Sept 17 (Reuters) - Every football player knows that plays don’t always go the way they’re diagrammed on the coach’s whiteboard. To win, sometimes you need a back-up plan.

Just ask Shannon Sharpe, the Hall of Fame tight end who spent most of his storied NFL career with the Denver Broncos. On Monday, Sharpe defeated an appeal by another NFL Hall of Famer —Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre — because he built contingency plays into his legal strategy.

Favre sued Sharpe for defamation in 2023, after Sharpe spoke on his popular Fox Sports television show about Favre’s involvement in a scandal over the alleged misuse of Mississippi welfare funds.

The background details here are important. A Mississippi state auditor discovered in 2021 that more than $77 million earmarked for the state’s neediest families had been misappropriated for other uses between 2016 and 2019. Six people have since pleaded guilty to state and federal charges related to the welfare funding scandal.

…