Vikings’ Coach Childress Says Favre/Sterger Scandal ‘Not A Distraction’

Added on Oct 10, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

The story about Brett Favre sending drooling texts and (allegedly) a penis picture to comely sideline reporter Jenn Sterger continues to gain traction, but according to Minnesota Vikings’ coach Brad Childress it’s not causing a distraction for the team. Childress says he’s talked to ‘The Gunslinger’ about his clumsy attempt at seduction and that every thing is hunky dory in the Minnesota locker room.

Meanwhile, the essential sports blog Deadspin which broke the story is reporting that at least two more women have contacted them claiming that Favre made similar passes at them though (wait for the obvious joke here) he completed neither of them. He apparently went all Al Gore with a couple of Jets’ massage therapists:

The woman (who wishes to remain anonymous for now — we’ll call her “Mandy”) worked as a massage therapist for the team for a couple years, but she says never had an incident with a player until No. 4 showed up at training camp at Hofstra University, where the Jets still worked out in 2008. “He was on the table next to mine,” she tells me. “He was looking at my ass the whole time while I worked on another player. He was … ogling me.”

The woman who was massaging Brett that day (massage therapist No. 2, or “Lindsay”) exchanged numbers with him. (Mandy claims it’s common for players to take the numbers of team-contracted massage therapists should they need additional rubdowns off campus. Yeah, I know. Please don’t.)

Lindsay received a text message from Favre, according to Mandy. Lindsay assumed it was for a massage but quickly realized Brett was asking for more. He invited both Lindsay and Mandy back to his hotel room. Mandy claims that the texts became increasingly inappropriate (“just nasty stuff”), but she adds that Brett did apologize when he found out she was married.

This apology over text, however, wasn’t enough for Mandy’s husband. We’ll call him “John”.

“I called him on his phone and told him I wanted an apology. He acted all arrogant. He refused to apologize,” John tells me in a phone conversation.

Mandy and John say they approached attorneys about the situation but were told that because Mandy was a private contractor, there were no grounds for a harassment case. They didn’t pursue anything.

Assuming that Favre took no for an answer and otherwise conducted himself like an adult pervert this story is probably much ado about nothing. Favre is a horndog who trolls for skank despite being married–that doesn’t make him a particularly admirable guy, but it doesn’t really make him a criminal or put him afoul of the NFL’s personal conduct guidelines. Even if Favre nailed some of these broads it’s not a big deal–again, it doesn’t do much for his public image but he’d hardly be the first married athlete to engage in this sort of behavior.

For that reason, it’s not surprising that Childress is able to say that it’s not a ‘distraction’. After all, he’s put up with the annual Favre ‘should I stay or should I go’ retirement histrionics:

“We just talk about what’s out there and look it right in the eye and deal with it to the extent we can. It doesn’t affect anybody else in this locker room, except Brett Favre. I guess my experience is they are distractions if you allow them to be. When you address it and talk about it all together, then you go forward.”

Wide receiver Percy Harvin says the team has Brett’s back: