Photo Description and Credit: Former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre smiles as he arrives for a halftime ceremony of an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys in 2016 in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Matt Ludtke)

Last week, NFL legend Brett Favre made headlines again when his attorney confirmed to NBC News that the FBI had questioned the former quarterback.

Favre was the inspiration behind $8 million worth of purchases in an ongoing welfare scandal that the FBI began investigating in 2020. But the athlete’s exchange with federal agents, which took place more than two years ago, was apparently so innocuous that Favre laughed about it later. “Brett laughingly told me that FBI asked if he’d ever been to Tupelo,” said Favre’s attorney Bud Holmes.

A nonprofit funded by welfare grants had paid Favre’s company Favre Enterprises $1.1 million for a vague promotional gig. Favre has since returned the funds to the state. Ongoing civil charges against Favre allege that the athlete was paid under an agreement to deliver speeches he never gave, an agreement attorneys say Favre was unaware existed.

Now, Favre’s attorneys are questioning whether the athlete can be held liable for failing to attend events he knew nothing about – such as an assembly in Tupelo, the singular interest of the FBI, according to Holmes.

Mississippi Today spoke with Holmes, a Hattiesburg lawyer who has represented pro athletes in Mississippi for decades, on Sept. 2, the day after the NBC story.

Holmes said that the FBI briefly questioned Favre more than two years ago — before the breadth of Favre’s alleged involvement in the massive welfare scandal was publicly uncovered by Mississippi Today earlier this year — and that Favre hasn’t talked to agents since.

As far as Holmes is aware, the authorities asked Favre one question.

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