{"id":761544,"date":"2026-02-19T03:11:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/761544\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T03:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:11:16","slug":"todd-graves-open-to-buying-new-orleans-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/761544\/","title":{"rendered":"Todd Graves Open to Buying New Orleans Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

BATON ROUGE, La. (KPEL News<\/a>) \u2014 Todd Graves has chicken fingers. He has billions. And now he\u2019s saying he might want a football team, too \u2014 specifically, maybe the New Orleans Saints.<\/p>\n

Graves made the comments during Super Bowl week while talking to TMZ Sports<\/a>, and he didn\u2019t exactly shut the door on the idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I love football,\u201d Graves said. \u201cI love the fanfare of it. I love the fact that coaches and teams have to put together this amazing play-calling, amazing teams, the athletes are incredible, so I love all that. It\u2019s all about success and working hard and doing great and giving it all to the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Graves Actually Said About the Saints<\/p>\n

The reporter pushed further, asking whether Graves \u2014 a Baton Rouge resident \u2014 could picture a day where his love of football and his business empire converge to make him an NFL owner.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe, someday that makes sense for me, right?\u201d Graves said. \u201cSo maybe someday down the line, it might.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirk Herbstreit and Ben join Todd Graves and Cane III at Raising Cane’s in Austin Ahead of College GameDay for Texas-Georgia<\/p>\n

Getty Images for Raising Cane’s<\/p>\n

Then came the Saints angle. The interviewer brought up Graves\u2019 friendship with Gayle Benson, who owns both the Saints and the Pelicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cGayle\u2019s amazing,\u201d Graves said. \u201cYou know, someday, if Gayle were to ever be like, \u2018Hey \u2014\u2019 you know, Gayle\u2019s going to live forever. She\u2019s just in great shape and all of that. She\u2019s a really sharp lady. I really respect her. We\u2019re good friends. I just really respect her. I learn from her. She\u2019s an incredible businesswoman, and even more, she\u2019s just great in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cShe gives everything back, but you know, maybe someday, if she\u2019s like, \u2018Here are the reins,\u2019 who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n

When the reporter told Graves he might \u201chave an in,\u201d the billionaire laughed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI might have an in, you know? But you never know.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Saints Fans Need to Know Right Now<\/p>\n

Before anyone starts printing \u201cGraves\u2019s Saints\u201d T-shirts, pump the brakes.<\/p>\n

Benson, 79, told The Times-Picayune<\/a> in November 2025 that neither the Saints nor the Pelicans are for sale. Nothing has changed since then.<\/p>\n

Graves wasn\u2019t claiming a deal is in the works. He was answering a hypothetical with good humor \u2014 the kind of answer that keeps a door open without walking through it.<\/p>\n

New Orleans Saints v Atlanta Falcons<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

Still, the conversation isn\u2019t nothing. Graves is worth $22 billion, per Forbes<\/a>, which makes him Louisiana\u2019s wealthiest person and the richest restaurateur in America. NFL franchises sell for billions \u2014 the Washington Commanders went for $6.05 billion in 2023 \u2014 and Graves has the money to compete.<\/p>\n

He co-founded Raising Cane\u2019s in 1996 near the LSU campus and built it into the third-largest quick-serve chicken chain in the country, behind only Chick-fil-A and Popeyes. The company cleared $5.1 billion in revenue in 2024, and 2025 figures are expected to top that.<\/p>\n

Could Graves Actually Buy an NFL Team?<\/p>\n

Money alone doesn\u2019t get you into the NFL ownership club. The league\u2019s approval process is long, and existing owners vote on any new member. But Graves has what they typically look for: deep Louisiana roots, a squeaky-clean public image, and a story that goes from sleeping on a friend\u2019s couch to running a $22 billion empire.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s done plenty outside the restaurant world too. Graves sat on the Super Bowl LIX host committee when New Orleans held the game in February 2025. He took over as chair of the University of Missouri Board of Curators. And Raising Cane\u2019s has given more than $165 million<\/a> to community causes over the years \u2014 the kind of track record that matters when 32 billionaires are deciding whether to let you join their group.<\/p>\n

For now, it\u2019s all hypothetical. Benson isn\u2019t selling, and Graves isn\u2019t campaigning. But for Saints fans who\u2019ve spent years wondering what the franchise looks like after Benson, it\u2019s worth knowing that one of Louisiana\u2019s own, the guy who built an empire on a single menu item, has already thought about it.<\/p>\n

Louisiana\u2019s Lost Stores Will Bring Back Memories<\/p>\n

Gallery Credit: Bernadette Lee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BATON ROUGE, La. (KPEL News) \u2014 Todd Graves has chicken fingers. He has billions. And now he\u2019s saying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[7,5486,896,55,2572,2571,6,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-761544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-louisiana-news","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-saints","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanssaints","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-saints"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116095110256144741","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}