Why the N.F.L. Is Investigating Brett Favre
By TONI MONKOVICNo woman has put her name behind claims of sexual harassment by Brett Favre. We have to start there, and with a presumption of innocence. But accusations that Favre sent suggestive messages and photos to the Jets sideline personality Jenn Sterger in 2008 are well past the whispering stage and seem likely to become a major distraction. The N.F.L. is investigating.
Judy Battista:
N.F.L. Security is trying to determine the veracity of the claims, including whether the photos and messages were sent by Favre and not somebody impersonating him.
Deadspin reported that a man said to be Favre contacted Sterger on MySpace and began leaving her voice mail messages.
Also at issue is
another Deadspin article that raised the question of whether a member of the Jets public relations staff acted as an intermediary in Favre’s attempts to contact Sterger.
Some may still be wondering why it’s the N.F.L.’s business. If Favre harassed Sterger or anyone else working for the Jets, it could become a legal matter. It’s best to let the lawyers explain:
First up, Clay Travis, NFL FanHouse:
You may hate for the media to pry into athlete’s private lives, but Brett Favre’s alleged acts aren’t really private at all. They’re actionable under the law and directly implicate football. Based on the allegations, a person in a position of power tried to take advantage of that power to encourage someone to do something that they otherwise wouldn’t have done. That’s a story as old as time.
Based upon all of the sexual harassment investigations I undertook, I can already give you an idea exactly what the NFL and the Jets are going to uncover in their own investigation: No man ever admits to anything. Period.
Except now technology comes into play. Many men are being caught based upon e-mail, text messages, phone logs and photos. Where once it was two dueling stories, now there is evidence to accompany these stories.
Mike Florio, ProFootballTalk.com, also a lawyer:
The league has every reason to be concerned about preventing this kind of behavior. Even though Sterger supposedly was a contractor and not an employee of the Jets, she became exposed to Favre (and, allegedly, Favre became exposed to her) via her workplace. The fact that, per Deadspin, a Jets P.R. employee may have known about Favre’s interest in Sterger and facilitated the communications would make it only more difficult to avoid potential liability for sexual harassment, if the alleged victim were inclined to proceed with civil charges.
When Favre was asked about the allegations, he declined to address them: “I’m not getting into that. I’ve got my hands full with the Jets.”
Brian Bassett, who runs the The Jets Blog, began by saying: “I don’t feel a need to explain how much I love the Jets. I think that writing daily on this site, for the past six years, is testament enough.”
You could then sense his disappointment and disgust as he went on to write:
Over the past months since this story was first hinted at by Deadspin, I’ve had this story confirmed to me by multiple independent sources who knew about this, saw the pictures, etc. But beyond just Favre’s inappropriate actions, I’m also talking about the Ines Sainz incident, and yes … even the Gate D situation of a few years back.
Why bring up old wounds? Because they are just that, wounds. Sexual harassment is no trivial thing.
No matter what the team might say, there is a pattern here.
Extra point: More bad news for Favre, this time on the field. Judd Zulgad of The Star Tribune writes: “There is growing concern about Brett Favre’s throwing elbow. After taking part in all of practice Thursday, the quarterback was limited Friday because of tendinitis in the elbow that has been troubling him in recent weeks and doesn’t seem to be improving.”