Jerry Richardson


Jerome Johnson Richardson Sr. is an American businessman, former NFL player and former owner in the National Football League. He established the Carolina Panthers franchise, which he owned for 23 years.

Early life and college

Richardson was born in Spring Hope, North Carolina. After completing high school in Fayetteville, North Carolina, he entered Wofford College, located in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Richardson was an Associated Press Little All-America selection in 1957 and '58. He still holds Wofford's single-game record with 241 receiving yards vs. Newberry in 1956 and is the record holder for touchdown receptions in a season and in a career. As a senior at Wofford, he scored 72 points on nine touchdowns, 12 extra points and two field goals. Richardson calls being elected team captain in 1958 his greatest honor. In 1983, he was chosen to Wofford's All-Time Football team as a receiver.
Richardson was active in numerous groups on the Wofford campus; he was a member of Kappa Alpha Order fraternity, President of the Inter-Fraternity Council, and member of the SCA Cabinet. Honors he received while at Wofford included Distinguished Military Student, Scabbard and Blade Military Fraternity, Sigma Delta Psi, Blue Key National Honorary Fraternity, and recognition in Who's Who in American Universities and Colleges.

Professional football

Drafted in the 13th round by the defending world champion Baltimore Colts, Richardson played two seasons in the NFL, earning Colt Rookie of the Year honors in 1959. He caught a touchdown pass in the 1959 NFL Championship Game from quarterback Johnny Unitas.

Business

Following his NFL career, Richardson used his 1959 NFL championship bonus with the help of friend and former Wofford quarterback Charles Bradshaw to open the first Hardee's franchise in Spartanburg. The two ended up owning the Hardee's business 50/50. The business expanded rapidly under his hands-on management style. From headquarters in Spartanburg, he co-founded Spartan Foods, which was the first franchisee of Hardee's. He later was the CEO of Flagstar, which was the sixth largest food service company in the United States, controlling 2,500 restaurants and providing jobs for 100,000 employees. He retired in 1995.

Carolina Panthers

On October 26, 1993, Richardson became the first former NFL player since George Halas to become an owner when the Carolina Panthers were unanimously awarded the NFL's 29th franchise. The Panthers would represent and benefit not only Charlotte and North Carolina, but rather the entire region.
Richardson was regarded as one of the most powerful NFL owners, alongside Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft of the Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots, respectively. Richardson played a prominent role locking out the NFL players in 2011 and in negotiating a new players agreement.
For the most part, Richardson stayed in the background and rarely interfered in the Panthers' day-to-day operations. For instance, when he discontinued George Seifert after the 2001 season, he went nine years before holding another press conference at which he took questions from the media—when he announced that John Fox's contract would not be renewed.
One of the few times in which he directly intervened in football matters came in the 2014–15 offseason, when he refused to re-sign player Greg Hardy in the wake of domestic violence events. Despite requests from players and coaches to let Hardy have another chance, Richardson said that he made the decision not to do so because "we do the right things."
It had long been presumed that Richardson intended to have his sons, Mark and Jon, inherit the team. However, both stepped aside before the 2009 season, and Jon died of cancer in 2013. On January 16, 2013, WBTV in Charlotte reported that Richardson wanted the team sold after he dies, but presumably only to someone who would keep the team and jobs in Charlotte.
After the death of Buffalo Bills founder Ralph Wilson in 2014, Richardson was one of only two NFL owners to have owned his respective team for its entire history. After both Richardson's sale of the Panthers and McNair's death in 2018, there remain no NFL owners who have owned their teams for their entire history.
In the 2015 season, Richardson's Panthers reached Super Bowl 50 on February 7, 2016, after losing only one game all season. The Panthers fell to the Denver Broncos by a score of 24–10. At the company's expense, the Panthers transported and housed a majority of their employees at the Super Bowl.

Alleged offensive behavior and sale of the franchise

As Panthers majority owner, Richardson was said to be a "champion of diversity", with African-American Cam Newton as starting quarterback, Hispanic Ron Rivera as head coach, and former Carolina Topcats cheerleader Tina Becker as chief operating officer. However, Richardson's tenure also had some controversy. On December 17, 2017, Sports Illustrated reported that "at least four former Panthers employees have received ‘significant’ monetary settlements due to inappropriate workplace comments and conduct by owner Jerry Richardson, including sexually suggestive language and behavior, and on at least one occasion directing a racial slur at an African-American Panthers scout." According to the anonymous sources which were the basis for the article, Richardson asked women in the team offices to "turn around so he could admire their backsides" on Casual Friday, among other "disturbing" office behavior.
On the same day, it was announced that Richardson intended to sell the Panthers franchise at the conclusion of the 2017 season. After great interest from the market, in May 2018 Richardson finalized a sale to billionaire and then Pittsburgh Steelers minority owner David Tepper for an NFL record sales price of $2.2 billion. The deal was approved by NFL owners on May 22, 2018. On June 28, 2018, Richardson was fined $2.75 million for the aforementioned alleged workplace misconduct.
A 13-foot statue of Richardson holding a football and flanked by two panthers was unveiled at Bank of America Stadium in 2016; it was a gift from the Panthers LLC minority partners to Richardson for his 80th birthday. On June 10, 2020, following the protests over the death of George Floyd, the statue was removed due to sensitivity surrounding the previously described racial comment.

Personal life

Richardson was hospitalized in Charlotte at Carolinas Medical Center in early December 2008, one month after receiving a pacemaker. Richardson, who had a history of heart trouble and had undergone quadruple bypass surgery in 2002, was placed on a donor waiting list for a new heart two days later. He received a new heart on February 1, 2009, and has since recovered from the transplant.
Richardson and businessman Hugh McColl purchased the naming rights to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte's football field in 2011. The stadium was named Jerry Richardson Stadium in 2013 after an additional $10 million donation. The future of the naming rights are now uncertain in the wake of the aforementioned sexual harassment allegations.
In 2000, Richardson was elected into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. In 2006 and 2015, he was elected to the South Carolina Business and Sports Halls of Fame, respectively.
In 2016 he funded the Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts, in honor of his wife, on the Wofford College campus. In 2017, he funded Wofford's state-of-the-art Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium.