In this week’s presentation of Netflix’s sports documentary series, Untold, the ever-pertinent question of whether our modern society gives sporting superstars undeserved leeway in real-life situations is brought to the table. The Fall of Favre covers the story of Brett Favre, one of the NFL’s most celebrated quarterbacks, whose talents and contributions to the sport will perhaps always be overshadowed by the controversies and scandals that he has been involved in. However, to many people even today, the athlete’s contributions on the field remain much more significant than the serious crimes that he committed later in his life, and Untold: The Fall of Favre tries to assess this very situation with clear intent.
How did Brett Favre become a household name?
The Fall of Favre begins by tracing the roots of Brett Favre and, more importantly, by taking a look at the love for football in Wisconsin, where even pastors at churches conduct mass wearing Green Bay Packers berets and green-and-gold sashes. One of the oldest teams to still be a part of the National Football League, the Green Bay Packers are also easily the most successful team in the country, having won 13 championships, more than anyone else. While the team has had a lot of success in the past, there have been long trophy droughts and disappointing seasons at a stretch. Having reached the absolute heights of success in the 1960s, the Packers franchise started to lose their shine as they struggled to win and, more importantly, to cope with the stronger teams that dominated the league during the following decades. By the 1990s, the illustrious team had not won anything in over 20 years, and they would come to be considered a mediocre team at best.
It was around this time that Brett Favre first joined the Green Bay Packers, and his impact was almost immediately felt. Born and raised in Mississippi, Brett Favre showed great potential right from his high school days, when he started playing as a quarterback for the Hancock North Central High School. He wanted to pursue a career in football and went on to join the University of Southern Mississippi, where his skills developed and were noticed by scouts from all over the country. Because of the precise fastballs that he grew a habit of throwing, Brett even earned the name ‘gunslinger,’ and he was seen as a first-round prospect in the 1991 NFL draft. But he was not to have a dream start in the league, and was drafted only in the middle of the second round by the Atlanta Falcons. It was made evident by the Falcons’ head coach, Jerry Gianville, that they did not consider Favre as a starter or even a role player, and the rookie hardly made an appearance throughout the season.
A significant change had also taken place in 1991 at Lambeau Field in Wisconsin, as Ron Wolf had become the new general manager of the Packers, and it was Wolf who made the decision to bring Favre over to his team. Brett Favre was traded to the Packers in 1992, and in the first half of that very season, the starting quarterback, Don Majkowski, had to be substituted mid-game because of an injury. Brett was called up for action, and he showed an immediate impact, turning the game around and securing a win for his new team. This truly marked the beginning of the Favre-Packers era, during which the quarterback was selected as the league’s Most Valuable Player for three seasons running. The final culmination of all this arrived in 1996, when the Green Bay Packers made it to the Super Bowl and defeated the New England Patriots to lift the championship title for the first time in 29 long years. Favre continued performing brilliantly for the team after this win, and the Green Bay Packers once again became a formidable force in the league.
But with all this success came a strong sense of ego and pride, which gradually started to turn some of the coaching team and staff against the superstar quarterback, who was absolutely beloved by the fans by now. Favre was considered nothing less than a heroic athlete who had brought back pride and joy to Lambeau Field, and there were even moments when the player used this support in his favor and undermined the game plans of the coaches. Eventually, Favre’s performance dipped as well, and his injuries kept him away from the field during significant games, which led to a clear rift between himself and the front office.
While the Packers administration wanted their QB to give his all for the team, Favre was seemingly losing interest in the position, and so he started considering the possibility of retiring at the end of each season. There was also a highly valued young quarterback already in the squad by this time, as the Packers had drafted Aaron Rodgers in 2005, and when Favre finally announced in 2008, almost egoistically, that he was retiring because he was not happy with the team anymore, the Packers quickly replaced him with the young Rodgers. Favre realized that he no longer had the upper hand in the situation, and so he decided to come out of retirement to join the New York Jets for a year.
He once again announced his retirement at the end of the season but again returned to the field, this time with the Minnesota Vikings. Finally, in 2010, the star athlete hung up his boots without changing his mind afterwards, and he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016 for his contributions to the sport. Although his move to the Vikings had angered a lot of the Packers fans, since the two teams are fierce rivals, Brett Favre was still held in very high regard by football fans, and he is still considered a great to this day.
Who is Jenn Sterger?
However, Brett Favre’s story remains incomplete without any mention of Jenn Sterger, and it is this side of the superstar athlete that The Fall of Favre is more interested in covering. Jenn Sterger, who appears throughout the Netflix documentary, herself explains how she suddenly became a popular face in the world of sports. Despite hailing from a sports family, Jenn always wanted to be an entertainer, and she did not particularly find herself while studying criminology and psychology at Florida State University. Like most FSU students, if not all, Jenn was also thrilled at being able to watch the college football team at their home ground, the Doak S. Campbell Stadium. It was during one such game, in 2005, when Jenn was spotted by the TV broadcast crew while they were shooting the crowd, and the camera returned to the young woman a number of times throughout the night, both because of her traditionally attractive looks and also because Jenn was wearing a bikini top with a cowboy hat at the time.
