Shannon Sharpe says he won't apologize to Brett Favre after defamation lawsuit dismissed

A judge dismissed a lawsuit that Brett Favre brought against Shannon Sharpe on Monday. Now, unless Favre chooses to appeal the case, the legal battle between the two former NFL players is over.

The lawsuit itself was a defamation suit related to comments that Sharpe made about Favre and the Mississippi Welfare Scandal. However, even with the lawsuit, Sharpe never backed down or apologized for what he had said, in contrast to others.

“Pat McAfee issued an apology,” Shannon Sharpe told Front Office Sports. “Me, I wasn’t going to issue an apology because if I had issued an apology, I would have felt I had done something wrong.”

Shannon Sharpe called out Pat McAfee for apologizing. However, it should be noted that he didn’t do that, he clarified what he had previously said.

Favre’s defamation lawsuit against Sharpe was for comments he made publicly about the case. Sharpe said that Favre “stole money from people that really needed that money.” However, a judge found that a reasonable person would not think that he went into the homes of poor people and literally stole money based on these comments.

Notably, Brett Favre is a defendant in a civil lawsuit that says he took welfare funds earmarked for poor families in Mississippi. That lawsuit is still pending and Favre is due to be questioned under oath about the case in December.

Money that Favre took from the scandal reportedly went to athletic facilities at his alma mater, Southern Miss. He also repaid more than $1.1 million that he was paid for speaking fees at events he didn’t attend or speak during.

“Hopefully, the people of Mississippi have their day in court and everything gets worked out about what transpired down there,” Sharpe said.

Brett Favre accused of withholding evidence in Mississippi welfare case

The public has already seen some of the evidence in the Mississippi Welfare Scandal, including text messages the Brett Favre sent. Still, he was accused over the summer of withholding even more evidence.

“Despite being identified as the sender or recipient on the face of these text messages, Favre objected and claimed he could not verify many of these text messages’ authenticity,” MDHS said in a document.

On top of that, Front Office Sports reported that “MDHS stated that approximately 330,000 documents have been produced by more than 40 defendants in the case since the lawsuit was filed in May 2022. Favre, so far, has handed over just 24 pages of documents, according to the filing.”