Hollywood’s #MeToo movement has brought the actions of many famous and powerful men to light, but this was not always the case. Jennifer Sterger, a former sports journalist and game day host, recently shared her thoughts on her 2010 allegations against Brett Favre.
Sterger Accused Favre Of Sending Her Inappropriate Texts And Photos
In 2010, Deadspin reported that during the 2008 football season, Favre allegedly sent Sterger suggestive texts and voicemails asking her to come to his room, as well as explicit photos of himself. The two met while Favre played for the New York Jets and Sterger served as a sideline reporter for the team.
Favre admitted that he sent the voicemails, but he claimed he never sent any pictures to Sterger. He was fined $50,000 for refusing to cooperate with the investigation, but other than that, the quarterback suffered no other consequences.
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The NFL stated that their investigation was solely to uncover whether or not Favre had violated workplace conduct policy and claimed they could find no conclusive evidence proving that he had.
Sterger: ‘Not Only Disgusting. But Disheartening.’
Sterger recently tweeted about the situation after seeing a headline that covered Favre’s latest scandal. Text messages were uncovered that show Favre and former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant used welfare funds to build a $5 million volleyball center at the University of Southern Mississippi. Favre’s daughter was a volleyball player at the school when the center was constructed.
“Days like today are always tough,” Sterger tweeted, referring to the memories brought up by the wave of headlines about the former quarterback. “I want to act like my life isn’t still drastically impacted by another persons treatment of me, but that would be a lie. To think my legacy and everything anyone knows of me.. can be summed down to the title of ‘The Brett Favre Girl,’ is not only disgusting. But disheartening.”
She continued, “And every time sports has a #MeToo moment, I’m always somehow the Go-To expert. But what we haven’t addressed is this weird hero culture we have created around pro athletes that somehow grants them immunity to consequences…”
Sterger Maintains Favre Has Never Shown Remorse For His Actions
Jenn Sterger concluded her tweet thread with a devastating comparison between how much she’s had to do to deal with the situation and how little Favre has done to change. “I’m sorry ‘2010 me’ was not a good enough victim by societal standards because it was ‘pre #MeToo’ and the world wasn’t ready to face that maybe one of their heroes wasn’t the God they had built him up to be…I believe in redemption when people have: expressed remorse. Have done the work. And have taken that work out into the world to show you they learned something from it. Brett Favre has done none of that. I’m roadkill in his rear view..”
Sterger’s tweets about Favre are a reminder that, even though #MeToo is a relatively new movement, people have been speaking up about sexual harassment for years, suffering severe consequences for merely being a victim. Hopefully, pop culture can trend toward holding abusive celebrities’ accountable for their behavior rather than giving them more endorsements—and giving the people who were victimized a voice rather than a scarlet letter.