News outlet scrutinizes Favre scandal involving Mississippi welfare money for stadium

Former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre is at the center of a Mississippi scandal that involves $5 million in welfare funds used to finance a volleyball stadium. 

On Friday, the Mississippi Free Press published an extensive account of the transactions involved in the scandal. 

The story takes readers through the mounting court records in the case, which began with an investigation by Mississippi State Auditor Shad White. It dives into a civil suit by the State of Mississippi “to recover tens of millions in misspent funds” from Favre and others, including the nonprofit through which Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) money passed, the Mississippi Community Education Center. 

The story publishes text messages included in court documents filed last week that “shed light on how $6.1 million meant for the poorest families in the poorest state wound up going to Favre and a pet project at his alma mater instead,” the Mississippi Free Press reports. That project was an $8 million University of Southern Mississippi volleyball stadium. 

The nonprofit’s director, Nancy New, and her son have entered guilty pleas in the ongoing investigation, the Free Press reports.

“New ran the nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center when it directed $5 million in Temporary Assistance For Needy Families to The University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation, whose board she sat on, to fund the stadium on the Hattiesburg campus. Her nonprofit also directed $1.1 million to Favre for motivational speeches he never delivered,” the story states.

The Mississippi Free Press is a nonprofit journalism and multimedia website and organization founded in 2020.