Ex-New York Jets Gameday host Jenn Sterger has no sympathy for the team’s former quarterback Brett Favre, who recently revealed he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
The retired NFL star, 54, made the surprising announcement that he had “recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s” while addressing Congress on Tuesday (September 24) as part of a hearing on welfare reform.
Favre, who has never been criminally charged, was accused in a civil lawsuit of misusing funds from Mississippi’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and receiving $1.1m, which he has since returned, for motivational speeches that he never gave.
Hours after the NFL Hall of Famer’s revelation made headlines, Sterger, who accused Favre of sending her suggestive pictures and text messages in 2008 when she worked as a Gameday host for the New York Jets, reacted to the news unsympathetically.
“I don’t wish bad things on anyone, but I know Karma never forgets an address,” she shared on her Instagram Story.
Sterger, now 40, previously alleged that she was sent unsolicited lewd pictures and voicemails from Favre during his one season with the New York team.
The NFL subsequently opened an investigation into the allegations; however, while Favre admitted to leaving Sterger voicemails, the league concluded that Favre was not in violation of its policies relating to workplace conduct.
He was fined $50,000 for “failure to cooperate” with the investigation.
Adding to her message on Instagram, Sterger referenced Favre’s welfare misspending scandal, saying: “Imagine being diagnosed with such a terrible disease & not having the resources to fight it bc some Hall of Fame quarterback stole it?
“Those are the people that need your attention, support, and sympathy,” she concluded. “And at least now, his pictures won’t be in focus. Mississippi you deserve better.”
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Favre is not facing any criminal charges, but he is among more than three dozen defendants in the civil lawsuit over the misappropriation of about $77m in state welfare funds. The football legend has denied ever knowing that the money was meant for welfare.
Favre noted his charity had provided millions of dollars to poor children in his home state of Mississippi; and Wisconsin, where he played most of his career with the Green Bay Packers.
A Mississippi state audit showed that $5m ultimately went toward a volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi – which Favre and his daughter attended – and another $1.7m went to Prevacus, the company he invested in as it was working on a “breakthrough” concussion drug.