Last month, it was announced a documentary covering the controversy surrounding former QB Brett Favre would be released on Netflix. That documentary, titled Untold: The Fall of Favre, dropped this week. Many sports fans, especially fans of the Green Bay Packers, are already well aware of the allegations that have been made against Favre over the past 15+ years. I decided to take one for the team and watch the doc, because I thoroughly enjoy hopping on that hate train whenever it rolls into the station. Here’s a breakdown of the doc, plus my thoughts! BUCKLE UP.
Let’s start with the names interviewed:
Michael Vick, former QB - I was very confused by this, until it suddenly made sense! We’ll get to that.
Jemele Hill, journalist
Bill Michaels, radio host
Dylan Tomlinson, former journalist
Rick Cleveland, journalist
Reggie Warnsley, former college teammate of Favre
Ron Wolf, former GM of the Packers
Don Majkowski, former Packers QB
Jenn Sterger, Favre accuser and former Jets employee
Peter King, journalist
Tim Andre, former Jets employee
AJ Perez, reporter for Front Office Sports
Ashton Pittman, journalist
Bennie Thompson, Mississippi congressman
I had a pretty good idea in my mind of how this doc would be laid out, and it went as expected. Things started by talking about Green Bay both as a city and NFL franchise, and their 20-year slump after their domination of the NFL’s early years. We then dive into Brett Favre’s college career at the University of Southern Mississippi, including how he got the nickname “The Gunslinger”. There was talk of him perhaps being drafted in the first round in 1991, but he fell to the 33rd-overall pick when he was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons. They played a clip of his draft announcement, when his name was pronounced Brett “Fay-ver”. In hindsight, he maybe deserved this.
They then bring in former Packers GM Ron Wolf, who I was surprised to see make an appearance, given both his age and the fact that I think the Packers would prefer to stay away from this part of Brett Favre. The Falcons didn’t want Favre to play—he didn’t study film, he didn’t know what different formations were. Wolf mentions the Packers’ “sorry condition”, and how he, by chance, saw Favre throwing around on the field before a game. He immediately went to work on acquiring Favre in a trade. Then comes Don Majkowski, who had been the Packers’ on-and-off starting QB since 1987. His last game starting for the Packers was against the Cincinnati Bengals in September of 1992, when he suffered an ankle injury and was replaced by Favre. Favre lit up the field, the Packers won by 1, and the rest was history. He would go on to start every game for the team through the 2007 season.
Green Bay Packers v Washington Redskins Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images
We then leave the Packers discussion to introduce Jenn Sterger. She talks about being in the marching band in high school, and then her eventual enrollment at Florida State University. She said she never felt like she fit in, until a football game against the University of Miami in 2005, when someone spilled a beer on her, and she spent the rest of the night in a swim top she had underneath. She was featured on the game’s broadcast, and a clip is played of announcer Brent Musburger saying “1,500 red-blooded Americans just decided to apply to Florida State”, while the camera is focused on a 22-year-old Sterger. This is the same Brent Musburger who made similar comments on the appearance of 23-year-old Katherine Webb during the 2013 BCS National Championship Game.
After Sterger was featured on the broadcast, Deadspin wrote about her, and she became an internet celebrity known as “The Cowgirl”. She posed for Maxim and Playboy, and is quoted as saying, “I played the game.” She then wrote an article for Sports Illustrated, who ended up hiring her full-time. She mentions that when she sees young women in the stands at sporting events now, she thinks “be careful what you wish for.”
We then go back to Green Bay. The team’s Super Bowl XXXI win is mentioned, as is Brett Favre’s growing celebrity. He starts doing more advertisements. He set the record for all-time TD passes in 2007. And then: a sudden shift! Favre is mentioned as a notorious womanizer. Dylan Tomlinson, former writer for the Green Bay Press-Gazette, says that when Favre’s wife Deanna was going through a public battle with breast cancer, he was asked to write a story about the QB being a family man. He very plainly says, “I don’t write fiction.”
After this, the doc changes the subject to Favre’s father, Irvin, in an attempt to give some insight as to how Brett was raised. Various anecdotes are passed around, including one of Favre getting his dad a Super Bowl ring after their win, and Irvin never thanking his son. It is discussed that Irv would always pick out the bad, rarely celebrating the good. Bill Michaels mentions, “Once Irv passed, he was the only one in charge of him. That’s when things got a little off the rails.”
Now, we’re in 2005, which Michaels calls “the beginning of the end.” He is, of course, referring to the Packers’ drafting of QB Aaron Rodgers 24th overall. This is when the public mulling of retirement began, and it continued year after year, until 2008, when Favre publicly stated he didn’t want to play anymore. Peter King then says that days before the Packers were to report for the 2008 season, Favre asked what would happen if he decided he wanted to keep playing. King told Favre, “I don’t think they want you anymore,” to which Favre’s agent replied that he was full of it. Favre was then traded to the New York Jets, which is where we get to the meat of the documentary.
