Jenn Sterger reveals 5 harrowing details cut from Netflix's Untold: The Fall of Favre
Viewers who tuned into Netflix's Untold: The Fall of Favre will be aware of Jenn Sterger, a model and presenter whose career in the sports world was cut short after a story ran – without her consent – exposing the sexual texts, voicemails and photos that married NFL player, Brett Favre, allegedly sent during her 2008 tenure working as a host for the New York Jets. Favre played for the team at the time and Sterger says she never accepted or encouraged his advances, nor actually spoke to him in person.
A 2010 Deadspin article which exposed the story, despite Sterger's seeming protests for the alleged harassment and correspondence from Favre to remain private, sent shockwaves around the US. For a time, Favre's reputation took a minor hit but he soon bounced back, before being hit with a later scandal which saw him accused of diverting welfare funding into his own private business ventures.
Many fans still defend Favre, who enjoyed a stellar reputation as a footballing legend and family man prior, meanwhile Sterger's contract was not renewed and she claims to have become a pariah on the sports scene.
Favre and his wife, Deanna, stayed together, and many fans (and organisations) pledged to stay loyal to the football player over the model who inadvertently exposed a side of Favre's character that didn't live up to the image they had of him in their heads.
This is where Jenn Sterger is today, how she first went viral and the details she says were cut from the Untold documentary.
Jenn Sterger is a former model and game day host, who now dabbles more in the comedy and podcasting world. She accidentally went viral back in 2005, when she attended an American football game after working a bar shift, and, in her words, because someone had spilled a drink on her shirt decided to attend the game in just a bikini top instead.
The game was a big one between rival teams (Miami Hurricanes and Florida State Seminoles) and as the camera scanned the crowd, it caught sight of Jenn and her friends cheering and commentator Brent Musberger remarked "1,500 red-blooded Americans just decided to apply to Florida State".
After this, Jenn became known as The Cowgirl and her Facebook friends list exploded, as did offers of modelling work.
"That's how Maxim found me, that's how Playboy found me [...] I played the game," she shares in Untold: The Fall of Favre.
After writing an article 'Confessions of a Cowgirl' for Sports Illustrated, Sterger then got a job touring campuses and meeting coaches, discussing sports.
In August 2008, Sterger got a job as the official game day host for the New York Jets, which is where she came to the attention of Brett Favre, one of the most popular and celebrated NFL players, who was very much married with two children at the time.
As per the documentary and a later investigation, Sterger says she was just trying to do her job but was routinely contacted by Favre via text, voicemail and social media.
In 2010, a Deadspin article publicly claimed that during the 2008 NFL season, Favre, then the quarterback for the New York Jets, allegedly sent a series of suggestive text messages ad voicemails inviting sideline reporter Sterger to his hotel room, along with explicit photos of himself.
Responding to the allegations, the NFL launched an investigation but said it wasn't going to pass judgment on the nature of personal relationships, but was focused solely on whether Favre had violated the NFL's workplace conduct policy. Favre himself admitted to sending voicemails to Sterger but denied being the source of any explicit images.
The fallout? Favre was slapped with a $50,000 fine – not for the alleged content, but for "failure to cooperate" with the investigation. The NFL ultimately stated that there wasn't enough evidence to determine whether Favre had sent the photos, nor could they conclude he had breached the league's personal conduct policy.
The drama may have fizzled out in terms of official consequences, but the story remains one of the most talked-about controversies in NFL history and Sterger's career took a real beating because of it, while Favre was inducted in the Hall of Fame.
In the documentary Sterger adds: "So, here's the craziest part about the whole scandal — I've never met Brett Favre. We've never been in the same room, we've never shaken hands, we had no kind of relationship, no rapport, nothing."
These days, Sterger is more focussed on the comedy space (and building a female and queer-friendly community within it) and partakes in acting and voiceover artist work. She also describes herself in her Instagram bio as an "animal advocate, gym rat, nerd, professional tomboy".
Sterger co-hosts a podcast, Not Today, with fellow comedian, Eddie Pence, and also delivers seminars to journalist students, positioning herself as a cautionary tale and advocating against 'rage bait' headlines. She urges her listeners and students to have critical thought when it comes to the media, to read beyond the headline and to cross reference stories between multiple sources before coming to a conclusion.
