The NFL’s richest owners M-O-N-E-YBy David Steele The Sporting NewsMarch 30th 2014
Every franchise is dealing from the same deck, the $133 million salary cap for 2014. But not every team has the same wealth on hand. However, all 32 owners, according to Forbes' rankings, are among the wealthiest in the United States and the world. No fewer than 20 are worth at least $1 billion. A handful of others are within a few bucks of that level, depending on the source of their personal worth. Most of the rest are heirs of the families that originally owned the teams—and in one case, is the original team owner. Here is the worth of each NFL owner and how he or she obtained that wealth. For the Buffalo Bills, Arizona Cardinals, Pittsburgh Steelers, Oakland Raiders and Cincinnati Bengals, individual worth could not be obtained, so it is estimated from Forbes' figure for the value of the franchise itself. The Green Bay Packers are community owned and do not have one defined owner. Paul Allen, Seahawks, $15.9 billion. How he got rich: He and Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft, meaning his great-grandchildren’s great-grandchildren should be set. Also owns the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers. Worth more than next three richest owners combined. 
(Ted S. Warren/AP) Stan Kroenke, Rams, $5.6 billionHow he got rich: Real estate, as well as marrying the niece of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton (Anne Walton Kroenke is worth $4.8 billion). Also owns the NBA's Denver Nuggets and NHL's Colorado Avalanche. 
(Tom Gannam/AP) Stephen Ross, Dolphins, $5.4 billionHow he got rich: Commercial real estate, particularly in Manhattan; he is developing the lucrative Hudson Yards property, which nearly became the site of a stadium for the Jets. 
(Lynne Sladky/AP) Malcolm Glazer, Buccaneers, $4.2 billionHow he got rich: Developing and leasing malls and shopping centers, which he and his family parlayed into buying the Bucs and soccer empire Manchester United. 
(D.J. Peters/AP) Woody Johnson, Jets, $3.5 millionHow he got rich: He’s the great-grandson of the founder of Johnson & Johnson, the CEO of a self-named private investment firm and a major philanthropist. 
(Evan Agostini/Invision for NFL/AP) Jerry Jones, Cowboys, $3 billionHow he got rich: Wildcat oil and gas prospecting in Arkansas, where he had co-captain the University of Arkansas football team that won a national championship. 
(Gus Ruelas/AP) Shahid Khan, Jaguars, $2.9 billionHow he got rich: He rose from an auto-parts company employee to running his own business to supplying parts to most major auto manufacturers. Once made a bid for the Rams. 
(Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP) Robert Kraft, Patriots, $2.9 billionHow he got rich: He bought his father-in-law’s paper and packaging materials company and grew it into a family holding company, The Kraft Group. Also owns the MLS Revolution. 
(Elise Amendola/AP) Joan Tisch, Giants, $2.8 billionHow she got rich: Her late husband, Bob, was not only co-owner of the team after buying into it with the Maras in 1991, but his family ran the Loews Corporation. Son Steve now runs the Giants with John Mara, grandson of founder Tim, a New York bookie who bought the team for $500 in 1925. 
(Gregory Bull/AP) Steve Bisciotti, Ravens, $2.2 billionHow he got rich: He co-founded a business staffing company with his cousin and expanded it into numerous staff resource businesses, allowing him to buy a minority share of the Ravens in 2000. 
(Patrick Semansky/AP) Bob McNair, Texans, $2 billionHow he got rich: He owned a Texas energy company that he sold to Enron in 1999, right before that company sank. He got the expansion Texans in 2002, replacing the departed Oilers. Not surprisingly, Reliant, which has the naming rights to the Texans’ stadium, is an energy giant in Texas. 
(Patric Schneider/AP) Arthur Blank, Falcons, $1.8 billionHow he got rich: The native of Queens, N.Y, co-founded Home Depot in 1978 in Atlanta; he and Bernie Marcus had been fired as executives at another home-improvement company and decided to strike out on their own. 
(John Amis/AP) Jim Irsay, Colts, $1.6 billionHow he got rich: He inherited the team in 1997 from his rather volatile father Robert. His fortune had come from a heating and air conditioning business; Robert Irsay originally bought L.A. Rams in 1972, swapped them for the Baltimore Colts, then moved them to Indianapolis in 1984. 
(AJ Mast/AP) Tom Benson, Saints, $1.5 billionHow he got rich: He owned car dealerships in Louisiana and Texas, created financial group from profits, then bought the team in 1985 when it threatened to move. Similarly, he saved the NBA Hornets (now Pelicans) when it was in league receivership. 
(Gerald Herbert/AP) Jimmy Haslam, Browns, $1.5 billionHow he got rich: The latest owner to buy into the NFL (in 2012), he runs a national chain of truck stops, Flying J, founded by his father. 
