Report: Brett Favre Also Funneled His Charity’s Funds To Southern Miss Athletics

Brett Favre is currently embroiled in a massive scandal involving the misallocation of welfare funds by the state of Mississippi, in which Favre received $1.1 million in welfare money for speaking engagements he never went to, and took years to pay that money back — with the state still alleging he owes more than $200,000 in interest.

However, recently it has been discovered in an federal investigation into the matter that Favre’s involvement in the scandal runs deeper than the money he received for speaking engagements, as he played a major role in funneling $5 million in welfare funds in the poorest state in the country to Southern Miss athletics to build a new volleyball facility at the time his daughter was getting set to go to USM to play volleyball. Text messages from Favre indicate that he was well aware of where the funds were coming from — despite his public insistence he didn’t — and every new finding paints the ex-NFL legend in an even worse light.

The latest twist in the story shows that Favre’s insistence on funneling money into USM athletics wasn’t just in pushing welfare money to the school’s athletic department, but also taking money from his own charity, Favre 4 Hope, gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to USM athletics while doling out much smaller amounts to organizations that actually work in the areas the charity claims to provide aid — which is organizations that help disadvantaged children, as well as nonprofits that offer assistance to breast cancer patients — per The Athletic.

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.

For those keeping track at home, that is now state-allocated money for poor Mississippians as well as money raised for disadvantaged children and breast cancer patients that Favre has worked diligently to put into Southern Miss’ athletic program instead.

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