Hometown Broadcasting Sports Wednesday 5/6/20
6 May 2020 Sports
A nonprofit group caught up in an embezzlement scheme in Mississippi used federal welfare money to pay former NFL quarterback Brett Favre $1.1 million for multiple speaking engagements but Favre did not show up for the events, the state auditor said Monday.
Details about payments to Favre are included in an audit of the Mississippi Department of Human Services. State Auditor Shad White said his employees identified $94 million in questionable spending by the agency, including payments for sports activities with no clear connection to helping needy people in one of the poorest states of the U.S.
The audit was released months after a former Human Services director and five other people were indicted on state charges of embezzling about $4 million. They have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial in what White has called one of Mississippi’s largest public corruption cases in decades.
Payments to Favre were made by Mississippi Community Education Center, a group that had contracts with the Department of Human Services to spend money through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. The audit says Favre Enterprises was paid $500,000 in December 2017 and $600,000 in June 2018, and he was supposed to make speeches for at least three events. The auditor’s report says that “upon a cursory review of those dates, auditors were able to determine that the individual contracted did not speak nor was he present for those events.”
Favre, who lives in Mississippi, faces no criminal charges. The audit report lists the payments to him as “questioned” costs, which White said means “auditors either saw clear misspending or could not verify the money had been lawfully spent.” The Associated Press on Monday sent questions to Favre by text message and left a message for him with his longtime agent Bus Cook, and Favre did not immediately respond.
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The NFL will officially release its 2020 full schedule in a three-hour special starting at 8 p.m. ET Thursday, the “Schedule Release ’20” on the NFL Network. The league made the announcement Monday afternoon. The schedule special will include analysis of every team’s schedule and divisional breakdowns, along with other presumed top matchups next fall. It will also include, per the release, remote interviews from league coaches and general managers.
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Pete Rose, already banned from Major League Baseball for gambling, is now accused of breaking another of the sport’s rules. A former groundskeeper for the Montreal Expos recently told the Montreal Gazette that Rose routinely had an Olympic Stadium staffer cork his bats in 1984. Rose played most of the 1984 season for the Expos before he was traded back to his original club, the Cincinnati Reds, that August.
Though Rose is baseball’s all-time leader with 4,256 hits, he is not in the Hall of Fame due to a lifetime ban from the sport handed down by then-commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti in 1989 due to Rose’s alleged gambling.
After years of denying the charges that he bet on baseball games, Rose admitted in a 2004 book that he had bet on games, only on his own team.
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Running back Frank Gore once again proved that age is just a number Tuesday, inking a one-year deal with the New York Jets, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The move will reunite Gore — who will be 37 next season — with Adam Gase. Gore played for Gase with the Miami Dolphins in 2018.
The signing means Gore will play a 16th season in the NFL. Throughout his career, he’s spent time with the San Francisco 49ers, Indianapolis Colts, Dolphins and Buffalo Bills. He’s climbed his way up the all-time rushing list, and now sits third among all running backs. Only Walter Payton and Emmitt Smith are ahead of Gore.
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Rnnning back Marshawn Lynch told ESPN on Monday night that his representatives and the Seahawks have been talking. It might take a while before the situation clears up and the Seahawks know if they need Lynch — including whether the season starts on time — but it sounds possible.
Lynch, who turned 34 in April, unretired for the second time before Week 17 of last season to rejoin the Seahawks after injuries decimated their backfield. In three games — the regular-season finale plus the wild-card and divisional rounds — Lynch carried 30 times for 67 yards and scored four touchdowns. He hadn’t played in 14 months prior to that.
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The Wisconsin Herd, the NBA G League affiliate of the Milwaukee Bucks, has exercised the second-year option on Head Coach Chase Buford.Thus far, Buford has led the Herd to a 33-10 record, which serves as the best mark
in the G League. Aside from owning the league’s best record, the 33 wins have matched the franchise’s win total from its first two seasons combined.
After leading his team to a league-best 8-2 record, Buford was named NBA G League Coach of the Month for January. He stands as the lone head coach in franchise history to earn Coach of the Month honors.
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