Report: Brett Favre's Charity That's Supposed to Help Poor Kids and Cancer Patients Gave $130K to Southern Miss Athletics

Rarely do you ever see a famous public figure accused of just one random charge of corruption. Payouts, kickbacks, bribes, rackets, embezzlements, and other assorted ways of making yourself rich by absconding with money that is not meant for you always seems to happen in bunches. It's the proverbial potato chip where you can't eat just one. Once you've got the bag of crooked behavior open, you tend to put your mouth over the opening and suck it empty. 

Allegedly. 

So when Brett Favre was accused of working with Mississippi politicians to grab millions in welfare funds meant for the most desperate people in America's poorest state and funneling it to his old school to build an arena for his daughter's volleyball team:

… it was only a matter of time before there would be more accusations of more financial shenanigans. 

That time is now. 

Source - From 2018-2020, Brett Favre’s charitable foundation, Favre 4 Hope, which has a stated mission to support disadvantaged children and cancer patients, donated more than $130,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation during the same years that Favre was working to finance a new volleyball center at the school. …

In the same years Favre was soliciting money to build the volleyball facility, his charitable foundation, which received public donations, significantly increased its contributions to USM’s athletic fundraising arm. Tax records show that Favre 4 Hope gave the USM Athletic Foundation $60,000 in 2018, when no other charity received more than $10,000. The next year, it gave $46,817; the next highest gift, to the Special Olympics of Mississippi, was $11,000. In 2020, Favre 4 Hope sent USM’s Athletic Foundation $26,175; no other organization received more than $10,000.

Tax records also show that in 2015, when Favre’s daughter was a volleyball player at Oak Grove High in Hattiesburg, the Favre 4 Hope foundation donated $60,000 to that school’s booster club, the largest grant made by Favre 4 Hope that year. The Oak Grove Booster Club subsequently granted $60,349 to the high school with the stated purpose being: “assist to build athletic facility.”

Let me pause here to use all the legal disclaimer terms: Reportedly. Allegedly. Accused. Innocent until proven guilty. Due process. Yadda yadda. 

Now that we've dispensed with the formalities, if their is any truth to this, the size and vastness of the corruption here is fucking inconceivable. As anyone who's ever been involved in a charitable operation like Favre 4 Hope, there is an incredible amount of paperwork required to prove everything is above board. It's not just a cheerleaders car wash to help out the school's booster fund. You have to register as a 501(c)(3) charity. Name a Board of Directors and assorted officers. Take minutes of your meetings. File everything with the state's Attorney General's office. All to demonstrate that the money your raising is ostensibly going to the thing you said you were raising it for. 

I'm sure there are plenty of such charities that don't spend it all where they say they will, because people are terrible. But that's what the paper trail is for. To show irregularities and catch the crooks who are buying Porsches with the money that was supposed to be going to Special Olympics. Or in this case, volleyball stadia with the money that was supposed to go to poverty stricken children and comfort the terminally ill. 

Did I say "allegedly"? Allegedly. 

So presumably all that money going to all these non-poor children and cancer patients was accounted for by people whose job it is to look for exactly this kind of chicanery. But it had Brett Favre's sainted name on the checks, and that apparently was good enough for them. This was coming from the Ol' Gunslinger. The Mississippi Riverboat Gambler. Remember, he wasn't just a quarterback; he was a football player. Did you know he'd play for nothing, he just loved the game so much? I do, because we were reminded of it 10 times a week for about 15 years. But according to these reports at least, he was less into working for free when it came to raising money for legitimately worthy causes.

I'll give Brett Favre credit for this though: He has to be the world's leading supporter of amateur women's volleyball. And the places he helped build for his daughter's high school and USM must be absolute showplaces. Volleyballingham Palace. I mean, the sport requires a rectangle, a net, a few balls, rows of stands and a couple of locker rooms. But he sunk enough of other people's money into these to build a court made of diamonds, a silk net and gold-plated bidets in the shower rooms. Though like all crooks stealing money from the public coffers, the assholes behind this scandal were super generous when it came to spending other people's money. 

Lastly, I'd like to add one more nickname to the half dozen or so Brett Favre already has:

I started as an altar boy working at the church,
Learning all my holy moves doing some research,
Which led me to a cash box labelled "Children's Fund,"
I'd leave the change and tuck the bills inside my cummerbund …

I'm Mr. Bad Example, intruder in the dirt,
I like to have a good time and I don't care who gets hurt.