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David Tepper, minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers (5% stake) and founder of global hedge fund Appaloosa Management, is expected to sign the deal today to purchase the Carolina Panthers. Tepper, who is worth an estimated $11 billion, will reportedly pay $2.2 billion for the team.
The Panthers were put up for sale after the 2017 season when sexual harassment and workplace misconduct allegations against owner Jerry Richardson were brought to light.
Well, according to a 2010 New York Magazine profile of Tepper, the Panthers aren’t exactly exchanging an asshole for a choir boy.
Check out these excerpts:
Tepper has a pair of brass testicles. Cartoonishly huge and grotesquely veiny, they are affixed to a plaque inscribed with the words THE MOST VALUABLE SET OF ALL TIME and are not at all out of place in Appaloosa’s offices, which resemble a high-end sports bar—all polished mahogany and flat-screen TVs and black-and-gold Steelers paraphernalia—or a wealthy frat house. (“We had this client, they make breast implants,” says a former employee. “He loved to keep them on the desk, he’d love to throw them around.”) Appaloosa is staffed almost entirely by men.
*stifling laughter envisioning the veiny testicle statue*
The profile goes on to describe Tepper’s personality as extremely volatile and at his worst, a downright dick.
By all accounts, Tepper’s personal volatility is as up and down as his returns. “He’s an asshole, to say the least,” says someone who worked with him. “I had stuff thrown at me. He can be a nice guy off the desk, in the kitchen or walking to the car. It’s almost like Jekyll and Hyde, you didn’t know any given day who was going to walk through the door.” This is not merely someone with a grudge. When Tepper coached elementary-school kids in softball, Phil Glassman says, he could be heard screaming all the way down the block.
Tepper admits he can be difficult. “I used to be worse,” he says over the phone. “When I was at Goldman, I’d say things to people like, ‘Do you know what a schmuck is? Go look in the mirror.’ Now I’m kinder and gentler. Aren’t I kinder and gentler?” he asks his employees.
In the background there’s silence.
“Aren’t I kinder and gentler?”
Tepper has already passed the league’s vetting process and the deal is expected to be approved at the owners meetings in Atlanta on May 22.
[h/t Deadspin]