Favre v. Sharpe
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Favre v. Sharpe, 117 F. 4th 342 (5th Cir. 2024)
Favre v. Sharpe
Opinion
Case: 23-60610 Document: 79-1 Page: 1 Date Filed: 09/16/2024
United States Court of Appeals
for the Fifth Circuit
____________
United States Court of Appeals
Fifth Circuit
No. 23-60610
FILED
____________ September 16, 2024
Brett Lorenzo Favre, Lyle W. Cayce
Clerk
Plaintiff—Appellant,
versus
Shannon Sharpe,
Defendant—Appellee.
______________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Mississippi
USDC No. 2:23-CV-42
______________________________
Before Southwick and Duncan, Circuit Judges, and Kernodle,
District Judge. *
Leslie H. Southwick, Circuit Judge:
This suit is between two former professional football players. The
defendant ex-player was a co-host of a sports talk show during which he said
the plaintiff stole funds from a government program meant for those living in
poverty. The plaintiff sued for defamation, but the district court categorized
the talk-show comments as hyperbole for which there was no liability. The
_____________________
*
United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas, sitting by
designation.
Case: 23-60610 Document: 79-1 Page: 2 Date Filed: 09/16/2024
No. 23-60610
court dismissed the suit on the pleadings. We apply a different doctrine that
also protects the comments and AFFIRM.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Brett Favre is a Mississippi native. He was a star football player for
the University of Southern Mississippi (“USM”) and then had a lengthy
professional career, primarily with the Green Bay Packers of the National
Football League. He was named three times as the NFL’s Most Valuable
Player, had a Super Bowl victory, and was selected for the NFL Hall of Fame.
Much more recently, his public image has been somewhat tarnished by his
connection to individuals who were convicted for the misuse of government
welfare funds and his alleged receipt of some of those funds.
We start with an explanation of the misuse of funds. 1 In October 2021,
the Mississippi State Auditor’s Office determined more than $77 million in
federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (“TANF”) funds
intended to help impoverished Mississippians were used for illegal purposes
across the state. To date, six individuals have pled guilty to state and federal
felony charges related to their involvement in this scandal. Favre has not
been criminally charged. Mississippi’s Department of Human Services
(“MDHS”) filed a civil suit in May 2022 against Favre and numerous
_____________________
1
Both parties submitted documents to the district court that go beyond the four
corners of Favre’s complaint to provide details on the welfare scandal. Although a “district
court generally must not go outside the pleadings,” it “may consider documents attached
to a motion to dismiss that are referred to in the plaintiff’s complaint and are central to the
plaintiff’s claim.” Sullivan v. Leor Energy, LLC, 600 F.3d 542, 546(5th Cir. 2010) (quotation marks and citations omitted). The district court took judicial notice of documents and facts related to the welfare scandal, finding them “integral to Favre’s claim.” Seeid.
We will not explore the reach of judicial notice but will set out some of
these details because neither party objected to their use by the district court.
2
Case: 23-60610 Document: 79-1 Page: 3 Date Filed: 09/16/2024
No. 23-60610
persons, seeking to recover TANF funds that were unlawfully diverted
between 2016 and 2019.
MDHS initially sought to recover $1.1 million in TANF funds Favre
received from the non-profit Mississippi Community Education Center, Inc.
(“MCEC”) in 2017 and 2018 for speaking engagements that he never
performed. Favre had repaid the funds prior to MDHS’s suit. MDHS
amended its complaint to recover $5 million in TANF funds Favre allegedly
arranged to be used to fund the construction of a new USM volleyball facility.
According to MDHS, Favre was unable to encourage sufficient donations for
the facility’s construction, so he turned to the non-profit MCEC to help
secure the $5 million in funding. TANF funds were ultimately used on the
project.
Local and national news outlets continued to cover developments in
the welfare scandal and Favre’s alleged involvement. During that time, two
events occurred that gave rise to this lawsuit. The first was a September 13,
2022, article in an online news source called Mississippi Today. The article
detailed the MDHS’s recent filing of a civil suit against Favre. The article
included text messages between Favre and one of the six individuals later
convicted in the scandal, Nancy New, that discussed the construction
funding of USM’s volleyball facility and how it was likely the media would
not determine the source of the funds. 2 According to the Mississippi Today
article, these texts were proof that Favre worked with New to orchestrate
MCEC’s use of the $5 million in TANF funds for the volleyball facility. The
article stated the separate $1.1 million was a way to receive more funds for
_____________________
2
New is the former president and CEO of the MCEC non-profit, which received
and illegally disbursed TANF funds. She pled guilty to 13 felony counts related to the
scandal.
3
Case: 23-60610 Document: 79-1 Page: 4 Date Filed: 09/16/2024
No. 23-60610
the project. It also acknowledged Favre denied knowing the money received
for the project came from the TANF program.
