Too Old To Die Young (2019)

After his friend and fellow cop is murdered in an act of revenge, Detective Martin Jones is drawn into a dark world of cartel heirs, Yakuza mobsters and other unsavory characters while attempting to avoid a similar fate as his partner.

Out on patrol one night, LA County Sheriff’s officer Martin Jones sees his partner, Larry, get murdered in front of him by an unknown assassin. Martin, no stranger to corruption and crime himself, recovers Larry’s cell phone from the scene — Larry was taking a selfie for his mistress at the time of the killing and the assassin is visible in the background. Martin’s associate Damian, a local gang leader, claims that the assassin was Jesús Rojas, the heir to a powerful cartel boss whose mother Martin had killed previously. In exchange for his silence on the matter, Damian pressures Martin into hunting down and killing another guilty man. 

Martin is by no means a good guy — he’s been dating his current girlfriend, Janey, since she was 16 and also has to avoid Janey’s creepy father, a wealthy businessman with a strange sniffing vocal tic (either Tourettes or years of drug abuse, we aren’t told). But after Larry’s death, Martin becomes fatalistic and seems to suffer an existential crisis, despite being promoted to the LASD homicide division.

After the death of Larry, Jesús escapes to Mexico until things blow over. We meet the mysterious Yaritza, who serves as nurse to the head of the cartel, the terminally ill Don Ricardo. Following Don Ricardo’s death, his son Miguel, a violent, sadistic wild card, attempts to seize power before being forced to strike peace with Jesús.  

Meanwhile, more characters join the scene. Diana De Young is a social worker and victims’ advocate who also shows a fascination for healing and tarot cards. Together with Viggo Larsen—a former FBI agent who is also terminally ill and on dialysis—she identifies the worst of the worst who’ve escaped through the cracks of the justice system. After one of Viggo’s hits goes awry, Martin is put on the case, and after finding Viggo, doesn’t apprehend him. Instead, knowing his days might be numbered, Martin decides to join up with Viggo as a fellow vigilante after they find out they have plenty in common. 

Soon enough, they’re tracking down pedophiles and pornographers, which takes them from the run-down parts of LA to the mean streets of Albuquerque. Martin soon warms to Viggo’s philosophy; he insists that the world is decaying. Therefore, in a dying civilization, human beings will need to return to their animalistic instincts, both in order to survive themselves and to protect the innocent.

But after he’s asked by Damian to murder a Korean man who owes him $8,000, Martin refuses, thinking it’s not worth it. Martin asks Damian instead to give him only the worst of the worst to hunt down and kill.

With Damian and Viggo as his unlikely mentors, Martin attempts to adjust to his new life and shield it from Janey, but it’s not easy. Meanwhile Jesús, still hell-bent on revenge for his mother, has now fallen in love with Yaritza and married her. All of these storylines collide in an explosive conclusion.

In a world of cinema and TV featuring countless tentpole franchises, bloated superhero films and ham-fisted social commentaries, Nicolas Winding Refn stands out.

The Danish filmmaker has entertained, divided and perplexed audiences worldwide with his filmography, which runs the gamut of genre and content, but nonetheless has distinctive qualities. Part of this is due to Refn himself—he’s colorblind and all of his projects are deliberately constrasting in colors, resulting in gorgeous neons and dark shadows alternately lighting up the screen. Similarly, the electronic-tinged music in Too Old To Die Young is alternately doom-inducing and euphoric, depending on the scene, and is composed by Refn’s frequent collaborator, Cliff Martinez.

If you know any of Refn’s previous work, you’re likely familiar with his two films with Ryan Gosling, Drive and Only God Forgives, respectively. Refn also directed 2008’s Bronson, which featured an excellent performance by a then-unknown Tom Hardy and allegedly cost a mere $700,000 to make. In 2016, Refn made The Neon Demon, which I reviewed on my blog here.

It’s safe to say his style is both deliberate and unique, with dark themes intertwining with tragic redemption arcs and emotionally-engaging characters. Some critics and audiences have lauded Refn as an auteur director and one of the most innovative filmmakers today. Others decry him as a pretentious douchebag who favors style over substance.