This is really what made Jenn Sterger famous on one random evening, and her photo from the game started circulating and creating a buzz among fans on the internet. The commentator during the telecast, Brent Musburger, had also made a sly comment about how 1500 youngsters have suddenly decided to join FSU after seeing Jenn on TV, and this made the woman even more viral. Jenn Sterger quickly became an internet sensation overnight, and she capitalized on the situation by dressing up in a similar manner and going to more games throughout the season. By the end of the year, she was approached by men’s magazines like Maxim and Playboy, and she swiftly started a modeling career. Jenn was then signed by Sports Illustrated for a short video series segment on their website, in which she would be traveling along with the LSU football team and covering fan reactions and interviews from the various stadiums across the country.
Thus, Jenn Sterger had finally become a part of the world of sports entertainment, and in 2008, she was hired by the New York Jets organization to host a show for the team called “Gameday Host.” It was during this time, in her very first year in the role, that Jenn started to receive messages from Brett Favre, who had just joined the team. Although the young woman did not want to be associated with the superstar athlete, romantically or otherwise, Favre simply refused to take no for an answer. He got hold of her phone number from one of the staff, repeatedly texted her asking to meet and suggesting that he wanted sexual favors from her, and then finally made the most disgusting move by sending her an unsolicited nude of himself. She kept ignoring the man, for all her complaints to her superiors had fallen on deaf ears, and at the end of the year, her contract at the Jets was not renewed, clearly upon the advice of Favre.
In 2009, Jenn briefly worked for an online sports magazine named Deadspin, which has always been more interested in covering scandals and shocking news than following the traditional route of journalism. Incidentally, it was Deadspin that had first published an article about Jenn Sterger with her viral photo from the LSU game, and when she innocently mentioned her experiences in New York to the magazine’s chief editor, A.J. Daulerio, she did not apparently expect anything of it. But this was obviously the most lucrative sort of news for Daulerio, and he immediately published an article about how the supposed family man, Brett Favre, had made inappropriate advances towards a younger colleague at the New York Jets. All the photographic evidence, text messages, emails, and voice notes that Jenn had regarding the matter were released by the media soon after, and it was clear as day that the incident had really taken place.
What was the reaction to Jenn’s shocking claims?
The most shocking part about the whole incident was that although Jenn had enough proof of the harassment she had faced at the hands of the superstar athlete, nothing serious ultimately came of it. The NFL began an investigation but finally announced that they could not find any solid evidence to prove that it was indeed Favre who had sent the messages and photos to Jenn. The only punishment that he received at the time was a fine of 50,000 dollars to be paid to the NFL, which was just a mild slap on the wrist, for the Vikings quarterback had failed to cooperate with the investigation properly. Incidentally, two more women who worked in some capacity at the Jets franchise also complained that they had been similarly approached for sexual favors by the QB, but nothing came of these complaints either.
On the other side, Jenn Sterger was almost immediately blacklisted because of her claims against a beloved athlete of such high caliber, and her talk show that was on air at the time in 2009 was cancelled shortly after the article on Deadspin. She failed to get any more significant hosting gigs from the sports or media industry following the incident, as is often the case with women who speak up against established sportsters. It is seemingly only after 2019 that she had returned to a somewhat similar role, working as a presenter and host for the All Elite Wrestling promotion.
How was Favre found to be involved in the scandal?
While Brett Favre managed to avoid this scandal in 2009, he eventually got roped into an even more shocking incident long after his retirement in 2010. After he stepped away from the sport, Favre openly invested in and then promoted a concussion care company called Prevacus, which claimed to have come up with a revolutionary treatment for concussion. Favre went on to become the largest individual shareholder in the private company, but Prevacus was later found to be involved in the Mississippi welfare funds scandal in 2020. As the retired footballer and his family had moved back to their home state of Mississippi, he got quite involved with the community there and naturally became friends with important political figures.
Favre’s new friends included the governor of the state, as well as John Davis, the director of the state welfare scheme that existed to help provide financial support to millions of underprivileged people in the state, and also Nany New, the manager of the said welfare fund. It is clear from the numerous text messages and emails shared between Favre and New that the ex-footballer was basically using welfare funds to fund his personal projects that would only benefit him and his family. Brett’s daughter, Breleigh, was a part of her high school volleyball team when a state-of-the-art volleyball stadium was built for the team with the help of funds acquired by him.
In reality, it was the welfare fund that had been used for this construction, which Favre had gotten hold of by claiming that he was to have a wellness center built for the underprivileged. Similarly, he had gotten hold of welfare funds from New to fund the businesses he had been a part of, with Prevacus receiving a massive investment of 2 million dollars.
Has Brett Favre been punished for any of his crimes?
Despite there being proof of Favre’s involvement in the Mississippi welfare funds scandal, in the form of the text messages and emails, the footballer has not actually had to face any punishment for either of his crimes. His sexual misconduct and harassment had already been brushed under the rug by the league, by the media, and even by his own family, as his wife, Deanna, stated that she continues to support her husband because she has utmost faith in him and his actions. Following the more massive funds scandal, Favre made use of some strong friendships he had cultivated with the government, and it is clearly suggested that he managed to get away only because of his influence as a white superstar ex-athlete. His attorney, Eric Herschmann, who had also earlier served as the attorney and advisor to Donald Trump himself, denounced all claims of his client’s involvement, and he even ensured that there was no media reporting on the matter. In September of 2024, Brett Favre had to appear in court during the trial, where he denied any wrongdoing, and as of now, there have been no criminal charges against him. All the punishment that Favre has had to face so far is with regard to his finances, as quite a few companies canceled their deals with him, but the ex-NFL superstar continues to live a normal life with his wife and family at their home in Mississippi.
