JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Brett Favre’s triumphs and tribulations will be the subject of a new documentary premiering this week.
With it comes new details about the man some Mississippians once celebrated and now denounce because of taxpayer dollars meant for the poorest residents that went to him and his causes instead.
The new Netflix documentary, Untold: The Fall of Favre, begins with the NFL legend’s rise to prominence in professional sports.
“Everybody wishes they could be a NFL quarterback. You get all the notoriety, you get paid all the money,” said former Atlanta Falcon Michael Vick, who was interviewed for the film.
The hour-long documentary took nine months to put together, said executive producer A.J. Perez.
“The hard part really for us was finding people close to Brett to talk to us because, you know, he didn’t want anybody to participate,” Perez said.
That’s likely because the film also dives into the more controversial parts of his life, including allegations of stalking, sexting and the welfare scandal.
Nearly ten minutes of the documentary recaps Favre’s alleged involvement in the TANF scandal.
Text messages first revealed by Mississippi Today show Favre advocating for funding from the governor regarding the construction of a new volleyball arena on the Southern Miss campus.
Some of the money also went to Prevacus, a company working on a concussion treatment drug that has yet to make it to market.
“Building an arena on his college campus, you could see being altruistic,” Perez said. “It’s just the the way those funds were, how they got to him with Nancy New and Davis and the others.”
Perez also covered Favre’s involvement in the scandal for years as a sports reporter for Front Office Sports.
“In 2023. As you remember, there was still a chance that Favre could have faced, you know, criminal, held to account criminally. He wasn’t, you know, still just a defendant in the lawsuit,” Perez said. “And so I think if he had been charged, we would have extended that section out a lot.”
The film’s also something of a time capsule for the once-revered sports icon from the Kiln.
“The footage we got from his childhood to even his USM days will take some people back. I think there’ll be some nostalgia,” Perez said. “And like certain there’s like things that people like. It’s gonna be some good memories for a lot of people for some of the documentary [because] you’ve gotta tell the good and the bad, and we did that.”
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