The National Football League has opened an investigation into the owner of the Carolina Panthers, following reports of workplace sexual harassment and racial slurs.
Jerry Richardson, the 81-year-old owner of the Charlotte, North Carolina team, came under scrutiny after a Sunday report from Sports Illustrated documenting wide-ranging claims of workplace misconduct.
At least four former Panthers employees have received ‘significant’ monetary settlements due to inappropriate workplace behavior by Richardson, according to the report.
Former employees spoke of lewd remarks, lingering gazes and inappropriate touching, and at least one occasion of a racial slur directed against an African-American employee.
In a statement, the team said it had opened its own investigation into the claims and ‘welcome the involvement of the NFL’.
‘The Carolina Panthers and Mr. Richardson take these allegations very seriously and are fully committed to a full investigation and taking appropriate steps to address and remediate any misconduct,’ team spokesman Steven Drummond said.
Jerry Richardson, the 81-year-old owner of the Charlotte, North Carolina team, came under scrutiny after a Sunday report documenting wide-ranging claims of workplace misconduct
At least four former Panthers employees have received ‘significant’ monetary settlements due to inappropriate workplace behavior by Richardson (left), according to the report
‘The entire organization is fully committed to ensuring a safe, comfortable and diverse work environment where all individuals, regardless of sex, race, color, religion, gender, or sexual identity or orientation, are treated fairly and equally,’ Drummond said.
The new SI report did not name sources, citing confidentiality agreements in the settlement deals and fear of retaliation.
Richardson, who himself played in the NFL as a halfback for the Baltimore Colts from 1959 to 1960, made his fortune in the food services industry, running the company best known for operating the Denny’s chain.
The new report claims that his alleged inappropriate workplace conduct was well known among Panthers employees and something of a running joke.
‘No one ever said anything, at least not that I heard,’ one former Panthers employee told SI. ‘He was the boss. It was [viewed] more of a creepy-old-man thing than a threat.’
Sources told the outlet that Richardson would focus his comments to female employees on their appearance, offering to pay for manicures and in one case suggesting that a female employee let him shave her legs.
Another frequent occurrence was the ‘seatbelt maneuver’, in which Richardson would open a car door for a woman and then buckle her seatbelt for her, brushing up against her breasts in the process, according to the report.
Richardson allegedly focused his comments to female employees on their appearance, offering to pay for manicures and in one case offering to shave a woman’s legs himself
Other sources spoke of Richardson giving massages that went on for too long, or wandered too low down the spine.
‘You look back and it’s wackadoo,’ one former Carolina employee told SI.
‘You felt preyed upon. You felt fear. You felt self-doubt. But when you’re in [that environment], everywhere you go, every family gathering, it’s, ‘Oh, you work in the NFL? That’s so cool.’ And you don’t want to lose your job.’
‘Jeans Fridays’ were the occasion for frequent inappropriate remarks from Richardson, the sources said.
‘Show me how you wiggle to get those jeans up. I bet you had to lay down on your bed to fit into those jeans,’ Richardson would say, or words to that effect, the sources said.
In an uncomfortable callback to antebellum culture, employees say that Richardson was universally known simply as ‘Mister’.
Employees say that Richardson was universally known simply as ‘Mister’. ‘It was a power culture. You did what Mister said, when he said it,’ one former employee said
‘It was a power culture. You did what Mister said, when he said it,’ one former employee told the magazine.
‘He thinks he’s really great. You’re supposed to reinforce that… Even when he does things that make you feel like half a person, that you know are wrong.’
In the case of one African-American scout for the Panthers, Richardson allegedly directed a racial slur him. The scout left the team this year, reportedly after negotiating a confidential settlement.
Richardson has been a majority owner of the Charlotte-based team since it began playing in the NFL as an expansion franchise in 1995.
Neither he nor a team spokesman could be reached for comment on the league taking over the probe or reports about the accusations.
The Panthers said Friday that law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan would lead the internal investigation, with former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles, a minority team owner, would overseeing the probe.
The Panthers had urged the league to take over the probe, and on Sunday the NFL agreed to it, NFL.com reported.