NFL Reviewing Favre’s Racy Text Messages To Jenn Sterger

Added on Oct 08, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

And, no, we’re not going to post pictures of ‘The Gunslinger’s’ pocket pop-gun. Allegations have been swirling for awhile now that Brett Favre repeatedly texted, called and sent the modern day calling card of the promiscuous athlete, the penis picture, to Jenn Sterger while he was with the New York Jets.

There’s a lot of potential problems for Favre, not the least of which concerns his wife of 14 years, Deanna. Aside from the overall unseemliness of a married man trying to make time with a comely sideline reporter the implications aren’t quite as clear. Much depends on Sterger’s reaction–if she welcomed the overtures it’s little more than sleazy courtship rituals between consenting adults. The worst case scenario quickly goes downhill from there. If Sterger *didn’t* welcome all of the attention from ‘The Gunslinger’ it’s sexual harassment. Since there’s no evidence that Sterger reported it to any law enforcement agency it’s likely not illegal, but it does put Favre into the same pot of hot water that Ben Roethlisberger found himself in earlier this year. It’s really hard to say which is sleazier–trolling for sorority chicks in a Georgia college bar or sending pictures of your wang to a sideline reporter. At least Roethlisberger is single, if not exactly smooth.

Making the situation even messier is the allegation that a Jets’ employee may have served to facilitate Favre’s drooling missives. The employee in question is team PR manager Jared Winley who helped Favre get in touch with Sterger. Again, much depends on Sterger’s reaction and response to the attention–if she wasn’t opposed to being the object of Favre’s affection then Winley is just a poor man’s Dolly Levy. If she did have a problem with it, that puts Winley in the middle of a potential sexual harassment.

And were *that* not enough, there’s even an element of ‘plausable deniability’ worthy of Richard Nixon. A phrase that has been repeated often during this story is that Sterger was contacted by “someone she was led to believe was Brett Favre.” You can see the endgame here a mile away–if there’s no conclusive proof it was Favre then it’s possible that someone else can take the fall for ‘leading her to believe’ she was being contacted by the quarterback and the problem goes away.

The essential sports blog Deadspin broke the story and has tons of coverage, including links to text messages, voicemails and even a picture of Favre’s schlong if you’re so inclined. The NFL suggests that they’re looking into the matter with this tight lipped statement: