The NFL Panthers' minority owners "participated in the decision" by team Owner Jerry Richardson to sell the franchise and "will sell their stakes" as part of any deal, according to a front-page piece by Rick Rothacker of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. Panthers Dir of Communications Steve Drummond said that it is possible that "some of the minority owners could be buyers of the team." The Panthers ownership group "includes 11 members outside the Richardson family," mostly "prominent Charlotte businesspeople who were investors alongside Richardson" when the team was founded in '93. Richardson's announcement that he will sell the team following the season has "raised questions about what role the limited partners will have in the planned sale, including whether any of them would be interested in buying the franchise." There were reports last week that a group of investors "committed to keeping the Panthers in Charlotte is 'moving pretty fast' to purchase the team from Richardson" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 12/29).
TIME TO TALK: SI.com's Jonathan Jones wrote it came as "no surprise to anyone who’s paid attention ... that Richardson did not address the details of SI’s report two weeks ago" that resulted in his decision to sell the club. That means "everyone else around the Panthers has had to answer for Richardson, an impossible spot for any employee, friend or associate anywhere, and especially difficult in this case." In the absence of a statement by Richardson, there are "no words to assign to him." Jones: "What does he have to say about these allegations? What does he believe?" Panthers players increasingly are "being hung out to dry, left to answer somehow for their boss’s alleged misdeeds." Jones: "For the sake of his employees, his players and those close to him, the only fair thing for Richardson to do is speak up again, and tell us how he really feels" (SI.com, 12/28).
