Text messages link Favre, welfare money, volleyball facility

Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre speaks to the media in Jackson, Miss., Oct. 17, 2018. The governor of Mississippi in 2017 was “on board” with a plan for a nonprofit group to pay Brett Favre more than $1 million in welfare grant money so the retired NFL quarterback could help fund a university volleyball facility, according to a text messages between Favre and the director of the nonprofit in court documents filed Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

 The governor of Mississippi in 2017 was “on board” with a plan for a nonprofit group to pay Brett Favre more than $1 million in welfare grant money so the retired NFL quarterback could help fund a university volleyball facility, according to a text messages between Favre and the director of the nonprofit.

Court documents filed Monday by an attorney for the Mississippi Community Education Center contain text messages between Favre and the center’s executive director, Nancy New, that include references to Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, who left office in 2020.

Nancy New and her son, Zachary New, who helped run the nonprofit, pleaded guilty in April to charges of misspending welfare money that was intended to help some of the poorest people in the nation. They await sentencing and have agreed to testify against others in Mississippi’s largest public corruption case in decades.