NEW YORK, December 4- Two former New York Jets massage therapists filed a lawsuit claiming they lost their part-time jobs with the NFL club after spurning sexually suggestive advances from NFL legend Brett Favre.Christina Scavo and Shannon O’Toole filed the suit against Favre and the Jets in New York seeking unspecified monetary damages and a chance to resume working for the team after being the target of lewd emails sent when Favre was with the Jets in 2008.
Scavo and O’Toole accuse Favre of sexual harassment and the Jets of refusing to hire them for massage work after Scavo’s husband called Favre to complain.
O’Toole and Scavo also sued Jets therapist manager Lisa Ripi and claimed the Jets, who have advanced to next weekend’s opening round of the NFL playoffs, had an atmosphere of "sexual harassment, sexism and inappropriate behavior".
The lawsuit claims that after a massage session, Favre texted a third and unidentified massage therapist: "Brett here you and crissy want to get together im all alone" and "Kinda lonely tonight I guess I have bad intentions".
Scavo told her husband, according to the lawsuit, and he contacted Favre seeking an apology and an end to such contacts.
Favre "responded in an inappropriate manner and refused to apologize," according to the lawsuit.
"He essentially told him to go away and as a celebrity he couldn’t be bothered with the little people," David Jaroslawicz, the therapists’ lawyer, told the New York Post.
The lawsuit claims the Jets never again called O’Toole or Scavo to provide massage work.
Ripi, according to the lawsuit, sent Scavo several emails that referred to Favre as "a pervert" but also showed Ripi was angry that Scavo did not keep the matter private.
"There are ways to handle things in a professional manner and ways to be compensated not in public. … All this nonsense is unnecessary," Ripi wrote Scavo, according to the lawsuit.
"For sure feel horrible that u had to go thru that w a pervert. … He was wrong on all counts…and we cldve helped u a lot more at that time."
The lawsuit also says Ripi told O’Toole to "keep your mouth shut" and said neither woman would ever work for the Jets again.
The lawsuit came one day after Favre’s off-again, on-again NFL career appeared to conclude once and for all, the 41-year-old quarterback reduced to a spectator due to a concussion as the Minnesota Vikings lost Sunday at Detroit.
Favre, the NFL all-time passing leader in most meaningful categories, returned from retirement in 2008 to play for the Jets.
He retired again before coming back with Minnesota, then retired again before a 2010 comeback.
Favre was fined 50,000 dollars last week by the NFL for failing to cooperate with an investigation into accusations that he sent a Jets game-day hostess, Jenn Sterger, lewd photos and suggestive messages.
But after a two-month probe by the league, NFL officials were careful to say they did not have evidence that Favre violated the league’s conduct policy because he could not be linked to photographs sent to Sterger.
Jaroslawicz called Favre’s fine by the NFL a joke, adding: "It’s like letting a drunk driver plead guilty to a broken tail light."
Last September, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell complained the Jets created an inhospitable locker room atmosphere for Mexican television reporter Ines Sanchez.
Elizabeth Eilender, also a lawyer for O’Toole and Scavo, told ABC News that she suspects the situation is not restricted to the Jets.
"I suspect that this case is only the tip of the iceberg with respect to the harassment and discrimination experienced by women working for NFL teams and their players as well as all of men’s professional sports," she said.
