Shannon Sharpe is now hoping to get this Brett Favre lawsuit off of his back.
According to a report from Front Office Sports, the Hall of Fame NFL tight end and current co-host of FS1’s Undisputed looks to dismiss the suit.
As you know, the hall of fame quarterback is suing Sharpe and Pat McAfee for defamation, alleging both knowingly made false comments about the former Green Bay Packers quarterback in regards to a Mississippi welfare scandal.
Sharpe’s lawyers are now arguing his comments fall under protected speech.
“Sharpe’s opinions — commentary based on reported facts and couched in rhetorical hyperbole regarding an issue of public concern about a public figure — lie at the core of the protections afforded by the First Amendment and Mississippi law,” Sharpe’s lawyers wrote in a memo, per Front Office Sports. “Sharpe’s comments are not actionable, and the complaint is irreparably defective on its face.”
Sharpe’s attorneys further alleged that Favre failed to follow Mississippi’s retraction policies. They believe that’s another reason for the lawsuit to be tossed aside.
“This statute requires plaintiffs to send a retraction demand ten days before suing,” Sharpe’s lawyer wrote. “Favre’s failure to comply with that statute provides an independent ground for dismissal.”
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The Mississippi Department of Human Services is suing Favre and several other people and businesses in an attempt to recover millions of dollars in misspent welfare funds intended to help people in need.
Back in September, Sharpe addressed the allegations of Favre’s connection to misappropriated welfare funds:
“So, if that is the poorest state, Brett Favre is taking from the underserved. You made a hundred-plus million dollars in the NFL, and to talk about, well, [Favre] didn’t know. This is what Brett Favre texted, ‘If you were to pay me, is there any way the media can find out where it came from and how much?'”
Favre claimed in the lawsuit that Sharpe made “egregiously false and inflammatory statements” about him on the show.
Favre has denied any wrongdoing and blamed the media for “unjustly” smearing him in public. He has not been criminally charged.
