Who was Jerry Richardson? All about former Carolina Panthers owner’s, net worth, statue, scandals and more

Jerry Richardson, former Carolina Panthers founder, died peacefully Wednesday night at his Charlotte home, the team said in a statement. He was 86.

“Jerry Richardson’s contributions to professional football in the Carolinas are historic,” Panthers owner David Tepper and his wife Nicole said in a statement.

“With the arrival of the Panthers in 1995, he changed the landscape of sports in the region and gave the NFL fans here a team to call their own. He was incredibly gracious to me when I purchased the team, and for that I am thankful. Nicole and I extend our deepest condolences to Rosalind, the entire Richardson family, and their loved ones. We wish them much peace and comfort.”

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Net worth:

Jerry Richardson has a net worth of $2 billion, as per Celebrity Net Worth.

The Panthers were worth north of $1.5 billion in 2017, according to Forbes. In 2007, Richardson became an investor in a team that purchased Charlotte-based Bojangles’.

The 86-year-old had a statue of himself outside Charlotte, North Carolina’s Bank of America Stadium in 2016. However, it was removed later.

“It was a safety reason at the time. With the environment, every statue in the country was coming under attack. It just made sense at all standpoints to move that statue,” Tepper said then.

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Richardson was acknowledged for bringing the NFL to Carolina in 1995, but his tenure with the team came to an end after the 2017 season because of alleged sexual and racial workplace misconduct. 

The NFL champion was forced to sell the team to Tepper for $2.275 billion, a then NFL record sale, after the 2017 season. This came after allegations of sexual and racial misconduct in the workplace against him came into the public limelight. 

Richardson was fined $2.75 million by the NFL after a thorough investigation into allegations alleged in a story by Sports Illustrated, where four former employees anonymously said that they concluded a financial settlement with him in exchange for silence.