Real punishment for rich, powerful David Tepper? Of course not | Opinion
Let’s look on the bright side. A Carolina Panthers owner “only” throwing a drink on a fan is an improvement on the behavior that led to the previous owner relinquishing the team.
Don’t look at David Tepper’s tossed drink Sunday as a billionaire acting like a temper-tantrum-toddler while his team put the near-finishing touches on an NFL-worst 2023 season knowing the top overall pick that usually comes with such ineptitude has been traded to the Chicago Bears.
Look at it as not as bad as the multiple sexual harassment allegations that drove Jerry Richardson to sell the team after 24 years. Heck. That Jacksonville Jaguars fan was probably mouthing off as the Panthers were being held without a score in a game for the first time in what seems like forever. Fans can be crude. Just ask Clemson’s Dabo Swinney.
A drink to the face? Huh. That’s inconsequential compared to the racial slur Richardson allegedly directed at a Black employee under previous ownership.
Progress people, progress.
Sure. There’s only been losing during Tepper’s tenure. But it’s important to remember things could be worse. Sure, taxpayers might have to fork over $600 million to help renovate Panthers stadium, which comes in addition to the gobs of public money already invested in the team over the past few decades by counties in North Carolina and South Carolina.
Never mind that taxpayers whose average salary is roughly $54,000 will be helping foot the bill for Tepper, who is worth an estimated $20 billion. And don’t you dare call that socialism! It’s capitalism at its finest, requiring the have-nots to give to the haves so billionaires can pay millionaires to play a kids’ game.
Sure, the Panthers, along with every other NFL team, stiff-armed Super Bowl quarterback Colin Kaepernick because his silent-peaceful protest during the national anthem was supposedly unbecoming of the league. They refused to sign him while proclaiming their top goal is winning even as many of them repeatedly lost games for lack of a reliable quarterback.
A billionaire who can’t control himself in a luxury box in beautiful Florida? That’s not nearly as unbecoming as a young man willing to risk his career to highlight racial inequalities and injustice the way Kaepernick did.
On Tuesday, the NFL fined Tepper $300,000 but didn’t suspend him. What’s $300,000 to a man worth $20 billion? It’s akin to holding Tepper “accountable” by forcing him to fork over the coins in his couch cushions. Nothing short of making him sell the team would amount to more like a slap on the wrist. Taking away a late-round draft pick would only hurt fans. Besides, Tepper’s among an under-discussed victim class. Don’t believe me? Just ask Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay.
“I am prejudiced against because I’m a rich, white billionaire,” Irsay said a couple of months ago during an interview with Andrea Kramer on “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.” He claimed he was profiled by police, which resulted in a high-profile driving under the influence arrest in 2014, a misdemeanor charge to which he plead guilty.
“I don’t care what it sounds like,” Irsay said after being challenged by Kramer. “The truth is the truth and I know the truth.”
The real truth is that we’ve created an upside-down society, one in which the powerless receives the harshest punishments. The world would be better if Richardson was less an exception — a rich, powerful man being fully held to account for bad acts — and more the rule. The same goes for Tepper.
This story was originally published January 2, 2024 at 2:22 PM.