The other event underlying this suit occurred the day after the
Mississippi Today article appeared online. The defendant, Shannon Sharpe,
along with Skip Bayless, hosted a nationally broadcasted sports talk show
called Undisputed. Sharpe also had an exceptional professional football
career. He played 14 seasons in the NFL, was on three Super Bowl winning
teams, and was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. The relevant segment
opened with the moderator briefly summarizing the Mississippi Today article
and then asking Sharpe for his thoughts about its impact on Favre’s legacy.
Sharpe and Bayless then engaged in an eleven-minute discussion about
Favre, the welfare scandal, and MDHS’s civil suit. The hosts provided
colorful and derogatory views on the article, calling Favre “a sleazeball,”
“shady,” “gross[],” and a “diva,” and accusing Favre of “steal[ing],”
“egregious” behavior, and “illegal activity.”
Favre viewed three of Sharpe’s statements as defamatory:
1. “The problem that I have with this situation, you’ve got to
be a sorry mofo to steal from the lowest of the low”;
2. “Brett Favre is taking from the underserved” in
Mississippi; and
3. Favre “stole money from people that really needed that
money.”
Favre sent Sharpe a letter demanding he retract these statements,
apologize, and cease and desist from making any “further defamatory
falsehoods against Favre.” Sharpe refused. Favre sued for defamation in a
Mississippi state court. Favre alleged in his complaint that these three
statements injured his reputation, falsely accused him of serious crimes, and
were defamatory in nature.
4
Case: 23-60610 Document: 79-1 Page: 5 Date Filed: 09/16/2024
No. 23-60610
Sharpe removed the case to the United States District Court for the
Southern District of Mississippi based on diversity jurisdiction. He then filed
a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss Favre’s
complaint for failure to state a claim. Sharpe argued (1) the challenged
comments are “a classic example of the kind of rhetorical hyperbole and
loose, figurative language” protected by the First Amendment, and (2)
Mississippi law protects Sharpe’s critical comments because they discuss a
matter of public concern and are drawn from official proceedings.
The district court granted Sharpe’s Rule 12(b)(6) motion because
Sharpe’s comments were “mere rhetorical hyperbole,” which made the
comments “unactionable.” The court concluded that “no reasonable person
listening to the Broadcast would think that Favre actually went into the
homes of poor people and . . . committed the crime of theft/larceny” because
“[l]isteners would have recognized Sharpe’s statements as rhetorical
hyperbole.” Favre timely appealed.
DISCUSSION
We review a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal de novo. Allen v. Hays, 65 F.4th
736, 743 (5th Cir. 2023). To survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, “the complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.”Id.
(quotation marks and citations omitted). “A plaintiff need not provide exhaustive detail to avoid dismissal, but the pleaded facts must allow a reasonable inference that the plaintiff should prevail.” Mandawala v. Ne. Baptist Hosp.,16 F.4th 1144, 1150
(5th Cir. 2021). We take the factual allegations in the complaint as true but disregard conclusory allegations and legal conclusions. Id.; Allen, 65 F.4th at 743. We resolve “[a]ll questions of fact . . . in the plaintiff’s favor.” Lewis v. Fresne,252 F.3d 352, 357
(5th Cir. 2001).
5
Case: 23-60610 Document: 79-1 Page: 6 Date Filed: 09/16/2024
No. 23-60610
The district court ruled only on Sharpe’s rhetorical-hyperbole
argument when it concluded Favre’s defamation claim failed as a matter of
law. It did not analyze Sharpe’s other grounds, which were that his
statements were protected under Mississippi law as opinions based on
disclosed facts or as reports of official proceedings. This court may affirm a
district court’s dismissal of a suit for failure to state a claim “on any basis
supported by the record.” Ferrer v. Chevron Corp., 484 F.3d 776, 780–81 (5th
Cir. 2007). A different ground raised as a defense provides the clearest
ground on which to rule. We therefore do not analyze rhetorical hyperbole
and instead analyze whether the statements were protected opinions based
on disclosed factual premises.
Our analysis does not turn on the mere labeling of a statement as
“fact” or “opinion.” Roussel v. Robbins, 688 So. 2d 714, 723(Miss. 1996) (discussing Milkovich v. Lorain J. Co.,497 U.S. 1
(1990)). “[A] statement, even if phrased as an opinion, will not enjoy constitutional protection if the court concludes that its substance or gist could reasonably be interpreted as declaring or implying an assertion of fact.” Franklin v. Thompson,722 So. 2d 688, 693
(Miss. 1998) (quotation omitted). Instead, “[t]he relevant inquiry is whether the statement could be reasonably understood as declaring or implying a provable assertion of fact.”Id.
(quotation omitted); see also
Milkovich, 497 U.S. at 21–22.
Mississippi recognizes that “a defamatory communication may [be]
. . . in the form of an opinion,” and “[o]pinion statements are actionable only
if they clearly and unmistakably imply the allegation of undisclosed false and
defamatory facts as the basis for the opinion.” Ferguson v. Watkins, 448 So.
