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Al Sharpton Throws His Support Behind Diddy To Be New Owner Of The Panthers

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Diddy’s chances of becoming the Carolina Panthers’ next owner are likely slim, but he has a lot of people in his corner who are hoping the rap mogul can make it happen.

Shortly after current Panthers owner Jerry Richardson announced he would be selling the team at season’s end, Diddy voiced his interest in purchasing his team and signing Colin Kaepernick at quarterback. While Kaepernick didn’t respond to the rapper’s plan to sign him as a player, he expressed interest in joining the ownership group.

TMZ caught up with Al Sharpton in New York on Thursday when he offered his opinion about Diddy and Kaepernick joining up to buy the team.

“[Diddy] would be a perfect mixture of business acumen and pizzazz,” Sharpton said, pointing to the entertainer’s experience as a business man with his clothing line. “I think Colin Kaepernick, aside from his noted and in my opinion heroic activism, is a football scholar. He knows the game, so I think either one would be good.”

Sharpton also said he believes it’s about time the NFL owners welcome people like Diddy and Kaepernick into their elite group and “join the 21st century.”

“They would bring them into a new paradigm of how we do professional sports in the 21st century. The NFL owners are last-century mentality and culture, and they need to have owners that can identify and deal with the marketplace today. And both of these guys have penetrated the marketplace today.”

It’s probably safe to say Sharpton isn’t exactly an authority when it comes to running a sports team, but he’s clearly on board with Diddy and Kaep running the team in Carolina.