Antonio Brown and Kanye West want a seat at the table. They can’t even afford to be in the room.
The man that has a history of not paying people, along with being accused of rape and sexual assault multiple times, that poses as one of the most talented wide receivers the NFL has ever known, and a rapper/producer who once said that “slavery was a choice,” who spends all his time publicly antagonizing and harassing his estranged wife instead of making the classic music that made him an icon, are “trying” to buy the Denver Broncos.
Their behavior is no laughing matter. Their attempt to be NFL owners is hysterical.
“Tell Roger [Goodell] to call me,” Brown recently told TMZ. “We’re working on it ... We’re working towards getting it done.”
It doesn’t matter how much work Brown and West do, they will never accomplish their goal. Besides all the things that it takes to be an NFL owner and that you must have the approval of all the other owners to join their club, to even be considered you have to have the money — and Brown and West aren’t even close.
There’s a huge difference between rich and wealthy.
According to the Denver Post, when the Bowlen family bought a majority stake of the Broncos in 1984 they paid $78 million. That’s almost the same amount of money that Brown has made in his career, according to Spotrac.com, which has his earnings at just over $80 million. The Carolina Panthers were the last team to hit the market when Dave Tepper bought them for $2.275 billion in cash in 2018, which set the record for a selling price for an NFL franchise. Tepper ranks fifth on Forbes list of the richest sports teams owners of 2021, coming in at a net worth of $15.8 billion. It’s estimated that the Broncos final sale price could reach $4 billion, which is three times the amount that West is worth, given that Forbes named him a billionaire in 2020.
A guy who made $80 million in his playing career and a newly minted billionaire thinking they can buy a team that might sell for $4 billion is like trying to buy a Tesla with a Kroger Plus Card.
Every few years, a group of rich people gets the idea that they have enough money to own an NFL team until they get humbled and realize their bank accounts don’t have enough commas. In March of 2018, there were reports that Diddy and Steph Curry, along with Fanatics owner Michael Rubin, were among a group trying to buy the Panthers. When the asking price of the Panthers rose to $2.5 billion a week later, Rubin, Diddy, and Curry folded.
From Jeff Bezos to Jay-Z, over the last few months, several different people have been rumored as being interested in buying the Broncos besides Brown and West. Byron Allen and Robert F. Smith’s name have also come up, as having a majority African-American owner of an NFL team is something this league has never had. Yet still, it will be an uphill battle — due to systemic racism — as Smith has the best resume of the bunch with a net worth estimated at $6.7 billion, which is higher than the net worths of Colts owner Jim Irsay and Eagles owner Jeff Lurie, who are tied at No. 38 on the Forbes list at $3.5 billion.
Hopefully, at some point, the NFL will have a Black owner. But given what this league has proven to be, it’s still a pipe dream, as it took until 2020 for a franchise to even have a Black team president. If this is ever going to happen, Black America needs its wealthiest and brightest to be given a chance so that history can be made, bringing about a type of change and progress we’ve never seen.
Antonio Brown and Kanye West can’t provide that. And neither can their portfolios.