Panthers owner Richardson labelled a bully by players

Wednesday, February 16 2011

Nothing has been smooth about negotiations between the NFL and its players union so far, and we’ve now reached the “he said/she said” portion of the program. This article was written by Darin Gantt and appeared in the Charlotte Observer.

Sparked by a radio appearance by a player who wasn’t in the room, followed by a report on Yahoo.com, Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson is being painted as condescending and a bully by players.

The firestorm started with Arizona kicker Jay Feely’s appearance on ESPN 1050’s “The Michael Kay Show,” when the NFLPA player rep said Richardson was behaving poorly in the negotiating meeting the day before the Super Bowl.

“When you bring in emotion, then you get in the way of logic,” Feely began. “When Jerry Richardson, the owner of the Carolina Panthers, is their lead negotiator for the owners, and he’s going to criticize Peyton Manning and Drew Brees and their intelligence in our meeting on Saturday. And sit there and say dismissively of Peyton Manning, ‘Do I need to help you read a revenue chart son, do i need to help break that down for you, because I don’t know if you understand how to read that.’

“That doesn’t go anywhere in trying to help us get a deal done.”

That was followed by a report citing anonymous sources that described Richardson as “extremely condescending to them, especially toward Peyton.”

A Panthers spokesman said Monday those reports were a “mischaracterization,” of Richardson’s feelings, but said he wouldn’t comment further, since Richardson wanted the negotiations to happen in private.

The Panthers owner has taken a hard line in negotiations, and is known within the league as one of ownerships’ hawks. During a rambling January press conference, he even drew pictures to illustrate what he believed to be the bad deal owners agreed to in 2006, and opted out of two years later.

“It’s said to me when I meet with the union lawyers, they say Mr. Richardson we want more money, more benefits and we want to work less,” Richardson said. “Then they say let’s begin the negotiations. I’m not optimistic we’re making a lot of progress.”