Texans owner McNair defends Panthers owner Richardson
Houston Texans owner Bob McNair shed some light on what Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson has told his peers regarding the allegations of racial and sexual workplace misconduct made against him, for which Richardson is currently being investigated by the NFL.
Sports Illustrated reported in December that Richardson settled with three former employees over sexual-harassment allegations and one former scout who alleged Richardson used a racial slur toward him. The SI report spurred the league's ongoing investigation and led Richardson to announce later that day that he would put the franchise he founded in 1993 up for sale.
McNair indicated on Sunday that he thinks Richardson regrets reaching settlements with his accusers.
"I understand what he's saying," McNair told ESPN from the NFL owners meetings. "Sometimes people choose to try to make something go away rather than fighting it. I think his regret is he didn't fight some of these things.
"We get confronted with it, too, where people will allege something, they get a lawyer and what they do is come out and threaten you. And your legal counsel and your insurance people say, 'Well, it's going to cost you X-number millions of dollars to defend this. And if we can settle it for this ...' (Then he goes), 'Well, wait a minute. We're not guilty. Why would we do that?' That's the question. Sometimes just to get rid of it, if you can get rid of it, do it."
Richardson, 81, has not spoken publicly about the subject and is not in attendance at the owners meetings, but McNair said Richardson has addressed the matter with the rest of the league's owners.
"I know Jerry. He's an outstanding person," McNair said, per ESPN. "He was very candid in what he said and what he did, and sometimes things get misunderstood. ...
"I hope this thing turns out that he's innocent. They alleged. I don't know. Some of the comments he might have made could have been made jokingly and misunderstood. I'm sure he didn't mean to offend anybody."
McNair, 80, used similar language in October when he issued an apology for saying "we can't have the inmates running the prison" while discussing the wealth of NFL players protesting during the national anthem.
"I regret that I used that expression," McNair said in a statement at the time. "I never meant to offend anyone and I was not referring to our players. I used a figure of speech that was never intended to be taken literally. I would never characterize our players or our league that way and I apologize to anyone who was offended by it."
Richardson remains under investigation as bidding for the Panthers franchise continues, reportedly reaching $2.5 billion last week. ESPN reports the goal is for a winning bid to be selected early in April and for owners to approve the sale by vote at the league's meetings in Atlanta in May.
--Field Level Media