Nicolas Winding Refn (left) and Miles Teller strike a pose at the premiere.

Too Old To Die Young can, to some extent, be seen as Refn trying to outdo himself. I can honestly say that this is one of the most ambitious and sprawling shows I’ve ever seen, spanning multiple locations and settings while being in both English and Spanish. Refn creates his own unique world and then draws you into it. In Kubrickian style, everyone takes their time with the dialogue and rarely interject or interrupt each other.

When asked about why he suddenly shifted from independent film to TV & streaming series, Refn was matter-of-fact: “There will always be cinemas,” the filmmaker said. “But they will be a stop along the way, because the battleground for entertainment will be fought on the internet.”

I first saw the series during the initial COVID lockdowns in 2020 and wasn’t quite sure what to think of it. But I’ve rewatched and re-examined a lot of Refn’s other work and appreciate it much more in hindsight. So therefore when Refn was back with another miniseries—Netflix’s Copenhagen Cowboy—back in January, I thought it would behoove me to rewatch Too Old To Die Young. And since then, I can’t stop thinking about it.

Refn said in interviews that he approached it as a 13-hour movie being shot. Although 10 episodes long, Too Old To Die Young runs the gamut in runtime; the series finale is only 35 minutes, while most episodes are between 75-90 minutes. And if you can believe it, it was only written by three people: Refn himself, co-creator Ed Brubaker and screenwriter Halley Gross.

Refn found an unlikely kindred spirit in Brubaker, who had mainly done graphic novels before. 

“I came up with this idea about doing a show in L.A. about death and religion, and I kind of mentally went back to my origin, to when I started making films,” Refn confessed in an interview. 

“I made something called the Pusher Trilogy: three Danish films, back in Copenhagen, about people in a criminal environment. And it was kind of a serialized, long format concept that were done as feature films. Then I came up with the title: Too Old to Die Young. I didn’t invent the title, but the title was like a riddle that fit really well with the show; it had an enigmatic sensibility. That was the foundation. I wanted it to take place in L.A., and obviously, it was going to have all of my fetishes and indulgences.”

“I love working with other people. I find it enormously pleasurable. So I called Ed, who I had hired to work on a film that I was producing, and said, ‘Look, I have this idea. Do you want to join me on this…whatever this is going to be?’ 

“We like each other’s work and I thought that his talent, especially for short narrative, was very interesting to bring in. Directing is essentially accumulating a love and a team, and then you work individually with the people who have specific talents. And so, I thought of Ed, who is a natural-born storyteller. But he’s used to a shorter format, which I find very interesting— graphic novels—so he’s taking his talent and fusing it into this larger landscape that I wanted to do.” 

Although some actors might be scared away by something so weird and abstract, Miles Teller, who played lead character Martin, loved it.

“Nic said it would be seven months long, we’d be shooting in chronological order and that this is a 15-hour long movie that has an odyssey for my character. It’s so nice. I haven’t done anything chronological since theater. There’s something really special about doing that—you are in the moment with your character and you can shift things as you go along.”

Jena Malone, best known for her roles in Into the Wild and The Hunger Games sequels, plays Diana.

Jena Malone, who worked with Refn on The Neon Demon, said that the Danish director gave her plenty of creative freedom when it came to fleshing out the enigmatic character of Diana:

“It’s a very classic narrative genre of the underbelly of crime in Los Angeles, something that a lot of people make stories about,” Malone told The Hollywood Reporter. 

“I think this one’s a little bit different because it’s not just Los Angeles, but the full palette of the California coast, including Mexico, and the activities that are happening. The underbelly, but also what’s coming from the top down. The enforcers, the rules, the politicians, but also people who are trying to navigate that and change things and make their own way.”

“There’s just a trust level. I really respect Nic as an artist, and I feel free to give lots of options because I always know that he has the finest-tuned, whittling visional insight of what the story needs to be…Every element he invited me into the process, and so I was able to collaborate a character from the ground up with a beautiful team, but I’ve never had so much freedom and trust from a director.”

