The N.F.L. Shows Surprising Deference to Jerry Richardson

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Top executives at the N.F.L. spent the early part of last week navigating the public relations nightmare emanating from the Los Angeles headquarters of the league-owned television network, where a former wardrobe stylist alleged in a lawsuit that she had been sexually harassed and assaulted, leading to the suspension of six employees.

As the week wore on, word began to filter up from North Carolina that another nightmare was looming: The Carolina Panthers’ founder, Jerry Richardson, would be the subject of a soon-to-be-released news report from Sports Illustrated alleging he had for years sexually harassed employees and made racially charged statements.

The events that unfolded over the second half of last week followed a familiar pattern for a league that can appear flat-footed when managing an evolving crisis. While the N.F.L. eventually landed on a solution that would most likely benefit all parties — Richardson has agreed to sell the team after the season — the league initially deferred to a member of its inner circle in a situation where organizations confronted with similar behavior from one of their own have reacted more swiftly and decisively.

On Thursday, Richardson began calling his fellow owners to tell them what was coming. A day later, the Panthers told the league that one of their minority shareholders, the former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles, would lead an investigation into the claims.

For another day, the N.F.L. largely let the Panthers drive the process, raising no immediate objections to an investigation led by a man who was one of Richardson’s close associates, an investor in his business and a fellow North Carolinian.

In interviews Monday, league executives said that they had planned to ultimately step in, but that Commissioner Roger Goodell and his top lieutenants had preferred to let the team come to the conclusion that the investigation required independence, rather than impose it on the Panthers.

By waiting, however, the league gave the impression that it did not grasp the gravity of the charges at a time when media titans, Hollywood moguls and politicians are resigning or being fired for alleged inappropriate behavior.

The league instantly takes control of investigations when players are accused of similar abuses. With Richardson and the Panthers, the N.F.L. waited until late Saturday to decide to take over the inquiry. An announcement came Sunday morning. By midday, Richardson had called Goodell to say he would put the team up for sale during the coming off-season. Control of the team’s day-to-day operations was turned over on Monday to Tina Becker, a longtime franchise employee.

If Richardson thought his departure would end any investigation, he was mistaken. The league said on Monday that it would follow through with its inquiry. An N.F.L. spokesman, Joe Lockhart, said the league had not yet chosen a law firm to lead the inquiry.

The coming sale represents a rich opportunity for all involved. N.F.L. teams are among the most valuable in sports, and they rarely change hands. Most are relinquished only when their owners die, such as in 2014, when Ralph Wilson died, prompting the sale of the Buffalo Bills to Terry and Kim Pegula for $1.4 billion. Given the exploding prices paid for sports franchises, the sale might turn into a silver lining for the N.F.L. and its owners, as team values are based partly on recent sales.

Richardson said he would not entertain bids before the end of the season, so it is too early to know precisely how much money his team may fetch. Sports bankers say the Panthers will almost assuredly bring in more than the $2.2 billion that Tilman J. Fertitta paid this year for the Houston Rockets of the N.B.A.

N.F.L. owners spent Monday coming to grips with Richardson’s impending departure, which partly explains why the league office may have resisted driving him out sooner with a more draconian approach. Until last week, he was one of the league’s elder statesmen. Several of the owners declined to speak on the record about a man who held sway over some of the league’s most important matters, including labor negotiations, the selection of a new commissioner and which teams would be allowed to move to Los Angeles.

Richardson, 81, underwent a heart transplant several years ago, and has been slowed by age. But he remains an imposing presence in Charlotte, where he drives around the stadium in a golf cart. The only current owner to have played in the N.F.L., Richardson made a fortune on fast food restaurants. In 1993, he won the right to buy the Panthers, an expansion team.

A stickler for order and detail, he has run the team with an iron first. He is also known for his handwritten letters to colleagues, inquiring routinely about the family and health of underlings. Each year, he would visit New York and take junior employees at the N.F.L. to the 21 Club to thank them for their service.

“I’m saddened by any of the stories or the things that might have instigated this at this time,” Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys’ owner, said Sunday night. “He’d be the first to tell you he’s had a blessed life.”

Stories of Richardson’s generosity now stand in contrast to someone who, according to Sports Illustrated, ogled at and caressed his female employees. Richardson has not commented directly on the allegations.

The sale will most likely provide him and his partners with a windfall. The N.F.L., sports industry financial experts note, brings in significantly more money than the N.B.A. — more than $14 billion this year. Nearly every team is profitable because the teams share equally more than $6 billion in annual television, sponsorship and merchandise revenue. The Panthers play in a far larger, more vibrant region than the Bills, the most recent N.F.L. team to be sold. And the Panthers also have a more favorable stadium lease. Quarterback Cam Newton, one of the league’s biggest stars, led the team to the Super Bowl in 2016.

Forbes, which conducts an annual survey of team values that industry critics claim are imprecise, estimated that the Panthers are now worth $2.3 billion, 11 percent more than in 2016. The team, Forbes said, carries almost no debt and had $102 million in operating income, the ninth most among the league’s 32 franchises.

Richardson intended for the team to be sold after he dies, and estate sales often require that the highest qualified bidder be chosen. But with Richardson in charge of the sale, his last act as the owner of the team that he founded may be to decide to pick, say, a local ownership group with a lower bid.