Brett Favre retired from the NFL with a reputation as one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game.
Since then, The Gunslinger has had his reputation tarnished by several controversies and legal issues, with much mud being slung in his direction.
That all came to a head with Netflix’s Untold: The Fall of Favre, released this past May. The film centered on the controversies surrounding Favre, specifically allegations of inappropriate conduct with former New York Jets field reporter Jenn Sterger and his alleged connection to a Mississippi welfare fraud scandal.
The documentary interviewed many people, but not Favre. In the closing moments of the film, a text crawl reads “Brett Favre declined to be interviewed for this documentary.”
Favre was a guest on Wednesday’s episode of The Sage Steele Show, where, amongst other things, he shared his thoughts on the film. For starters, he claimed that Netflix never reached out to him to appear in the doc, though he would have declined anyway.
“Well, they didn’t ask, first of all, but if they would have, I would have said no,” said Favre when asked why he didn’t speak with the filmmakers.
“The slides at the end of the documentary were accurate,” documentary executive producer A.J. Perez told Awful Announcing. “We stand by our film and the cards at the end.”
The film also includes scenes that show Perez listening to threatening voicemails he allegedly received from Favre’s representatives because of his reporting at Front Office Sports.
Favre quickly addressed the Jenn Sterger aspect, in which he allegedly sent unsolicited photos of his penis and left voicemails encouraging her to meet up with him, saying, “That was almost 20 years ago. It’s like, are you that desperate that you got to rehash something that has been dealt with and moved on from?”
As for the welfare scandal, in which Favre is alleged to have been involved a laundering scheme that redirected funds intended for the state’s poorest individuals towards building a volleyball stadium and a million-dollar public speaking contract, he says that he’s under a gag order and unable to discuss the details, but that the truth will eventually come out and validate his defense that he did nothing wrong.
“I’m still under a gag order, unfortunately, that has been in place probably four years now. So I can’t defend myself even if I wanted to,” said Favre. “But I know this, and this may come out before this is cleared up, but I know this, the truth will come out.
“I can’t talk about it right now, but for those who jumped ship and call me everything in the book, you’re going to be, sadly… you know, your view of me may not change. I don’t know, that’s up to you. But your view of me being a criminal or whatever will definitely change.
“You know, for the haters out there. I think about it sometimes. ‘Damn, I thought he did it’ or wanted me to do it. But again, the truth will come out, and it sucks because I can’t talk about what I know and what has been out there is only a small part of, allegedly, what has been misspent or, you know, but because of who… There’s 47 people named as defendants in this. There’s only one person you. You hear about, and that’s me.
“It sucks. It sucks for my family, but I’m a big boy. I can handle it. And I know the truth will come out. And I look forward to the day where I can actually tell the just of… And I think you and everyone else will be like, you gotta be kidding me.”
Favre told Steele that he hadn’t watched the Untold film, saying he didn’t see the point since many of the people involved in the scandal couldn’t discuss it at the time.
“I don’t know why I needed to,” he said. “First of all, I knew what. What they were talking about and very little of the welfare, because the people involved in the welfare can’t talk… You can make a program with assumptions, but if you want the true facts and if you really are in it, whether it be Netflix or anyone else, if you’re really in it to be unbiased, which they’re not going to do that because, you know, if they really research and get some people to talk, they’re going to find out that it’s not as juicy a story as, you know, we had hoped.
“Because it sure looks, you know, a headline that, you know, former quarterback makes all this money and all this glitz and glamor and then he steals welfare money. That’s a great headline if you’re in the business of headlines. But it ain’t true. And what kills me, I’m not surprised. But what kills me is there reporters that know, especially in this state, that I don’t know personally, but I know of, that know the truth but refuse [to speak] unless they’re made to. Which they’re not going to be made. They’re not going to tell you. I mean, they have that right now. They could change it. They could print something today that would tell you a lot of things that you. You wouldn’t know about the case that would shed light in a positive way on me. But I think you lose the clickbaits by doing that.”
Steele says that he’s not heard any other names of the people accused of being involved (even though those names are often included in write-ups of the scandal, some of whom have been charged), which concerns her because it changes the perception people have about “an incredible football player, a Hall of Famer, but also a good guy.”