Sports Illustrated writer debunks fake Brett Favre quote on Taylor Swift

Traina wrote Tuesday afternoon that while he doesn't like "defending Brett Favre" he "(despises) what Twitter has become in terms of the anarchy and ease with which fake news gets spread." He then noted that political journalist Brian Krassenstein's Favre-Swift post was retweeted to his timeline on Tuesday morning, leading to his investigation.

"When I saw the tweet, I immediately thought something was fishy because no reasonable human being would think Taylor Swift needs publicity or money, but this was apparently coming from Brett Favre, so I said to myself “Who knows, you better do some digging," Traina wrote. "The person who tweeted it, Brian Krassenstein has 800,000 followers, so I figured maybe this could be legit. But Krassenstein didn’t reveal where Favre said this, didn’t cite a source and didn’t let anyone know where he got this quote."

Traina added that his "digging" led him to a tweet from a social media profile that says in their bio "Raw & Unfiltered Parody Account," confirming that Krassenstein was fooled. The Sports Illustrated scribe adds "The fact that so many people would believe the quote tells you all you need to know about Favre. And he did himself no favors by telling TMZ last week that if the Chiefs don’t win the Super Bowl, fans will blame Swift."

Swift's months-long romance with Kansas City Chiefs Pro Bowl tight end Travis Kelce has captivated the nation for much of the 2023 NFL season.

Favre, meanwhile, is still in the midst of his Mississippi welfare funds scandal that began to unfold in 2022. It's been called the biggest welfare fraud case in the state's history.

He was allegedly involved in a scheme where $7M in public welfare funds were supposedly redirected to two pet projects for the 54-year-old. The bulk of the money was allegedly funneled into the construction of a volleyball arena at the University of Southern Mississippi, where Favre's daughter played volleyball.

Additional money was reportedly moved to a pharmaceutical company Favre was heavily invested in as well.

Former Republican Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant is also involved with the scandal, and it was reported in early January that Favre's lawyers were planning to depose Bryant later in the month. This came weeks after the three-time MVP was deposed for eight hours.

It was reported in February 2023 that Favre was suing media personalities (and former NFL players) Pat McAfee and Shannon Sharpe due to their ongoing coverage of the scandal. McAfee filed for dismissal of Favre's defamation lawsuit last March.

The former signal-caller's team dropped the suit against McAfee in May.

While Favre has yet to be charged with a crime, other parties in the case have already gone to prison, including former Department of Human Services Director John Davis. He was sentenced to 32 years after pleading guilty to five counts of conspiracy and 13 counts of fraud against the government.