{"id":765898,"date":"2026-02-21T02:57:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T02:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/765898\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T02:57:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T02:57:23","slug":"raising-canes-founder-lsu-fan-says-i-might-have-an-in-to-buy-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/765898\/","title":{"rendered":"Raising Canes founder, LSU fan says \u2018I might have an in\u2019 to buy Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

KEY TAKEAWAYS:\n<\/p>\n

Todd Graves<\/a> says owning the Saints could make sense \u201cmaybe someday\u201d
\nGraves praises Saints owner Gayle Benson<\/a> and calls her a mentor
\nBenson has said the team will not be sold in her lifetime
\nTilman Fertitta<\/a> also linked to potential future NFL ownership<\/a> bid<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plenty of New Orleans Saints<\/a> fans have called for Gayle Benson to sell the team after a directionless half-decade, but she isn\u2019t budging. That doesn\u2019t mean speculation hasn\u2019t gone around about who could be the next owner of the black and gold. One name that\u2019s come up frequently is Todd Graves, the Raising Canes founder based out of Baton Rouge who some frustrated fans have pointed to as an ideal successor.\n<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s been spotted with Benson at various events and collaborated with the Saints and NFL in a number of ventures, Graves hasn\u2019t openly talked about his interest in buying the team. But in a recent Super Bowl<\/a> week interview with TMZ at Jason and Travis Kelce\u2019s star-studded New Heights podcast<\/a> party, Graves finally made his ambitions known.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I love football,\u201d Graves said. He\u2019s well-known as an LSU Tigers<\/a> super fan, but Graves rubs shoulders with dozens of celebrities at his own Super Bowl suite each year. He continued: \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. It\u2019s all about success and working hard and doing great and giving it all to the fans. So maybe, someday, that makes sense for me, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

While he cautioned that he isn\u2019t in a rush to join the exclusive circle of NFL owners \u2014 emphasizing that this is a \u201cmaybe someday down the line\u201d conversation \u2014 Graves did acknowledge his strong relationship with Saints owner Gayle Benson. He added: \u201cShe\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. She gives everything back, but you know, maybe some day, if she\u2019s like, \u2018Here are the reins,\u2019 who knows?\u201d\n<\/p>\n

When the interviewer joked that \u201cYou might have an in!\u201d Graves had to laugh in agreement: \u201cI might have an in, you know? But you never know.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

For her part, Benson has repeatedly stated that the Saints will not go up for sale during her lifetime, and she drew up a will that contractually binds a new owner to keep the team in New Orleans, with proceeds from the sale to be distributed to charities citywide. Having an owner like Graves who was born and raised in Louisiana would reassure a lot of fans that the black and gold wouldn\u2019t be going anywhere. We\u2019ll see how it shakes out. Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta has expressed his interest in expanding from the NBA to the NFL, too, so it\u2019s not like Graves would be the only bidder. But as he admitted, he might have an inside track once the day comes.\n<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Raising Canes founder, LSU fan says \u2018I might have an in\u2019 to buy Saints\n<\/p>\n

Reporting by John Sigler, Saints Wire \/ Saints Wire\n<\/p>\n

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KEY TAKEAWAYS: Todd Graves says owning the Saints could make sense \u201cmaybe someday\u201d Graves praises Saints owner Gayle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[7,12869,7211,39382,896,55,2572,2571,6,92372,87126,397,156,505,109053,34881],"class_list":{"0":"post-765898","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-gayle-benson","10":"tag-lsu-tigers","11":"tag-new-heights-podcast","12":"tag-new-orleans","13":"tag-new-orleans-saints","14":"tag-neworleans","15":"tag-neworleanssaints","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-nfl-ownership","18":"tag-raising-canes","19":"tag-saints","20":"tag-sports-business","21":"tag-super-bowl","22":"tag-tilman-fertitta","23":"tag-todd-graves"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116106379121112551","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765898","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=765898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}