Cristina Rodlo as Yaritza

Cristina Rodlo, who plays Yaritza, was relatively unknown outside of Latin America and had frequently been told she didn’t look “Latina enough” for typical Mexican roles in U.S. productions. She found working with Refn to be rewarding and challenging as well. 

“The thing about Nic was that we would go to the table readings before each episode and he would say, ‘What do you think we should change?’ It would be hard for us, as you would never know what you are going to do next. His mind goes so fast! You would have to go in and shock him.

“This role was something I have never played before, for sure. She’s a very smart woman but also a spiritual woman. She’s a very strange character who was hard to play; everything is internal, and she doesn’t talk much. It’s hard for the audience to understand what is really going on in her mind. Is she good? Is she evil? You don’t really know. She does a lot of things that make little sense which made it such a hard part for me to play. Ultimately, I kept asking, ‘What does she really want?’ The reasons for what she was doing were bigger than what I could understand. Then when it came to the end of filming, I understood her much better.”

Miles Teller (Whiplash, Divergent) as Detective Martin Jones.

Now let’s get to the elephants in the room: the violence and the pacing. 

Refn has explicitly said in the past, “I have a fetish for violence.” (Eat your heart out, Mel Gibson.)

Certainly Refn has found creative ways to dispatch hideously corrupt bad guys in his previous work. And make no mistake, there is some serious violence in this show which might turn people away—although it’s mostly revolting villains who the audience will be more than happy to see bite the dust. 

Refn approached similar avenging angel type characters in Only God Forgives, among others. The production design and costumes are immaculate in Too Old To Die Young, as well, and therein lies the point: everything is perfectly maintained and beautiful on the surface, from the hair and makeup to the props onscreen. But, much like in real life, evil and violence lurk underneath the surface, both in terms of the characters and the environments in which evil deeds are done. 

The pacing of the series will definitely divide viewers. The first two episodes are best viewed as a prequel, setting the tone before things really start to get going in episodes three and four. With that said, persevering with this show definitely reaps rewards. 

John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) portrays the sickly ex-FBI agent turned vigilante Viggo Larsen.

Over the course of the series, three characters—Viggo, Diana and Jesús—all have monologues about how the world’s end could be imminent and that society is going to unravel in the very near future. Diana paints this in sociopolitical terms, fearing the rise of fascism, selfishness and violence. Viggo is concerned about environmental degradation and the moral erosion that will inevitably come when society collapses, arguing that a kill or be killed approach will become important out of necessity. And Jesús approaches it in Biblical terms, arguing that Armageddon will soon come and commanding his brutal underlings to “turn the city into a theme park of pain.”

Again, some of these themes intertwine with the themes in Refn’s previous work. I’m sure anyone familiar with Ryan Gosling’s stoic, largely silent performance in Drive will find similar echoes in Teller’s portrayal of Martin. Martin rarely speaks, using his body language and an appropriate use of spitting to create an unemotional, cold approach to his work, either as a cop or as a vigilante. But much like the Driver in Drive and Julian in Only God Forgives, Martin is emotionally tortured, knows he has enemies, and simply wants to exorcise his demons. So therefore Martin hunts down pedophiles and pornographers in order to purge his guilt from dating his girlfriend when she was 16 and 17. He wants to pay back his moral debts after being guilty of bribery and extortion in his past as a corrupt cop, but ultimately, he still might suffer the same fate as everyone who he dispatches.

Refn described the character of Viggo as “a very frightening character, but he’s on some kind of spiritual quest of cleansing the Earth of evil.”

Augusto Aguilera and Cristina Rodlo as Jesús and Yaritza, respectively.

Similarly, it’s implied that the character of Jesús is heavily affected by his mother, who was both a dominant figure in the cartel and possibly an instigator of both physical and sexual abuse—much like Julian in Only God Forgives, who is heavily implied to have been a victim of incest in the past. 

And also, Only God Forgives presented the character of Chang as being an ominous supernatural force, much like the mysterious Yaritza. In episode 2 of Too Old To Die Young, Don Ricardo, before his death, claims that Yaritza was simply a runaway found out in the desert. As breathtakingly gorgeous as Rodlo is, between her creepy stares and her possible connection to the mystical High Priestess of Death, it’s hard not to get an unsettling effect from her when she’s onscreen.

