ATLANTA — Tom Brady isn’t the only Pro Football Hall of Famer expected to be approved as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders at the NFL’s fall owners’ meetings Tuesday in Atlanta.
Richard Seymour has submitted a separate bid to purchase a minority stake in the Raiders, according to league sources. The NFL finance committee has approved Seymour’s bid and plans to submit it to league owners for a vote Tuesday. Pro Football Talk was the first to report the story. Just like Brady, Seymour will need 24 of the NFL’s 32 owners to vote in his favor for the transaction to become official.
If approved, Seymour and Brady would become the third and fourth former NFL players to become owners after George Halas Sr. and Jerry Richardson. Seymour would be the first Black former NFL player to do so.
It’s unknown what percentage of the team Seymour is aiming to purchase, but he’ll be described as a limited partner if approved.
Brady and businessman Tom Wagner, the co-founder of Knighthead Capital Management, came to an agreement with Las Vegas owner Mark Davis to buy approximately 10 percent of the franchise last year, according to league sources. Even if both transactions are approved, Davis will remain the controlling owner.
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Seymour was an NFL defensive lineman for 12 seasons with the New England Patriots and Raiders. He was a teammate of Brady’s with the Patriots from 2001 to 2008 and won three Super Bowls during that period. He earned five All-Pro selections in total and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2022.
It’s unclear what kind of role Brady and Seymour may have in Las Vegas’ football decisions if they’re approved as minority owners, but Seymour’s recent involvement could be an indication. Seymour, Davis, president Sandra Douglass Morgan, board member Larry Delsen, senior vice president Tom Delaney and adviser Ken Herock comprised the interview panel that led to the hirings of general manager Tom Telesco and coach Antonio Pierce this offseason.
Prior to hiring Telesco and Pierce, Davis told The Athletic he believed the franchise was missing an influential football mind to help steer the Raiders in the right direction.
“I don’t have that ability that my father (Al Davis) had in judging talent,” Davis said last December. “So, that’s a missing piece to the puzzle, so to speak: a solid football mind that isn’t the GM or the head coach. And I think that’s a piece that’s probably going to be necessary somewhere down the line, bringing in somebody that understands football that’s above the day-to-day work.”
Brady and Seymour buying into ownership could potentially open the door for them to help fill that void.
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