Panthers' Jerry Richardson's exit from ownership ranks is a sign of the times

When one of the NFL’s most stable and respected owners is forced to sell his team the rest of sports should know there is no room for creepy comments, lurid stares and strange requests to come to the owner’s suite. The harassment game, long accepted with knowing smiles and smarmy smirks, has been shut down. As #metoo hashtags embolden women to talk about the dignity that has been stripped from their lives, there are plenty of players, coaches, executives and owners holding their breath wondering if past crimes will catch up to them.

After Sports Illustrated dropped its Jerry Richardson report a little before kickoff on Sunday, there was little doubt Richardson would be done with the Panthers. The team he founded in the mid-1990s and built into one of the league’s better franchises will go on sale at the end of their last game this season. There is no way a team can be fronted today by an 81-year-old man accused of having female employees come to his office to rub his feet.

This isn’t the tale of a little misunderstanding or some harmless fun gone wrong, it’s the story of a man they called “Mister” making enough of his employees dread the call to his office and not for anything they had done wrong. The four settlements he struck with women in exchange for silence is four too many. Surely Richardson, whose voice has always been heard in league circles, knew the damage at hand. That’s why he announced so quickly that he was dumping the team.

While Richardson undoubtedly will hate giving up the franchise he nurtured in downtown Charlotte his punishment is hardly a punitive one. An NFL owner once told me, there was little money to be made in the day-to-day operations of a team. The annual profits are miniscule at best. The real money, he said, comes when you sell. The latest Forbes franchise rankings estimate the team’s value at $2.3bn. Given Richardson only paid a $206m expansion fee in 1993 he can expect to ride into a gilded prison of his own making far from the NFL’s offices where his calls were always welcome. His penance will be draped in gold.

Sport has always been an incubator for harassment. You can’t have “locker room talk” without locker rooms. A permissive culture has always lingered around team headquarters. For years physical abuse was met with shrugs, rape allegations were brushed away as untidy “he-said, she-said” issues, too often women were considered “problems” and “distractions” in the players’ lives. Even US gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar’s conviction on seven counts of first-degree sexual assault were uncomfortable for many to talk about.

Richardson’s departure from the NFL won’t bring immediate changes. There are sure to be more stories about more owners and coaches and players. Already several retired football players have been suspended from the NFL Network and ESPN while allegations of improper behavior are investigated. What is happening in Carolina might be a small piece of what is about to happen in many sports cities.

On the field Richardson’s Panthers are thriving. They beat the the Packers, 31-24, in Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers return on Sunday. Quarterback Cam Newton threw four touchdown passes. They are now 10-4 and look very much like a team no one will want to face in January. That last game for Richardson might just be the Super Bowl.

But the end had to come for him. The allegations were damning. We are in an era where the old harassment game is no longer played. A lot of people in the NFL finally might have understood that message on Sunday night.

Fantasy player of the week

Eli Manning. Three weeks ago the Giants quarterback looked as if he had played his last game in New York after then-coach Ben McAdoo benched him, ending his starting games streak at 222. The idea was that the Giants would take the rest of the season to find their next quarterback. Instead, they are taking the end of the season to find McAdoo’s replacement. Manning has been given his job back after a one-game hiatus and appears to be making the most of it.

On Sunday, he nearly led the Giants to an upset over the NFC’s best team, the Philadelphia Eagles. In a 34-29 loss he threw for 434 yards and three touchdowns against just one interception. It was his best performance in what has been a hard year for him. In some ways, he was outshined by Eagles quarterback Nick Foles, who is replacing the injured Carson Wentz. Foles had four touchdown passes but only 237 yards. Given the final score, the day belonged to Foles and the Eagles, who clinched a first-round bye in the playoffs. But Sunday was also the best sign yet that Manning can still be a good quarterback whether in New York or somewhere else.

Stat of the week

27.3. This was the passer rating for Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton in Sunday’s 34-7 loss to Minnesota. Dalton’s season, much like the Bengals’ has been perplexing. After an awful first two games he played well through October and December before just plummeting in Minneapolis on Sunday. He completed just 11 passes and was intercepted twice and was replaced in the fourth quarter by AJ McCarron. Cincinnati has never seemed to love Dalton who has always appeared to play a level or two below the top tier quarterbacks.

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Things are changing for the Bengals. Before the game ESPN reported that Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis will leave after the season, ending a 15-year run that is second only to New England’s Bill Belichick among active coaches. Though Dalton is halfway through a six-year $96M contract, might Cincinnati choose to dismantle a team that has faded badly the last two years and start over with a new quarterback to go with the new coach?

Video of the week

When the Pittsburgh Steelers showed injured linebacker Ryan Shazier waving a terrible towel from a luxury box the fans in Heinz Field went crazy. Shazier, who suffered a spinal injury in a game at Cincinnati two weeks ago, has been recovering from spinal stabilization surgery at the University of Pittsburgh medical center. Reports on his condition have been limited with no sense of whether he is able to move his legs.

Seeing Shazier on the scoreboard seemed to lift the Steelers for a time as they built a 24-16 third quarter lead over New England. But the Patriots being the Patriots, stormed back with 10 fourth quarter points to win 27-24 and taking the AFC East title.

Quote of the week

“Well, I had been through life when I was a laughingstock in whatever business I was in, auto parts or what have you. You have to stay in it and success comes. It’s a story of perseverance.” – Jaguars owner Shad Khan after Jacksonville clinched a playoff berth with a 45-7 rout of Houston

Who could have seen this coming? Yes, it was understandable to expect the Jaguars might finally show signs of improvement but to be 10-4 and in first place in the AFC South while walloping a division rival by 38 points? Nobody could have imagined that. The Jags have been the best story in the NFL this season and nobody seems to have noticed. Seven of those 10 wins would be considered blowouts but it’s almost an afterthought. Jacksonville is good. Very good, actually.

Quarterback Blake Bortles has been phenomenal the last threw weeks with passer ratings above 119 and throwing seven touchdown passes against no interceptions. It’s as if the Jags have finally grown up. They have the AFC’s third-best record and have an excellent chance to a first-round playoff bye if they win their final two games. Laughingstocks no more.

Elsewhere around the league

A few weeks ago this space suggested the readers not “quit on the Seattle Seahawks”. It even suggested Seattle might be a team to watch as the playoffs approach. Given Seattle’s 42-7 defeat to the Rams on Sunday and their entire defensive collapse, it does not appear this space was correct. The Seahawks might be 8-6 but there is little reason to believe they will pull this season back together.

The New Orleans Saints solidified their hold on a playoff spot with a 31-19 victory over the Jets. Receiver Michael Thomas became just the second player to catch at least 90 passes in each of his first two seasons. On Sunday he had nine receptions and a touchdown.