One of the greatest Oakland Raiders ever wanted an investment stake in the Cleveland Browns.
Except the NFL needed him to remove his name from his alcohol brands, and he wouldn’t do it.
So now, Charles Woodson doesn’t have a piece of the Browns at all.
That was reported by Front Office Sports on Thursday.
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Woodson was going to be purchasing a 0.1% stake in the Browns.
He didn’t change his alcohol brand names from Charles Woodson’s Intercept Wines and Woodson Whiskey, though.
That was a problem by NFL policy, and so he wasn’t approved for his piece of ownership.
Woodson has held those alcohol brands since 2019, according to Front Office Sports.
“I thought I was going to be a proud owner of the Browns but it wasn’t able to happen because I wasn’t able to take my name off of my product,” Woodson told FOS. “It’s what made the product. It’s how I started so I wasn’t able to do that.”
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Woodson is originally from Fremont, Ohio, in the northwest part of the state, less than two hours from Cleveland.
He then went to Michigan, where he won a Heisman Trophy. He won a Super Bowl and made the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Woodson’s stake in the Browns would’ve been for about $4 million.
The Browns told FOS, “We respect the decision by Charles and wish him well.”
For now, Woodson has chosen his brands over a small NFL ownership stake, and he’ll keep trying to grow his business.
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