Gilroy High School graduate A.J. Perez’s Netflix documentary “UNTOLD: The Fall of Favre” premiered May 20 and has remained among the streaming platform’s top 10 films, examining Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre’s role in an $8 million Mississippi welfare fraud case.
The documentary unpacks Favre’s troubling off-field behavior, including his involvement in the scheme that diverted millions from Mississippi’s poorest residents.
“When I was 12 or 13, I realized I sucked at sports,” Perez said. “So I probably needed to do something else within sports. So I learned about sports writing, even though a few of my teachers were questioning that since I’m dyslexic and stuttered.”
Those early doubts did not deter him. Perez later served as co-editor of the Gilroy High School newspaper “The Free Press” during his senior year, leading to a 25-year career in journalism that eventually evolved toward a focus on investigative work, especially in sports.
His path to the Favre documentary began with what seemed like a routine 2017 interview. Perez was covering sports media stories when Favre, the famed former quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, had interviewed at ESPN, leading him to seek his own interview with the quarterback.
“I got a pitch from this company called Prevacus,” Perez recalled, referring to a concussion treatment company. Having covered numerous concussion stories throughout his career, he agreed to mention the company during his Favre interview.
That seemingly innocuous connection would later prove crucial when Perez began investigating Favre’s ties to a Mississippi welfare scandal. Prevacus was one of three entities that received federal welfare dollars from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families fund, totaling $8 million connected to Favre—money that was supposed to help the state’s poorest residents.
The scandal involved $1.1 million that went directly to Favre for speeches and public service announcements, which he later repaid after a civil suit. Another $5 million went toward a volleyball court at the University of Southern Mississippi, while $2.2 million was directed to Prevacus for developing what Perez described as a dubious concussion treatment.
“To qualify [for TANF assistance] at the time of the scandal, you have to make well below the federal poverty line, which is so low already,” Perez explained. “And 95% of the people who applied in Mississippi were getting denied at the time that Brett Favre and others got millions and millions of dollars.”
The Prevacus connection particularly troubled Perez. The company’s main product was “an inhalable post-concussion treatment” and a topical application supposed to prevent concussions—despite having “zero science behind it.” During testing, the company killed 10 of 12 dogs used in trials.
“I was like, no one’s covering this anymore,” Perez said, noting that media attention had largely faded after initial 2021 reports. “There was a little bit when it came out… And then he was never charged criminally.”
Perez’s investigative work at Front Office Sports, where he broke several stories about the scandal, caught the attention of EverWonder Studio and director Rebecca Gitlitz. The collaboration resulted in the Netflix documentary, with Perez serving as executive producer.
“Being an executive producer could mean so many different things in documentaries,” Perez said. “I worked closely with the director Rebecca Gitlitz. She’s amazing. She did the Women’s World Cup documentary ‘Under Pressure.’”
Perez’s role extended beyond typical executive producer duties. He was involved “from the original pitch until it was delivered to Netflix,” booking interviews, producing shoots and even co-directing some segments. “It was kind of a hybrid [role]. I was more of a producer than anything, because I was working every day on it.”
The documentary also examines Favre’s 2008 scandal involving inappropriate text messages sent to Jenn Sterger, then a sideline reporter for the New York Jets, among other misconduct allegations. Perez said Sterger’s willingness to finally tell her story became crucial to the documentary’s narrative.
“Jen became a bigger part of the documentary because she was willing to tell her story, and she wasn’t for many years,” Perez said. “She’s gone through so much. She moved to Los Angeles and she’s rebounded.”
The filmmaker expects the documentary’s reception to vary by region, particularly in Wisconsin and Mississippi, where Favre remains beloved despite the scandals.
“It’s very tribal. Pro sports, college sports, even high school sports, very tribal,” Perez said. “Green Bay—that’s our only pro team. They’re a tiny market, the smallest market in pro sports in the United States. So they live and breathe Green Bay Packers football.”
For Mississippi, Favre represents homegrown success, making it difficult for fans to accept their treasured quarterback’s shortcomings, as Perez explained.
“He was one of the biggest, one of the best athletes to ever come out of Mississippi,” he said. “He was a really local, home-grown phenom who grew into a Hall of Fame quarterback, and Super Bowl winner.”
The documentary’s investigation revealed the broader issues plaguing Mississippi’s welfare system and the need for continued oversight. Text messages show Favre lobbying for the money, though he maintains he didn’t know it came from federal welfare programs.
“We can see the text messages where he was lobbying for the money,” Perez said. “It’s just kind of shocking that people around him or Brett himself didn’t ask questions of why the welfare department was the one running this.”
The Gilroy native partnered with Mississippi Free Press reporter Ashton Pittman, whom he called “arguably the best journalist in the state,” to ensure local expertise and credibility.
“There’s not a lot of national media attention [in Mississippi],” Perez said. “I hope others are going to keep an eye on this, because we only had an hour and three minutes to tell the story. There’s a lot more going on in Mississippi than just one welfare scandal.”
Now working full-time on documentaries alongside his personal training business, Perez has several projects in development, including further sports documentaries and two true crime projects.
The two-time Associated Press Sports Editors award finalist previously worked at USA Today, Fox Sports and AOL FanHouse, earning recognition for his coverage of the Washington Commanders during Dan Snyder’s controversial ownership tenure.
Perez plans to return to Gilroy this August for his 30-year high school reunion, bringing his investigative journalism career full circle to where it began in the halls of Gilroy High School.
