Favre sexual harassment lawsuit "without merit" in Jets' eyes

By Hart Van Denburg Wed., Jan. 5 2011 at 12:22 PM

Categories: Brett Favre

Favre may be retired from the Vikings, but his previous stint with the Jets keeps haunting him.

When massage therapist Christina Scavo's husband called Brett Favre in 2008 and told him to lay off with the text message "bad intentions" come-ons, he likely cost his wife her contract with the New York Jets.

Now it sounds like that mano-a-mano talk may have sabotaged the sexual harassment lawsuit she and Shannon O'Toole filed against the quarterback, the Jets, and one of its employees.

The Jets have issued a statement calling the lawsuit baseless, in part because Scavo and O'Toole never approached the Jets directly.

"The plaintiffs never reported the allegations to the Jets, either during or after the conclusion of their work. The case against the Jets is completely without merit, and we look forward to defending the matter in court, where we are confident that the Jets will prevail."

In the court documents, Jets massage coordinator Lisa Ripi lambasted Scavo's husband as an "asshole" for calling Favre, and chided the two women for not trying to resolve their issues with the team and Favre internally.

Ripi may have been trying to keep a lid on bad press. But ignoring her insistence that, "Everything at the Jets went through me," may prove to have been a bad move when the parties see each other in court.

The Favre File: