N.F.L. Taking Over Investigation of Panthers Owner Jerry Richardson

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The N.F.L. said on Sunday that it would take over an investigation of the Carolina Panthers’ owner, Jerry Richardson, who has been accused of what the team is calling “workplace misconduct.”

The announcement came less than two days after the club said it had begun its own investigation of Richardson’s behavior. That inquiry, though, was to be conducted by a North Carolina-based law firm and led by Erskine Bowles, the former White House chief of staff who is also a minority shareholder in the Panthers.

The team did not provide specifics about the allegations against Richardson. The league is already facing accusations of sexual harassment and sexual assault from a former wardrobe stylist for NFL Network.

Six current and former NFL Network employees, including five former N.F.L. players, have been suspended as a result of those accusations.

Taking action against an owner may not be as easy, particularly one as powerful as Richardson. Now 81 and in poor health, he has been the team’s only owner, dating to the club’s founding in 1993. His two sons no longer work for the team, and he has said that the team will be sold when he dies.

Though he has stepped back from the league’s affairs in recent years, he remains one of its most powerful owners, and has many allies among his fellow owners. Richardson is the only current owner who also played in the N.F.L., having spent the 1959 and 1960 seasons with the Baltimore Colts.

An N.F.L. spokesman said the league had not yet chosen who would carry out the investigation. In the past, the league has taken months to publish its findings, and sometimes weeks more to assess penalties.

But given the national focus on sexual harassment, domestic violence and other related issues, the league may feel compelled to act more quickly, much like the N.B.A. did after the furor over the Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, who was recorded on tape making racist remarks.

In April, 2014, N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver permanently barred Sterling, who reluctantly sold the club for $2 billion to the Microsoft magnate Steve Ballmer.

The most analogous case in the N.F.L. came nearly 20 years ago when the San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo pleaded guilty to felony charges stemming from a corruption case involving Eddie Edwards, the former Louisiana governor.

The N.F.L. fined DeBartolo, who was also barred from actively controlling the 49ers for a year. Rather than return to the league, DeBartolo ceded control of the team to his sister, Denise York.

DeBartolo was inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016.