(Tony Dejak/AP) Martha Ford, Lions, $1.35 billionHow she got rich: Her husband, who died this week, was William Clay Ford Sr., grandson of Ford Motor Co. founder Henry Ford and owner of the team since 1963. Son William Jr. will continue to run the Lions. 
(Carlos Osorio/AP) Clark Hunt, Chiefs, $1.3 billionHow he got rich: His grandfather was a Texas oil legend and family patriarch; his father, Lamar, founded the AFL in 1960 and was the original owner of the team that became the Chiefs. Lamar Hunt’s heirs own parts of at least four teams in three sports. 
(Orlin Wagner/AP)Virginia McCaskey, Bears, $1.3 billionHow she got rich: She inherited the team in 1983 from father George Halas, founder of the Bears and co-founder of the NFL in 1920. 
(Nam Y. Huh/AP) Zygi Wilf, Vikings, $1.3 billionHow he got rich: His family started a home construction company and expanded into commercial real estate. His worth is one published estimate; another set it at $310 million – but it is all in dispute. He and his family went to court last year to fight revealing their net worth in a fraud lawsuit dating back to the 1990s. 
(Jim Mone/AP) Tommy Smith, Titans, $1.25 billionHow he got rich: He inherited the team last year from father-in-law Bud Adams, oil tycoon and founder of the AFL Houston Oilers in 1960. Adams’ wealth is estimated from Forbes’ billionaires list from 2013. 
(Mark Zaleski/AP) Dan Snyder, Redskins, $1.2 billionHow he got rich: the Maryland native and lifelong fan of the team built a direct marketing and advertising empire. He later owned the Six Flags amusement park franchise and Dick Clark Productions, and now owns the local radio chain that includes the team flagship station.
(Nick Wass/AP) Denise York, 49ers, $1.2 billionHow she got rich: Her father, Eddie DeBartolo Sr., was a pioneer in mall construction. She briefly owned the NHL Penguins. Her brother Eddie Jr. owned the 49ers during their 1980s and ‘90s heyday, but the NFL barred him in 2000 after a corruption scandal in Louisiana. York took over, and team operations were run first by her husband John, then her son Jed. 
(Paul Sakuma/AP) Community, Packers, $1.18 millionHow they got rich: They are still, and always will be, the only NFL team allowed to operate as they do. The team is owned by 364,122 shareholders, holding more than 5 million total shares, and a seven-member committee handles business operations. 
(Mike Roemer/AP) Dan Rooney, Steelers, $1.12 billionHow he got rich: The Rooneys have owned the team since its inception as the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1933, founded by patriarch Art Sr. 
(Matt Dunham/AP) Alex Spanos, Chargers, $1.1 billionHow he got rich: About as rags-to-riches as you can get – his first big transaction, in 1951, was buying a food truck to sell sandwiches to migrant workers in central California. He invested that in real estate, then in construction. He bought the team in 1984. 
(Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP) Jeffrey Lurie, Eagles, $1 billionHow he got rich: His family owned the General Cinemas movie theatre chain, and he built on that with a movie production company and other businesses. 
(Tony Gutierrez/AP) Pat Bowlen, Broncos, $1 billionHow he got rich: He joined his family’s Canadian oil business as an executive, after building a lucrative law practice on his own. 
(Jack Dempsey/AP) Bill Bidwill, Cardinals, $961 millionHow he got rich: He inherited it, with his brother Charles Jr., in 1962 from mother Violet, who had inherited from husband Charles, a lawyer and minority owner of the Bears who had bought the Chicago Cardinals in 1933. 
(Paul Connors/AP) Mike Brown, Bengals, $924 millionHow he got rich: He inherited it in 1991 from father Paul Brown, the founder of the AFL franchise in 1968 – and who also was the founder and Hall of Fame coach of the Cleveland Browns in 1946. 
(Al Behrman/AP)Ralph Wilson, Bills, $870 millionHow he got rich: He turned his father’s insurance company into an entrepreneurial empire in 1950s that eventually bore his name. He is the founding owner of the Bills in the AFL starting in 1960. Wilson died at his home on March 25, 2014, of natural causes at the age of 95. He left no heir apparent and the trust that was set up to hold the team after his death is expected to sell the team to the highest bidder within two years.
(David Duprey/AP) Mark Davis, Raiders, $825 millionHow he got rich: He inherited it in 2011 from father Al Davis, the franchise’s signature personality since 1963, the AFL team’s fourth season. 
(Stephen Brashear/AP) Jerry Richardson, Panthers, $500 millionHow he got rich: The North Carolina native and former wide receiver – who caught a touchdown pass in the 1959 NFL title game – turned a chain of Hardee’s restaurants into a food services company. That enabled him to buy the expansion Panthers in 1993. 
(Mike McCarn/AP)
