Over the past few months, story after story has come out about sexual abuse in the world of entertainment. It started in Hollywood and in politics, and eventually it surfaced in the world of sports. The stories are sad and shameful in a multitude of ways and it has come to the point where we should not be surprised if they continue to come out. I don't want to focus on the stories as a whole, but I do want to focus on one in the sports world. However, I only want to talk about the effects that it will have on the world of football, and not the individual details that are, like I said, both sad and shameful.
Jerry Richardson, the owner of the Carolina Panthers, was named as one of the offenders, and it made him and his franchise look so bad that he is now putting the team up for sale. While the sale has not taken place yet, and is most likely far from taking place since we are talking about a $2.3 billion investment that someone, or more likely, some group of people will have to make, it will have an impact on the NFL. In all likelihood, the new owners will be people that are unknown in the world of sports but just have a whole lot of money. And by a whole lot of money, I don't mean millions of dollars, I mean billions of dollars.
Stephen Curry is a known Panthers fan. Sean "Puffy" Combs is known for his musical career as well as a very successful line of clothing. Both of them have claimed to have interest in joining together to buy the team. And today, the most popular NASCAR driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. threw his name into the ring as willing to go into part ownership of the team. Even Colin Kaepernick, the exiled NFL quarterback, has said he would like to be part of this ownership group. It's nice that these guys are showing interest in breaking into the world of sports business as a team, but I have a sad thing to say to them. I'm sorry, but you guys have no chance of actually making this happen. It isn't even worth giving it a second thought either.
Curry is worth about $77 million. Kaepernick is reportedly worth about $39 million. Combs is by far the wealthiest of the three men, being worth over $800 million. Earnhardt is worth around $300 million. While these values are far from chump change, I hate to break it to these guys, but they are numbers that make them nowhere near owning an NFL franchise.
Paul Allen owns the Seattle Seahawks. His net worth is almost $18 billion. That is billion with a B. Stan Kroenke, owner of the Los Angeles Rams, is worth about $7.5 billion. The owners of the Oakland Raiders, the children of Al Davis, are the LEAST valued owners, and they are worth about $500 million. And these two are only the owners because they took over the team when their father died, but his net worth was over $500 million. The Green Bay Packers are the outlier here because they are a publicly owned team by over 360,000 stockholders, but the estimated value of the franchise is over $1 billion.
What these numbers all mean are that the world of NFL owners is a world that not many people can be a part of. If you are not a billionaire, or your father did not pass a team onto you when he died, you are not getting into that club. And that is the reality of what Curry, Combs, Earnhardt, and Kaepernick are claiming they can make happen. If they all combined every penny that they reportedly owned, they would be worth just over $1 billion. The Panthers are supposedly on sale for over double that value. I'm sorry to break the news to those men, but this dream they have is nothing more than that: a dream. But this dream will never come true. And that isn't even taking into account the most preposterous part of this proposition.
Colin Kaepernick is seemingly going to end up being remembered as a pariah in the football world. Some believe that he was blackballed from the league because of his political stances, but I don't believe that is true. I do not believe that 32 owners colluded to keep Kaepernick out of the league. I believe that 32 owners came to that decision on their own and did not need to be convinced by anyone else. Say what you want about him, but he currently is unemployed and cannot even get a job as a backup quarterback in a league where simply competent quarterbacks are hard to come by. If he can't get a job as a backup QB, do you think that at least 24 of the 32 owners (that is the number needed for approval to become even part of the owner of any given team) would grant him the chance to be even a minority owner of the Panthers? There is absolutely no chance that would happen. If there was a percentage lower than zero, that would be how likely it would be that Kaepernick would be granted permission to own any percentage of any NFL team.
You can think whatever you want about Kaepernick and realize that this idea has no chance at all of working. I happen to think he is certainly at least a backup level quarterback, and he did take a team to the Super Bowl, even though the 49ers ultimately lost to the Ravens. Can he kneel during the singing of the national anthem? Sure, I have absolutely no problem with that. It is totally harmless, and in my opinion anyone who somehow takes offense to it has a pre-conceived agenda against Kaepernick for whatever reason they might choose to use. But that doesn't change the fact that the owners of these teams have clearly shown they do not want any part of employing Kaepernick.
It is nice that Combs and Curry and Earnhardt have aspirations to one day own a team. It is not every day that we know the owners of any sports franchise, and that is because most of us do not live in a world where millionaires are considered to be close to nothing in terms of value. Whoever ultimately buys the Carolina Panthers is going to be another one of those billionaires that have hardly any connection to the world of sports. And that is why this idea of these guys is far-fetched just like I claimed. In fact, it is even more than far-fetched. It is about as possible as a human civilization on Neptune. We have not even gotten to Mars yet, so I guarantee you that the idea of getting to Neptune is not going to happen in the lifetime of anyone reading this. It is just as realistic as Combs, Curry, Earnhardt, and Kaepernick owning the Carolina Panthers. The percent chance of it happening is clearly and absolutely zero.
Daily Giants Update: Whenever the Minnesota Vikings season ends, it seems like a given that Pat Shurmur will be the new head coach of the Giants. Whether or not this hire works out is unknown, but one thing that surely is known is that the Giants are behind the 8-ball when it comes to offseason improvement. Shurmur has yet to even meet the players on the team let alone begin thoroughly examining the roster going into the draft. Here is to selfishly hoping that the Vikings season ends on Sunday so the Giants can put all of their focus on improving the team going into next year.
Daily Rangers Update: The Rangers put in a nice effort in beating the Flyers 5-1 today, ending a three game losing streak. There are still 37 games left to play, and at this point the Rangers sit in the 8th and final spot for the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. Next up is a home game with the Sabres on Thursday.
Daily Diamondbacks Update: Nothing new to report here as the roster is pretty much set for the 2018 season. We still have a long way to go until the games actually count, but we know who will be vying for the 25 roster spots that will be available.
Daily NBA Update: It was a light night in the NBA, as only four games were on the schedule. Anthony Davis stood out, going for 45 points and 16 rebounds in a win for New Orleans over the Boston Celtics. Boston still remains 3.5 games clear of the field in the East, while it seems likely the Pelicans will be vying for a playoff spot, but destined to lose in the first round even if they do make it to the postseason.
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