List of NFL franchise owners

The following is a list of current National Football League franchise owners:

Terry Pegula, co-owner of the Buffalo Bills.
Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys.
Clark Hunt, chairman of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Zygi Wilf, majority owner of the Minnesota Vikings.
Franchise Owner Year
acquired
Arizona Cardinals Estate of Bill Bidwill‡62019
Atlanta Falcons Arthur Blank†12004
Baltimore Ravens Steve Bisciotti†12004
Buffalo Bills Kim and Terry Pegula2014
Carolina Panthers David Tepper2018
Chicago Bears Virginia Halas McCaskey†‡21983
Cincinnati Bengals Mike Brown‡21991
Cleveland Browns Jimmy and Dee Haslam2012
Dallas Cowboys Jerry Jones1989
Denver Broncos Joe Ellis, trustee62019
Detroit Lions Sheila Ford Hamp†‡[1]2020
Green Bay Packers Green Bay Packers, Inc.41923
Houston Texans Janice McNair and family†‡22018
Indianapolis Colts Jim Irsay‡1997
Jacksonville Jaguars Shahid Khan2012
Kansas City Chiefs Clark Hunt and siblings‡22006
Las Vegas Raiders Carol and Mark Davis (mother and son)†‡2011
Los Angeles Chargers Dean Spanos‡2018
Los Angeles Rams Stan Kroenke12010
Miami Dolphins Stephen M. Ross†2008
Minnesota Vikings Zygi Wilf†2005
New England Patriots Robert Kraft1994
New Orleans Saints Gayle Benson‡2018
New York Giants John Mara‡ (50%)3
Steve Tisch (50%)		2005
New York Jets Robert Wood Johnson IV5 and Christopher Wold Johnson‡2000
Philadelphia Eagles Jeffrey Lurie1994
Pittsburgh Steelers Art Rooney II‡1,3 (60%) and family (12%)‡1,2,32017
San Francisco 49ers Denise DeBartolo York and Jed York‡12009
Seattle Seahawks Jody Allen, trustee‡62018
Tampa Bay Buccaneers Bryan Glazer and siblings‡2014
Tennessee Titans Amy Adams Strunk‡ 22013
Washington Football Team Dan Snyder†1999

† Majority or plurality owner, rather than outright owner.
‡ Ownership of club has been passed on to/split by family members of previous owner (see Family ownership section below)

1 Owner held stake prior to this date.
2 Child/heir of original owner of franchise.
3 Child/heir of heir of original owner of franchise.
4 Public corporation with a grandfathered exception to current NFL ownership rules. The team is governed by a Board of Directors, and Mark H. Murphy represents the team as President and CEO.
5 Currently inactive.
6 Currently held in trust/estate after death of previous owner:

  • Arizona Cardinals: Bill Bidwill died on October 2, 2019 and estate is not settled.
  • Denver Broncos: Ellis represents the estate of Pat Bowlen until it can be determined which of Bowlen's five children will inherit the team.
  • Kansas City Chiefs: Clark Hunt, one of four co-owning siblings (the others being Lamar Hunt Jr., Daniel Hunt and Sharon Munson), represents the team in league affairs.
  • Seattle Seahawks: Allen represents the estate of her deceased brother Paul Allen, who had no immediate next of kin.
  • New York Jets: Christopher Johnson is acting owner due to Robert's appointment as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
  • Tampa Bay Buccanners: Bryan Glazer represents the four co-owning siblings, including Edward Glazer, Joel Glazer and Darcie Kassewitz.
  • Tennessee Titans: Amy Strunk represents the five co-owning siblings -- two sisters (Smith), and the widow of their brother (Lewis), and his sons (the Adams brothers), all the children of founding owner Bud Adams.

