Hall of Fame QB Brett Favre's charity donated to University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation while he pushed for state funds

Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre's charity, Favre 4 Hope, donated more than $130,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation from 2018 to 2020, according to tax records obtained by ESPN on Wednesday.

During this same period, Favre was trying to raise money for a new volleyball stadium at the university, where he played football and his daughter was on the volleyball team. Funds for that stadium are under scrutiny in the largest public fraud case in Mississippi state history.

Favre 4 Hope, whose mission statement says it provides support «for disadvantaged and disabled children and breast cancer patients,» receives public donations. Tax records show that in 2018, the foundation gave the USM Athletic Foundation $60,000. Every other organization received $10,000. In 2019, the USM Athletic Foundation received $46,817. The next highest donation, to the Special Olympics of Mississippi, was $11,000. The next year, Favre 4 Hope donated $26,175 to the USM Athletic Foundation while no other organization received more than $10,000.

Between 2011 and 2017, the year his daughter enrolled at USM, Favre 4 Hope gave the Athletic Foundation a combined $47,900. (Tax records were not available for 2016.) In 2015, when Favre's daughter played volleyball at Oak Grove High School, his foundation gave the school's booster club $60,000, tax records show. In 2013, the booster club received $10,000 from Favre 4 Hope.

«He has been very generous to Southern Miss since he played ball there,» Favre's attorney Bud Holmes told ESPN on Wednesday evening. «Those particular things [the donations in question] I don't know, but I know he has always given back, something most athletes don't do.»

The Athletic first reported the