Since the Netflix documentary aired, Sterger says she has been saddened by the amount of hatred directed towards women like her who want to tell their story, especially "against powerful men", even in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
After watching the documentary for a second time, Sterger said she now feels sorry for Brett Favre, which she cites as a new sign of healing.
Speaking on her podcast, Sterger said she wasn't obligated to take part in the NFL's "sham" investigation into what happened between her and Favre, but did so with the best of intentions.
"I'm going to give people the benefit of the doubt that they're going to be good, honest people... [but] that's just not how the world works," she told her co-host, Eddie Pence. "Especially when there's so much money on the line."
Sterger alleges on her podcast that she had an awkward interaction with the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, about the investigation, telling him she was expecting little to change as a result.
"I told him at one point during our meeting ... he got really mad saying 'Are you saying I can't do anything? I'm the commissioner, I can do whatever I want'. I was like 'I'm not saying you can't, I'm saying you won't [...] I'm not worth anything to you, you're going to make more money off this man in his retirement selling his jerseys than any money you'll ever make off of my likeness'," she told listeners.
Posting on Instagram, Sterger wrote about how invasive the investigation into the Favre scandal was, "In 2010, during the NFL's investigation I had to hand over 17 binders filled with texts, social media messages, emails and phone records to their investigators (who were former FBI guys). These were not just the texts with Favre," Sterger explained.
"They were texts with family. Friends. Boyfriends. They combed through the most intimate moments of my life in an attempt to find a way to make this my fault. They couldn't find any," she continued.
"As an independent contractor I was under no obligation to cooperate with them, but did so to clear my name and get the media blitz they had thrust upon me to stop. This is so much more [than dick] pics. It's about the abuse of power and a system designed to harm the little guy and protect the shield. A pretty woman sells magazine copies, newspapers, and is easy to hate. I was not the right martyr for the cause… but I was the perfect scapegoat."
Sterger says Michael Vick, another NFL player, likely agreed to appear in the documentary as he is one of the few players unafraid to call the NFL out. Vick had his own reputation as a player tarnished after his dog fighting ring, which saw dogs put down at his request, was exposed.
While condemning his animal cruelty past, Sterger caveated that Vick wasn't allowed the redemption arc via the NFL that Brett Favre was. "What he did was atrocious, however [Vick] has worked his ass off to make amends, but I think the thing that doesn't get touched upon in the documentary - and I'm sure it was for editing stuff and honestly because quite frankly it'll make a lot of people mad - I think they wanted to make sure the issue of the film didn't get skewed into a race issue... [But] that's truly a big part of it. The only players that came to my defence were Black NFL players."
Sterger filmed with Netflix in her own home and asked the team to respect her wishes not to be made tearful on camera in her safe space. On her podcast, Sterger explains this happened for the most part, but that during one scene she was handed her a letter from the editor of Deadspin who 'sold her out' – which she found to be an emotional moment.
"At the end of the day they handed me this letter, this print out, it was a letter or like an article that AJ, the guy from Deadspin had written, post going through AA (Alcoholics Anonymous), when he was making amends and things like that," she explains. "They made me read a letter he wrote and he basically said in there 'What I did to Jenn was wrong and I did it because I didn't see her as a person'.
"That was a really hard thing to hear myself say out loud, I've always felt that the internet has just seen me as a picture."
Jennifer Savin is Cosmopolitan UK's multiple award-winning Features Editor, who was crowned Digital Journalist of the Year for her work tackling the issues most important to young women. She regularly covers breaking news, cultural trends, health, the royals and more, using her esteemed connections to access the best experts along the way. She's grilled everyone from high-profile politicians to A-list celebrities, and has sensitively interviewed hundreds of people about their real life stories. In addition to this, Jennifer is widely known for her own undercover investigations and campaign work, which includes successfully petitioning the government for change around topics like abortion rights and image-based sexual abuse. Jennifer is also a published author, documentary consultant (helping to create BBC's Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next?) and a patron for Y.E.S. (a youth services charity). Alongside Cosmopolitan, Jennifer has written for The Times, Women's Health, ELLE and numerous other publications, appeared on podcasts, and spoken on (and hosted) panels for the Women of the World Festival, the University of Manchester and more. In her spare time, Jennifer is a big fan of lipstick, leopard print and over-ordering at dinner. Follow Jennifer on Instagram, X or LinkedIn.
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