It’s not unrealistic, therefore, that Refn, a secular Jewish man, would view these characters as being influenced by Old Testament levels of justice—which, all too often, is the only form of justice in Too Old To Die Young. So while the show may appear overly dark and nihilistic and give the impression that Refn has bitten off far more than he can chew, there’s still a consistent philosophy in the show, even if it frequently dabbles in morally grey areas.

With that said, this dark, neo-noir thriller isn’t entirely dour and despairing. There’s actually a surprising amount of levity and satire, largely due to Martin’s cop buddies, who are alternately toxic and hilariously over-the-top in their attitudes and perspectives.

Too Old To Die Young premiered on Amazon Prime on June 14, 2019 and received polarizing reviews in line with Refn’s previous work. Later on, while promoting his new Netflix show Copenhagen Cowboy in January 2023, Refn revealed that Amazon despised Too Old To Die Young, refused to promote it and slashed his marketing budget in retaliation. 

“It is so addictive for people who are willing to wait and get involved,” Rodlo said in an interview with Glamour UK magazine. “It’s very hard and disturbing. But if you are willing to fall for it, you will go crazy for it.”

To this day, you won’t find this show at all unless you search for it on Amazon, which is a damn shame. Yes, it’s hard to watch at times. Yes, it’s weird and deliberately paced. But Too Old To Die Young is the very definition of a hidden gem. 

GRADE: A

• Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
• Created by Nicolas Winding Refn & Ed Brubaker
• Written by Nicolas Winding Refn, Ed Brubaker & Halley Wegryn Gross
• Produced by Lene Børglum, Rachel Dik and Alex Gayner
• Executive Producers — Nicolas Winding Refn, Ed Brubaker, Joe Lewis and Jeffrey Stott
• Directors of Photography — Darius Khondji & Diego Garcia
• Music by Cliff Martinez
• Editors — Annie Eifrig & Matthew Newman
• Production Designer — Tom Foden
• Costume Designer — Jennifer Johnson
• Starring Miles Teller, Augusto Aguilera, Cristina Rodlo, Jena Malone, John Hawkes, Nell Tiger Free, Billy Baldwin, Babs Olusanmokun, Hart Bochner, Gino Vento, Celestino Cornielle, Joanna Cassidy, Manuel Uriza, Chris Coppola, Callie Hernandez, Carlotta Montanari, Emiliano Diez, Roberto Aguire, Roger Lim, James Urbaniak, Brad Hunt, Lance Gross

EPISODES/RUNTIMES

1. The Devil (written by Refn & Brubaker) – 1 hour, 33 minutes
2. The Lovers (written by Refn & Brubaker) – 1 hour, 36 minutes
3. The Hermit (written by Refn & Brubaker) – 1 hour, 16 minutes
4. The Tower (written by Refn & Brubaker) – 1 hour, 3 minutes
5. The Fool (written by Refn & Brubaker) – 1 hour, 15 minutes
6. The High Priestess (written by Refn & Brubaker) – 1 hour, 31 minutes
7. The Magician (written by Refn & Brubaker) – 1 hour, 10 minutes
8. The Hanged Man (written by Refn & Brubaker) – 1 hour, 28 minutes
9. The Empress (written by Refn, Brubaker & Gross) – 1 hour, 9 minutes
10. The World (written by Refn, Brubaker & Gross) – 30 minutes

