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Kaepernick Collaborating With Diddy To Buy Carolina Panthers: Not Everyone Thinks It’s A Good idea

Kaepernick Collaborating With Diddy To Buy Carolina Panthers: Not Everyone Thinks It’s A Good idea

National Football League quarterback Colin Kaepernick has a shared vision with hip-hop artist and entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs to create an ownership group that more closely represents the racial makeup of the league’s players.

After Carolina Panthers team controlling owner Jerry Richardson was accused of “workplace misconduct” including using a racial slur, he announced he would sell his share of the franchise.

The NFL, which is about 70 percent African-American, has never had an African-American majority owner.

Diddy said he wanted to make history by buying the Panthers He’s worth an estimated $820 million, but that may not be enough to buy the team.

Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers to become a free agent after the 2016 season. He started a movement when he refused to stand during the National Anthem to protest police brutality and racial inequality. Kaepernick explained his actions this way:

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told NFL Mediae. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

Colin Kaepernick
(Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Kaepernick’s actions prompted other athletes in and outside of the NFL to protest during the National Anthem, prompting suggestions he be nominated for a Nobel Peace prize for athletic activism.

In 2017, Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL and its owners, accusing them of colluding to not hire him.

Kaepernick was not just unemployed, but seemingly unemployable in the NFL, Huffington Post reported:

“The NFL is not, and never has been a democracy. It’s a quasi-militaristic, top-down organization. It’s run by an entrenched elite core of billionaire owners who set the tone and determine policy for the league. They are called ‘key owners.’ Some of them can trace their NFL family pedigree almost back to the founding of the NFL nearly a century ago.”

In a Dec. 17 Twitter video statement, Diddy said if he owned the Carolina Panthers, he’d “immediately address” the contentious decision by NFL teams not to sign Kaepernick. Diddy said he’d give Kaepernick a job with the Panthers.

However Kaepernick seems more interested in ownership.

Diddy has planned meetings with potential investors to come up with a prospective ownership group, two people familiar with Diddy told Yahoo Sports. The investors include Kaepernick, who had a long call with Combs to discuss his role in the ownership group, Yahoo reported.

Valued at $2.3 billion, the Panthers are the 21st most valuable NFL franchise, according to Forbes. Richardson’s controlling 48-percent stake is expected to fetch $1.2 billion.

That would appear to be out of Diddy’s reach — Forbes puts his net worth at $820 million. As for Kaepernick, his net worth is $20 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

Diddy would have to add at least one other significant investor to his effort, if not a handful, Yahoo Sports reported. “But he brings some diversity the ownership group lacks, along with a high-profile business persona that is well-known among at least some of the current NFL ownership fraternity.”

Kaepernick may not be a good fit financially, but he’s a good fit “in the range of influence,” Yahoo Sports reported:

“If the sales pitch is to create the league’s most diverse ownership group of an NFL franchise, that is something that is certain to draw ears. And the reality is despite Kaepernick’s existence as a lightning rod among fans or even NFL owners, he and Combs have the profile to get the attention of high-profile minority investors they may seek.”

http://www.tmz.com/2017/12/22/gabrial-iglesias-diddy-carolina-panthers-kaepernick/

One big celebrity Carolina Panthers fan is against Diddy buying the team. Diddy has a lot of supporters, but his promise to sign Kaepernick is a red flag, said comedy superstar Gabriel Iglesias in a TMZ report. Iglesias loves the Panthers.

“If you’re going to take over a team, your focus should not be signing a quarterback who gets a lot of attention when you have an incredible quarterback that’s already probably one of the best in the league,” Iglesias said. “If you’re going to do it, do it for the right reasons.”

Also less than enthusiastic about Kaepernick and Diddy working together to buy the Panthers is Shannon Sharpe, the co-host of the sports talk show “Undisputed” on Fox’s FS1.

Sharpe said he’s all for Diddy buying the team, and he thinks it can happen, but not with Kaepernick, BET reported:

“If (Kaepernick) still has a pending (grievance) lawsuit against the NFL, if he feels like they had him blackballed as a player, I don’t know how he feels they think they’re going to have him as an owner. At the end of the day, P. Diddy is going to have to do what’s in the best interest if he’s serious about buying this. I think Kaep should be a quarterback.”