If P. Diddy Owned the Carolina Panthers: Still All About the Benjamins?

We still here, you rockin' with the best

Don't worry if I write rhymes, I write checks (Ha!)

Puff Daddy, Bad Boy for Life

Writing a check separates a commitment from a conversation.

Warren Buffett

I love hip-hop and I love football. The two seem like a natural fit. But I suspect that fit will look just like business as usual because capitalism.

Quick Story: Back when I first started law school, I LOVED watching Making the Band on MTV. I think, other than Beavis and Butthead, that first season of Making the Band was the last thing I ever watched on MTV. It was a cool little Post It affirmation that a rappers lifestyle wasnt necessarily all it was cracked up to be. Despite the notion of nearly a hundred grand in school loans, MAYBE I made the right decision by doing this law school thing.

Man, I will forever be thankful for P.Diddy (although I think he was still Puff Daddy at that time). I think he probably changed a lot of hip-hop cats minds who thought that maybe wanted to work in the music industry. With law school and being a lawyer generally I was pretty sure that there would be small indignities and assaults from the largely white legal industry. In hindsight, Ive experienced thoselaw is as white as you would think, and being a brown person within law definitely requires us to have a lot of patience and grace for white folks. BUTdespite slick little comments, last-hired/first-fired racial gamesI never had to walk to Juniors in Brooklyn to get cheesecake for the managing partner.

Thats important. Puffy (or P. Diddy) made his underlings do that. Music industry? No thank you. Ill take this little square ass legal job.

Why Am I Telling You This? I was very excited to see that Puff Daddy is interested in purchasing the NFLs Carolina Panthers. The Carolina Panthers octogenarian owner got caught up in a sexual harassment scandal and announced that hes selling the team. Now granted the NFL is a dying industrybetween CTEs, boycotts and cultural/generational divideand investing in an NFL team is the functional equivalent of buying a million shares of Blockbuster. Yet, football ranks two mics below basketball as the Most Hip-Hop professional sports in the world (with skateboarding taking a distant third). So it makes perfect sense that hip-hop would be involved in ownership of an NFL team and likewise makes perfect sense that P. Diddy (who, along with Jay-Z, Dame Dash, Master P and Ice Cube have kinda set the template for hip-hop diversification strategy) would be the person blazing that trail!

That said, I see folks talking about Puffys possible ownership as if it will somehow be transformative to ownership of NFL teamslike he will break the mold. Well, I suppose being black and less than 80 years old is pretty noteworthy; those things should not be underestimated. We must have equity in every industry! BUTI hate to break it to you, but P. Diddy would likely agree with the Cant have the inmates running the prison sentiment expressed by Bob McNair, owner of the Houston Texans. Why do I think that?

Well, he made his group walk to Juniors. In Brooklyn. For cheesecake. He attacked Steve Stoute for leaking music. He has engaged in very aggressive business tactics with his own artists. Hes still a man. Hes still a man who has gotten his wealth in the typical ways. Thats no disrespectits just typical. Theres nothing transformative hereif it was, for example, Beyonce, maybe. Oprah? Cool. Puffy? Business as usual.

Mind you, people change. People grow up. Im sure Puff Daddy isnt the same person he used to be. Im not one of those folks who dislikes Puffs movesin fact, I respect Puff as an entrepreneur and as an elder statesman of the hip-hop business. But my point is not even to judge those incidents, but instead to say one thing: P. Diddy (and anyone else of any color who takes ownership over an NFL team) is a businessman and their intent is to make every single dollar possible. That fact alone pretty much precludes transformative business practicestheyre trying to get paid, just like when Michael Jordan took over controlling interest in the Charlotte Bobcats in 2010. Since that time, the Charlotte Bobcats have not become a haven for woke-ass social agendas.

Its a huge power move. But its just a team. And its just a business. And just like any business in this capitalistic society, cash rules everything around me and Puff has shown that he is a BRILLIANT businessman. That means that, largely, he would run his team just like every other owner in the NFL. Because capitalism.

Gyasi Ross is a father, an author and a storyteller. He is a member of the Blackfeet (Amskapikipikuni) Nation and his family also comes from the Suquamish Nation. He is the co-host of the Breakdances With Wolves: Indigenous Pirate Radio podcast. He can be reached at Instagram and Twitter at: @BigIndianGyasi