TRIVIA

• Filmed from November 2017 to August 2018 in both Los Angeles and Albuquerque. Like all of Refn’s work, everything was shot in chronological order.
• Miles Teller was recommended to Nicolas Winding Refn by actress Elle Fanning, who was Refn’s leading lady in The Neon Demon. “I’d never worked with Miles before,” Refn admitted. “But Elle Fanning spoke very highly of him, and I was looking for a younger lead, and Miles was just turning 30 at that time. We met. He was really the first real actor that I sat down with to discuss it who was at that level and all throughout our discussion I kept thinking, ‘Oh my god, he looks like Elvis.’ So, my mind was like, ‘If I can make a story about America starring Elvis Presley…I mean, how much more red, white and blue can you get?'”
• Refn rejected a typical release; Instead of premiering the pilot episode, he chose to premiere episodes 4 & 5 back-to-back at the Cannes Film Festival as a feature film in May 2019, a month before the series premiered on Amazon Prime. It was submitted to Cannes under the working title North of Hollywood, West of Hell.
• The first TV and/or streaming project created by Refn. “The difference between streaming and traditional theatrical is that streaming is an energy flow around us that runs 24 hours a day,” Refn said in response to a question as to why he moved to TV. “Streaming is like an ocean of possibilities. The idea that I could make something that had no control was so interesting.” 
• Refn and cinematographer Darius Khondji originally considered shooting the project entirely on an iPhone, but gave up due to issues with resolution and aspect ratio. It was eventually shot in 4K resolution. 
• No character appears in every episode. 
• Refn’s second collaboration with Jena Malone (after The Neon Demon) and his fourth with composer Cliff Martinez (Drive, Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon).
• According to internet fan theories, the subplot involving tarot cards might actually reveal a way to watch the series in non-linear format (i.e. out of order). Every episode is named after a trump card in a deck of tarot. Arguably, the meaning of each card loosely relates to the narrative of that volume, not just the specific character. It’s possible that watching the series in the order of the Tarot card numbers (5, 7, 6, 9, 2, 3, 8, 1, 4, 10) will engage those who may be turned off the slow pacing of the series. (Side note: I don’t endorse tarot cards and personally believe they’re based on pseudoscience, but this is nonetheless a fascinating theory.)

The Fall of Brett Favre

For those of us who came of age in the late 90s and early aughts, Brett Favre was a ubiquitous presence in the NFL. He was a beloved figure to Green Bay Packers fans as their Super Bowl-winning quarterback, he set multiple league passing records and he inspired many with his leadership and toughness.

Although he threw far too many interceptions in his career (336) and had average physical measurements (6’2″, 220), Favre set records for consecutive starts at quarterback and took home three NFL MVP trophies. And though he famously retired and unretired several times, Favre was still a capable starter in the twilight of his career with the New York Jets and the Minnesota Vikings.

Despite having deep family roots in the state of Mississippi, Favre embraced the city of Green Bay and its historic blue-collar values. He certainly had a gift for being a charismatic leader and a well-liked guy. And he was selected as a first-ballot Hall of Famer, earning his gold jacket and a bust in Canton, Ohio in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016.

So how did a guy like that become the face of the largest welfare fraud scandal in Mississippi history?

Favre made 11 Pro Bowls in his 20 seasons in the league and was the first NFL player ever to win three straight NFL MVP awards.

To understand the implications of Favre being entangled and publicly shamed for a $77 million dollar food stamp fraud case, we need to examine his family’s history in Mississippi.

As his famously-misspelled French surname suggests, Favre is primarily of Cajun descent — AKA the descendants of Acadian settlers who fled Quebec and Maine and settled in Louisiana after the American Revolution. One of his ancestors, Simon Favre (1760-1813), was a well-regarded language interpreter who worked extensively with Native American tribes in the south.

The second of four children, young Brett grew up in the small town of Kiln, Mississippi, and played both baseball and football. He played numerous positions for his dad, head coach Irvin Favre, but was not highly regarded as a recruit because Hancock North Central High School mostly ran an option-based offense. Famously, when Favre enrolled at the nearby University of Southern Mississippi — the only school to offer him a scholarship — he was seventh on the quarterback depth chart during his freshman season.

The rest of the story is well-documented: as a true freshman in only his third collegiate game, Favre was called upon to start. Despite nursing a hangover and vomiting during warm-ups, Favre still threw two touchdowns that day and ended up going 6-4 as the starter. As a junior in 1989, Favre led the Southern Miss Golden Eagles to a shocking road upset of nationally ranked Florida State and their legendary coach, Bobby Bowden. Shortly before his senior year, Favre defied death itself: that summer, he lost control of his vehicle, which flipped three times and hit a tree. Amazingly, he survived and was able to play the full season for the Eagles.

