No Black Owner for the NFL

A while back, I pointed out that the Minnesota Vikings would be getting its first black majority owner in Reggie Fowler. I guess I was wrong, as that deal seems to have gone down the drain. Fowler was essentially disqualified from majority ownership because he apparantly lacked the funding required to legitimate that role in the organization. From ESPN:

WASHINGTON -- NFL owners on Wednesday unanimously approved the $600 million sale of the Minnesota Vikings to a group led by New Jersey shopping mall magnate Zygmunt Wilf.

Wilf was given to go-ahead to purchase the team from Red McCombs, with the closing date expected to take place in June.

Wilf immediately pledged to work to build a new stadium to replace the Metrodome, but he vowed that the team will stay in Minnesota.

Which is unfortunate, because, as Len Pasquarelli points out, this certainly would have boosted the NFL's image which has been mired in controversy over the lack of minorities in positions of power throughout the league:

Funny thing about how the NFL operates. After the news conference in which McCombs announced his pending deal with Fowler, league staffers urged some media outlets to call people like Ozzie Newsome of Baltimore, the NFL's first black general manager, to cite his reaction to Fowler's candidacy. More recently, when Fowler's dollar deficiencies had become apparent, and after the ownership group was reshuffled to elevate Wilf to the top spot on the totem pole, the league-speak was that NFL officials hadn't necessarily championed Fowler because of his race.

Maybe that's the case but, truth be told, both league officials and individual club owners desperately wanted the Fowler deal to be consummated. That the purchase could not be completed by Fowler should not and does not diminish the fact that the Minnesota franchise is now more stable, albeit without a deal for a new stadium in place. But the failure of Fowler to pull off the purchase does mean the lack of minority ownership remains an issue in the league.

Think about how Wednesday's news conference here, and the implications of it, would have played out nationally had it been Fowler who was introduced as the Vikings owner or managing partner. Take it to the bank, it would have made front-page headlines in all the national newspapers, been a key story on all the network evening newscasts. Heck, consider how much attention was directed toward Tuesday's announcement that Sheila Johnson, a black woman, had purchased 5 to 10 percent of the WNBA's Washington Mystics and would serve as its team president.

Fowler getting the Vikings would have been exponentially more significant, and on any number of fronts. Instead, outside of the Twin Cities, the purchase of the Vikings by Wilf will merit about two sentences in the "sports briefs" section of most papers. Had it been Fowler who closed the deal, the news conference room at the hotel where the owners were huddling this week would have been jammed. Instead, there were plenty of good seats available for the Wilf announcement.

That's how the cookie crumbles I guess.