JACKSON, Miss.—A federal judge on Monday dismissed Brett Favre’s defamation lawsuit against fellow retired NFL player Shannon Sharpe, ruling that Mr. Sharpe used constitutionally protected speech on a sports broadcast when he criticized Mr. Favre’s connection to a welfare misspending case in Mississippi.
U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett ruled that Mr. Sharpe, a former tight end, was using “rhetorical hyperbole” in saying on air that Mr. Favre was “taking from the underserved,” that the former quarterback “stole money from people that really needed that money” and that someone would have to be a sorry person “to steal from the lowest of the low.”