After being a second-round draft pick of the Atlanta Falcons, Favre moved onto Green Bay the following season, where he spent 16 years and won Super Bowl XXXI. He also took home 11 Pro Bowl honors, three NFL MVPs, and had his iconic #4 jersey retired by both Green Bay and Southern Miss. Personally, as a kid, I vividly remember an emotional Favre winning a Monday Night Football game against the Oakland Raiders on the road only one day after his father passed away suddenly. Favre, who held the NFL’s consecutive starts streak at the time, wouldn’t even let hardcore grief prevent him from rallying the troops and winning a primetime game. Even the notoriously rowdy Raider fans applauded him.

Favre making an appearance at his alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi. The NFL Hall of Famer, whose daughter played volleyball at the school, has reportedly been involved in misdirecting TANF funds to build, among other things, a new volleyball facility.

Following Favre’s final retirement in 2010, he moved back to Mississippi, serving as the offensive coordinator at Oak Grove High School in Hattiesburg, a stone’s throw away from the Southern Miss campus. As a loyal Golden Eagle alum, he stayed involved with the football program.

Through his Brett Favre Fourward Foundation, he organized several charity golf tournaments, softball games and fundraising dinners. He worked with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He endorsed a number of brands, including Prilosec medications and Wrangler denim jeans.

With that said, some eyebrow-raising moments over the course of Favre’s career gave some people pause about his character. He hid a Vicodin addiction that nearly ended his career before it began. He allegedly sexted and harassed a female sports reporter when he was playing for the Jets in 2008. While there wasn’t any damning evidence and the NFL didn’t charge Favre with violating the league’s personal conduct policy, he was nonetheless fined $50,000 for refusing to cooperate with the investigation. In 2020, whispers began to mount about further unethical conduct, this time financially speaking.

And then in 2022, it all fell apart.

Favre, who once set the NFL record for career passing yards (71,838) is accused of being intimately involved in one of the largest welfare fraud cases in American history.

As I write this today, Brett Favre stands accused of large-scale white-collar embezzlement along with numerous others who essentially diverted public welfare funds. In a state that is largely considered a national punchline due to its failures — Mississippi regularly has the poorest citizens per capita of any U.S. state — Favre and numerous others stand accused of $77 million worth of welfare fraud.

Now, don’t get me wrong: Favre deserves his day in court and I don’t endorse cancelling people based on hearsay. But unfortunately, there’s damning evidence that Favre was well aware of what the funds in question were for, including text messages that have since been revealed. It doesn’t look good for the former 2007 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year.

Rumors first began swirling during the chaotic year of 2020, when Favre came under suspicion for his involvement in Prevasol, an alleged miracle drug that could help athletes recover from concussions quicker. In February of 2020, the office of the Mississippi State Auditor arrested six people involved in a scheme to transfer funds from food stamps (aka Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or TANF) and divert it towards Prevasol and several other sketchy deals. The nonprofit organization Mississippi Community Education Center (MCEC) received $2.5 million in welfare funds, according to the audit, and the head of the MCEC, Nancy New, has already been indicted on fraud charges alongside her son Zach. The state auditor also revealed that the Mississippi Department of Human Services, which manages the TANF program, had been flagged for $94 million worth of “questionable spending.”

Allegedly, Favre had personally texted both New and then-Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant and the evidence showed that Bryant had redirected funds himself to try and satisfy a request from Favre that Southern Miss build a new volleyball facility (Favre’s daughter was on the team at the time). Favre had also personally introduced the state’s top welfare officials to the MCEC staff, including Nancy New, and text messages between Favre and Governor Bryant show that Favre was well aware that the funds being raised for a new volleyball stadium had been redirected from the poorest people in the poorest state in America.

Additionally, one of Favre’s texts to New said “If you were to pay me is there any way the media can find out where it came from and how much?” Governor Bryant — a Republican who left office in 2020 and had even been a former state auditor himself — joked in a text with Favre that “I’m too old for jail” if, God forbid, his misdeeds caught up to him.

In May 2020, it was also revealed that Favre had allegedly received numerous payments for speeches that he didn’t make. Favre’s company was sent $1.1 million for two speeches, and while Favre allegedly paid it back in December, as of today he still owes other monies to other organizations up to $5 million.

