentioned in it from your YouTube library, your Twitter library and everything else,’” McAfee said. “So I looked at that and said, ‘that is hilarious!’ Of course we’re not doing that.”
“Then a few days later, ‘you have until Wednesday, this Super Bowl week, 8:30pm Eastern Time to issue a public apology to Brett Favre and also to erase all of the video in your catalog that involves Brett Favre’s name,’” McAfee continued.
Declaring himself one of the worst apologizers in history, “it’s tough to get me to do it,” McAfee said the deadline came and went while he was playing pickleball with his cast of podcast contributors.
Favre’s decision to include McAfee in his defamation lawsuit likely occurs from comments made last year. Amid the media being criticized for not talking about Favre’s alleged involvement in the Mississippi welfare case enough, McAfee stated his desire to see the scandal mentioned every time the former NFL quarterback’s name is broached going forward.
“For the information that we have currently, we have to mention, he tied the hands of poor people and took money right out of their pockets,” McAfee said during a November episode of his show. McAfee did note that Favre was denying the accusations, adding that they would reassess the allegations after his side of the story was public. And on Friday, McAfee also highlighted the show’s excessive use of the term “allegedly.”
“There’s one word, I believe that was said, often, on this particular program if you were to watch at all and that would be ‘allegedly.’ Our job is to report the news,” McAfee said. “Allegedly what was going on down in Mississippi with Brett Favre, the man who is suing me for money and for defamation, was being reported on this particular program because we owe the sports media world our coverage of it.”
“A lot of people are wondering how my lawyers are gonna handle this,” McAfee continued. “You know it, I ain’t got ‘em. So let’s ride this f*cker, I’m excited to see how it goes. I’ll see you in court, pal.”
