We may never see Brett Favre in purple again but his face may be red for a long time to come. First, he was fined $50,000 by the National Football League for “a lack of candor and a failure to cooperate” with a league investigation into allegations that he sent sexually-charged text messages to former New York Jets in-house sideline reporter Jenn Sterger. Then, two former message therapists for the Jets brought a complaint alleging they were dismissed by the Jets after they complained that Favre sent them sleazy text messages.
The alleged advances occurred in 2008 during Favre’s one-year tenure as a member of the Jets. Therapists Christina Scavo and Shannon O’Toole claim that a third, unnamed therapist received the following text massage from Favre trying to set up a group sexual encounter: “Brett here. You and Crissy want to get together? I’m all alone. Kinda of lonely tonight. I guess I have bad intentions.”
An employer (in this case, the Jets) may be liable for sexual harassment if they knew or should have known of the harassing behavior. Courts can impute such knowledge to the employer where the harassing conduct is “so broad in scope and so permeated the workplace that it must have come to the attention of someone authorized to do something about it.”
The complaint lists numerous events intended to demonstrate that the Jets organization was a “hot bed of sexual harassment, sexism and inappropriate behavior.” What’s more, the suit alleges that Jets team coordinator Lisa Ripi acknowledged that Favre sent the messages, but told the two complainants to keep quiet. This alleged text message from Ripi to Scavo is likely to take center stage in the case: “For sure feel horrible that u had to go thru that w/a pervert . . . however, I truly wish u wldve came forward at the time it happened . . . you sureley wldve gotten the treatment you were looking for in the moment. He was wrong on all counts . . . and we cldve helped u a lt more at that time.”
The Jets enjoyed great success this season on the field but could get sacked for a huge loss in court. No matter who the alleged culprit is or how valuable they may be to the organization, make sure you act with swiftness and certainty when that employee steps out of bounds.