Last September, Mississippi Today published text messages between Favre and Bryant showing Favre’s involvement in a plan to divert $5 million of the money for the volleyball facility. Additionally, Favre allegedly misappropriated $2 million more in funding to a biotech startup that he had already invested in. He was even questioned by the FBI.

As recently as last month, an op-ed written by the editorial board of the Natchez Democrat slammed Favre, Bryant and state auditor Shad White:

“Why hasn’t Brett Favre been indicted? Why hasn’t former Gov. Phil Bryant been indicted? One could argue that Mississippi Auditor Shad White has prosecuted others for much less during his time in office than the crimes Favre and Bryant have been linked to in the state’s massive welfare fraud case,” thundered the paper.

“The text messages between the two alone make Favre’s PR campaign to convince others of his boy-like innocence in the welfare fraud all the more stunning. Apparently, Favre takes Mississippians for fools. If we let him get away with the misuse of money intended to help the neediest among us, we will prove him right. Brett Favre should be indicted and stand trial in a court of law, where he would have an opportunity to prove his innocence.”

John Davis retired as the director of Mississippi’s Dept. of Human Services in 2019 and was later sentenced on two federal charges and 18 state charges.

It was also later revealed that the former head of the Mississippi Dept. of Human Services, John Davis, resigned in 2019 and that Favre, New and Governor Bryant had used that as a smokescreen to distract from the ongoing fraud. Davis had even encouraged other parties implicated in the scandal, including former professional wrestler Ted DiBiase and his sons Brett and Ted Jr., to use MCEC and other state nonprofits as personal piggy banks.

Similar to Favre, DiBiase and his family were paid for speeches they didn’t give, including a $30K banquet speaker fee for the Northeast Mississippi Football Coaches Association and over $2 million in grants to DiBiase’s Christian nonprofit, the Heart of David Ministry.

Despite the fact that federal funds were misused and misappropriated, Shad White had allegedly not informed anyone of the scandal, according to Mike Hurst, district attorney for the southern Mississippi region.

“We in the United States Attorney’s Office and the FBI only learned from media reports about the indictments and arrests, at the same time the general public did,” Hurst said.

Last October, in a lawyer-approved statement, Favre broke his silence:

“I have been unjustly smeared in the media, I have done nothing wrong, and it is past time to set the record straight. No one ever told me, and I did not know, that funds designated for welfare recipients were going to the University or me. I tried to help my alma mater USM, a public Mississippi state university, raise funds for a wellness center. My goal was and always will be to improve the athletic facilities at my university.”

While the 53-year-old former QB has yet to face any criminal charges, civil charges remain pending and the outlook is indeed grim for Favre. Nancy New pled guilty to charges of fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, racketeering and bribery of a public official in April 2022 and will serve at least 25 years in prison. Both Nancy and her son Zach could also face up to a decade more in prison if indicted on additional federal charges.

John Davis, after resigning as a state employee in July 2019, pled guilty in federal court last September to charges of defrauding the government, conspiracy, and theft of federal funds, and he will spend up to 90 years in prison.

In October 2021, Ted DiBiase was forced to pay restitution of over $700,000 to the victims of the fraud, while Brett DiBiase pleaded guilty to creating false documents, and the state of Mississippi is currently suing the DiBiases, as well as Favre, for $20 million. Meanwhile, Favre is too busy suing Pat McAfee to finish paying restitution to the victims.

So what should we make of this? Does the old adage “never meet your heroes” apply here? Is Favre potentially suffering from CTE like many other athletes due to repeated concussions, leaving him more vulnerable to poor decision-making? Or was he a sleazebag from the beginning who finally got caught this time?

“When he played, Brett Favre was endlessly called a ‘gunslinger’ by NFL media members, a characterization that was celebrated, and took him off the hook for his numerous interceptions and indiscretions,” wrote Shalise Manza Young for Yahoo! Sports.

“Somewhere along the way — as Favre’s never-say-die attitude on the football field was repeatedly excused away because he was so often able to dig his teams out of holes that he put them in — he may have come to realize that it could work off the field too.”