NFL legend Brett Favre continues to be the subject of damning headlines with respect to a fraud case in his home state of Mississippi.
Now, the NFL Hall of Famer has even lost the support of the prominent sportswriter who penned one of his biographies.
Veteran journalist Jeff Pearlman took to Twitter to encourage fans not to read the New York Times best-selling tome titled "Gunslinger: The Remarkable, Improbable, Iconic Life of Brett Favre," which was published in October 2016.
In a series of tweets, Pearlman disowned the "largely glowing" book and slammed Favre as "a bad guy" undeserving of "the icon treatment" and "acclaim."
The declaration came in the wake of revelations that Favre had secured at least $5 million in state welfare funds for the construction of a new volleyball court at his alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi. Favre's daughter was a member of the volleyball team at the time.
The development came as part of an investigative report by the outlet Mississippi Today. Text messages published by the outlet from the state's civil lawsuit against a former welfare administrator, who has already pled guilty to criminal charges in the case, appeared to show Favre conversing with the administrator and former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant.
"If you were to pay me is there anyway the media can find out where it came from and how much?" Favre asked the administrator, Nancy New, in 2017.
Pearlman, reacting to the report, described Favre's actions as "grotesque" and "monstrous."
"And now—taking money that was designated to help poor people in HIS STATE, and funneling it to build (checks notes) A FUCKING VOLLEYBALL ARENA (!?!?!?) is so grotesque, so monstrous. I don't know how someone like that looks in the mirror. I just don't."
He closed his tweet storm by discouraging fans from buying the book or borrowing it from the library.
Earlier this year, Favre was sued by the Mississippi Department of Human Services to recover $228,000 in interest on funds that had been misappropriated to Favre in exchange for alleged no-show speaking engagements. Favre had previously returned $1.1 million in principal payments.
Favre was just one of several figures involved in what state officials have called the largest fraud case in Mississippi history. State auditors said they found up to $77 million in misspent or misappropriated funds, much of which was earmarked for Mississippi's most underserved families as part of the TANF program (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families).
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram