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Panthers Owner Fires His Sons

What a way to start a football season. Normally the days leading up to the final exhibition game are filled with stories about the team's final roster: who's going to make it, who may be cut, free agent signings, possible trades, even, as rare as those are in the NFL. However, in Charlotte this week, it was the owner's suite that got all the attention.

On Tuesday, team owner Jerry Richardson fired his own sons, team president Mark and Bank of America Stadium president Jon. Mark had been groomed as his father's successor for years, being president of the club since 1997. Jon joined the club after the franchise was awarded in 1993 to oversee construction of the stadium and has run stadium operations ever since.

It is speculated that differences between the siblings led to their firing. Both brothers reported to their father and neither had any responsibility for the other's operations. However, the brothers had vastly different ideas about how the franchise should be run, ideas that apparently could not be reconciled, so Jerry Richardson decided it was best for the franchise if both brothers found something else to do. Drop Carolina from the dwindling list of family owned and operated NFL franchises.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on September 02, 2009 (boomark / email).