Mayor Bloomberg Welcomes Brett Favre to New York Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images
Sterger, who was working as the Jets' gameday host at the time, says someone in the organization told her that Brett Favre wanted her phone number. She says she did not provide it, and also mentions, “I look a lot like his wife.” BOY, DOES SHE. She then receives multiple messages on social media from what we now refer to as “burner accounts”, to which she does not reply. Then, the text messages and voicemails begin, still anonymous, however, she thinks she recognizes his voice. She realizes someone gave her number out without her permission. She’s sent a lewd photo, which is attached to an email address “bfavre@tmail.com”. The way the story is told, this was her first official confirmation that the calls and texts had all been coming from Favre. Sterger says she told people in the organization, who shrugged her off, and her contract with the Jets was not renewed at the end of the year. “He was very protected, and I was a 25-year-old independent contractor.”
Fast forward to Favre’s time with the Minnesota Vikings. Jenn Sterger’s story went public after she mentioned it to Deadspin editor AJ Daulerio in confidence, and he said he would run it anyway. Various news clips from that time are played, and reporters seem to find it absolutely necessary to mention that Sterger once posed provocatively for various magazines. We then see clips of football fans being asked about the story, to which they reply things like “He made some bad decisions, but you’ve still gotta respect the guy,” and “I don’t care as long as he’s performing on a football field.” Sterger’s TV show at the time was canceled 25 days after Deadspin’s story ran, and her career was effectively over. She says that, to this day, she has still never actually met Brett Favre.
At this point in the documentary, we’re about 3⁄4 of the way through, and the focus is on Favre’s post-NFL career. He’s a spokesperson for various brands, he’s very vocal about the prevention and treatment of concussions, and he’s doing philanthropic work, like getting a new volleyball facility built for Southern Miss! Then comes the evidence of the alleged welfare scandal, including texts exchanged between Favre, John Davis (Mississippi’s welfare director), and Nancy New (director of the Mississippi Community Education Center). No mention of welfare dollars is actually made, but there are texts from Favre asking “If you were to pay me is there anyway the media can find out where it came from and how much?”
In total, Favre and his various projects were granted about $8 million. It is mentioned at this point that this money is for the poorest of the poor in Mississippi, and an example is given of a single mother with two children who would qualify for about $260 of aid. For an understanding of just how much money Favre’s projects received, $8 million would total 30,769 payments of $260. The only thing we hear from Favre on this issue is a clip from an appearance on the radio show Wilde and Tausch, where he says he would “never do anything like that.”
We’re at the end of the doc, and we’re hearing multiple people summarize their opinion of Favre as a person. Mississippi congressman Bennie Thompson says he doubts you’ll find a lot of elected officials willing to talk about Favre, “because there’s still a lot of intimidation attached to who he is and who identifies with him.” FOS reporter AJ Perez mentions that Favre has people covering for him in all areas of life, and plays a call he received years ago from one of Favre’s attorneys who says, “I hope you’ve got some money saved up.”
The topic of race is then brought up when Thompson states, “When you’re a white superstar, in many instances you get a pass,” and the camera flashes to Michael Vick, who famously served prison time after being convicted of charges related to a dog-fighting ring. To date, Favre has not been charged with any crimes relating to the alleged harassment of Jenn Sterger, nor the alleged involvement in the welfare scandal.
The hour-long doc is over at this point, bless all that is holy. None of this was information that I didn’t already know, except that the harassment of Jenn Sterger was ANONYMOUS pretty much the entire time. We’re almost 20 years removed from this story, so I’m not sure if that information was reported at the time, but it was new to me. At this point in the doc, I was both disgusted and heartbroken for Sterger, who was extremely emotional during her entire interview. I can very vividly remember how she was painted by the media when this story broke, and it feels very apparent now just how unfair that was. Jemele Hill is quoted during the doc as saying, “People always think women are getting something out of it. There’s nothing to get out of it, more often than not.”
Sterger’s career was ruined, and there are still people to this day who talk about her as though she were nothing more than an attention-seeker. She gained absolutely nothing from what happened, aside from a reputation she says she does not want. I think the Jets organization, and everyone who ignored Sterger’s cries for help, should be ashamed of themselves.
I will tread very lightly on the welfare topic, as everything is still alleged, and I hear Favre is very litigious! My thoughts on this are: I am very much looking forward to new developments in this case, and I hope the appropriate parties are one day brought to justice, though we know the right people are almost never adequately punished for things like this. Welfare funds are for people who truly need them, and I think what is effectively stealing from the poor is absolutely despicable.
Onto the doc itself: Things were extremely fast-paced. It was only an hour long, which is not a lot of time to cover a story spanning over 30 years. Personally, I think it would’ve served well as a miniseries of several episodes. It’s important to note that Favre declined to be interviewed, so we are only hearing “one side” of things (from a ton of different people who worked very closely with him.)
Overall, I think the release of this documentary is monumental, as it gives his story more widespread attention. As Packers fans and sports fans in general, it’s easy for us to say, “I already know all about this; I’m not interested”, but the fact of the matter is, there are so many people who know nothing about this story. As we’ve seen in recent years, attention sometimes gets things done. As more and more people learn about the story, it’s possible we’ll see meaningful change and development in the right places. And with that, I say: I need a nap.