The last play of quarterback Brett Favre’s career was an interception that cost his Minnesota Vikings the chance to play in a Super Bowl. If Favre’s story merely ended there, in heartbreak, solely between the sidelines, it would have been a happy one.
Unfortunately, Favre’s story left the containment of Lambeau Field, Giants Stadium, and the Metrodome, seeping into a reporter’s inbox and Mississippi’s welfare fund.
Favre’s story is a sad one, and it’s a story that will soon hit the masses.
On Monday, Netflix announced a date for a documentary on the disgraced New York Jets quarterback.
“The Pro Football Hall of Famer’s story is explored in a compelling new tell-all documentary from Netflix’s Untold documentary series called The Fall of Favre. EverWonder Studio, Time Studios, and Front Office Sports teamed up on the hourlong documentary that will hit Netflix on May 20,” Michael McCarthy wrote for Front Office Sports.
In telling the entire Favre story, The Fall of Favre hopes to showcase the other side of fame, the shadows of stardom that has corrupted some of sports’ biggest names. In retelling the journey, the pinnacle of Favre’s career serves to define just how steep his descent has been.
“But there’s another side to Favre: the womanizing, hard-partying QB whose secrets were fiercely protected in provincial Green Bay,” McCarthy wrote. “Once his hard-nosed father Irv died in 2003, Favre had nobody to tell him ‘no.’ Slowly, he began to go off the rails.”
Favre spent a single season with the Jets, going 9-7 and missing the playoffs. It was a result of a nasty divorce with the Green Bay Packers, of course, instigated by the first-round selection of quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Irony never strays far from this franchise. The Favre era swiftly ended when he departed for the Minnesota Vikings, where he found more success before calling it quits.
Favre’s post-playing career might be headlined by his gold jacket and enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but it is underlined by the welfare fraud in Mississippi. Over $1 million was paid to Favre for speeches he never made, and $5 million was given to the University of Southern Mississippi – partly for the improvement of the school’s volleyball facility – while his daughter was on the team.
The documentary will cover those scandals and presumably more as it dives into one of the game’s most polarizing figures.