2d 271, 275–76 (Miss. 1984); see Restatement (Second) of Torts § 566 (Am. L. Inst. 1977). Further, “offensive insults and opinion statements” “generally are not actionable in Mississippi” unless they meet the Ferguson standard. Trout Point Lodge, Ltd. v. Handshoe,729 F.3d 481
, 493
6
Case: 23-60610 Document: 79-1 Page: 7 Date Filed: 09/16/2024
No. 23-60610
(5th Cir. 2013). This is because “nothing in life or our law guarantees a
person immunity from occasional sharp criticism,” and “no person avoids a
few linguistic slings and arrows, many demonstrably unfair.” Id.(alterations and citation omitted). Thus, “strongly stated [opinions] . . . based on truthful established fact . . . are not actionable under the First Amendment.”Id.
(quoting Texas Beef Grp. v. Winfrey,201 F.3d 680
, 688 (5th Cir. 2000)). The Mississippi Supreme Court has described such “[c]austic commentary” based on disclosed facts as “fair comment[s].” Ferguson,448 So. 2d at 276
.
Sharpe argues his statements are protected opinions and editorial
“fair comments” on a publicly known matter, and “even ‘contemptuous
language’ and ‘unfair’ criticism regarding reported facts cannot be
defamatory.” He asserts the Undisputed broadcast clearly stated its factual
basis was Favre’s widely reported involvement in the welfare scandal and
that involvement was a matter of public concern. Because Sharpe expressed
his views on these “truthful established fact[s],” he argues he was entitled to
voice his “sharp criticism” of Favre’s conduct.
Favre disagrees and argues that, even if Sharpe’s statements are
considered protected opinions, those statements are still actionable because
Sharpe did not provide a correct and complete recitation of “the facts upon
which he base[d] his opinion” and the statements “imply a false assertion of
fact.” See Milkovich, 497 U.S. at 18–19. According to Favre, “the factual
basis for Sharpe’s purported opinions was incorrect and incomplete”
because the Undisputed broadcast omitted facts from the Mississippi Today
article about Favre’s contributions to USM and about who initiated the
funding process for USM’s volleyball facility. 3
_____________________
3
After briefing concluded, Favre submitted a 28(j) letter to notify the court of a
recent Second Circuit opinion that vacated a Rule 50 judgment and jury verdict. See Palin
v. New York Times Co., __F.4th __, No. 22-558, 2024 WL 3957617 (2d Cir. Aug. 28, 2024).
7
Case: 23-60610 Document: 79-1 Page: 8 Date Filed: 09/16/2024
No. 23-60610
Sharpe’s statements — in response to facts widely reported in
Mississippi news and specifically in the just-released Mississippi Today article
— could not have been reasonably understood as declaring or implying a
provable assertion of fact. His statements are better viewed as strongly stated
opinions about the widely reported welfare scandal. As for the supposed
factual inaccuracies with which Favre takes issue, those inaccuracies were
corrected during the segment. Bayless correctly stated that “as yet [Favre]
has not been criminally charged,” and he amended Sharpe’s one inaccurate
statement that Favre had not repaid the additional $1.1 million in TANF
funds by acknowledging that Favre had repaid everything but the interest on
$1.1 million. Sharpe also mentioned Favre’s assertion that he did not know
the source of the funds. Because Favre does not allege any remaining
statements in the broadcast were false, there were no actual inaccuracies.
Instead, the facts were fully disclosed to the listeners and contained no “clear
falsity of fact.” Ferguson, 448 So. 2d at 273.
It is understandable that Favre considers Sharpe’s statements to be
contemptuous. Nonetheless, the Undisputed program did not imply that
Sharpe was relying on any undisclosed facts. He instead relied only on facts
widely reported in Mississippi news and specifically in the just-released
Mississippi Today article. Though there was no claim by Mississippi Today that
Favre had committed a crime, there also was no implication from Sharpe’s
statements that he was relying on information from other sources when he
said Favre “stole money” and took from the “underserved.” At the time
Sharpe made the statements, the facts on which he was relying were publicly
_____________________
There, the Second Circuit considered “whether the evidence at trial was sufficient for Palin
to prove that the defendants published the challenged statements with actual malice, as
required for public-figure defamation plaintiffs.” Id. at *7. That is not the issue before this
court, and we do not find the opinion relevant to the resolution of this case.
8
Case: 23-60610 Document: 79-1 Page: 9 Date Filed: 09/16/2024
No. 23-60610
known, and Sharpe had a right to characterize those publicly known facts
caustically and unfairly. Sharpe’s statements were his “strongly stated”
opinions “based on truthful established fact[s],” and thus nonactionable.
Trout Point Lodge, 729 F.3d at 493 (quotation omitted).
AFFIRMED.
9
Reference
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published