Family ownership

Benson, Bidwill, McCaskey, Brown, Irsay, Hamp, Hunt, Mara, Davis, Rooney, Glazer, Spanos, York, and Adams-Strunk represent ownership that has been longer than the year listed in the table above, as teams have been owned by their families longer than listed:

  • Arizona Cardinals: Bidwill's father Charles originally purchased the team in 1933 when it was the Chicago Cardinals.
  • Chicago Bears: McCaskey's father George Halas founded the team, then known as Decatur Staleys, in 1919.
  • Cincinnati Bengals: Brown's father Paul founded the Bengals in 1967.
  • Detroit Lions: Hamp's father William Clay Ford Sr. took over majority control of the Lions in 1963.
  • Houston Texans: McNair's deceased husband Bob founded the team in 2002.
  • Indianapolis Colts: Irsay's father Bob took over the team in 1972.
  • Kansas City Chiefs: Hunt's father Lamar founded the team in 1960.
  • Las Vegas Raiders: Carol's deceased husband and Mark's father Al Davis gained majority control of the team in 1976.
  • Los Angeles Chargers: Spanos's father Alex took over majority control in 1984.
  • New Orleans Saints: Benson's deceased husband Tom bought the team in 1985.
  • New York Giants: Mara's grandfather Tim co-founded the Giants in 1925.
  • New York Jets: Robert originally bought full control of the Jets in 2000. His brother Christopher became acting owner in 2017 after Robert became United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
  • Pittsburgh Steelers: Rooney's grandfather Art Rooney, Sr. founded the team in 1933.
  • San Francisco 49ers: Denise's father and Jed's grandfather Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. originally bought the team in 1977, and shortly gave it to his son and Denise's brother Edward J. DeBartolo Jr.
  • Seattle Seahawks: Allen's deceased brother Paul Allen bought the team in 1997.
  • Tampa Bay Buccanners: Glazer's father Malcolm bought the team in 1995.
  • Tennessee Titans: Amy Strunk's father Bud Adams founded the team in 1960.

Ownership restrictions

The NFL forbids religious groups, governments, and non-profit organizations owning a team. The NFL requires a controlling owner to hold at minimum a 30% stake in the team and forbids ownership groups of over 24 people, or any publicly traded corporations from purchasing NFL teams; one team, the Green Bay Packers, is exempt from this under a grandfather clause and is owned by shareholders. The Houston Texans are also grandfathered in for their home county–the Harris County, Texas government–which owns 5% of the team, as the rule forbidding governments from owning a team became effective in 2007. The NFL's constitution also forbids its owners from owning any other professional football teams, except for Arena Football League teams located in the NFL team's home market. In addition, the controlling owners of NFL teams were previously only permitted to own major league baseball, basketball and hockey teams if they were in the NFL team's home market, or were not located in other NFL cities.[2] (Stan Kroenke, who owned hockey and basketball teams in Denver, was nonetheless unanimously allowed to buy the then-St. Louis Rams in 2010 and hold on to his Denver assets until 2015. Even then, the Denver assets were transferred to his wife, Ann.)[3] Soccer has been exempt from these restrictions since 1982, when the league lost a lawsuit filed by the original NASL stemming from the investments of Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt and Elizabeth Robbie, the wife of Miami Dolphins owner Joe Robbie in NASL teams;[4] as a result, NFL owners have owned teams in MLS in other NFL markets. In October 2018, the NFL owners voted to relax the cross-ownership rule, allowing controlling NFL owners to own other professional teams within NFL markets.[5] The league also informally requires prospective owners to have relatively liquid assets and positive cash flow; having a majority of one's wealth invested in real estate, for example, is grounds for rejection.[6]

See also

References
  1. "Detroit Lions owner Martha Firestone Ford, 94, steps down; Sheila Ford Hamp takes over". Michael Rothstein. ESPN. June 23, 2020. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  2. "Constitution and Bylaws of the National Football League" (PDF). National Football League. 2006.
  3. "NFL owners let Kroenke keep Rams; transfer Nuggets, Avalanche to his wife". Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  4. North American Soccer League v. National Football League, 670 F.2d 1249 (2d Cir. 1982).
  5. Farmer, Sam (October 16, 2018). "NFL owners vote to allow cross-ownership in cities with football teams". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 6, 2019.
  6. "Trump's failed bid to purchase Bills mentioned in Times article". WBEN. March 19, 2019. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
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