Rob Walton donated $16.5M to Republicans between Jan. 1, 2023, and Oct. 1, 2024. That, per USA TODAY’s Tom Schad, who published the findings on Halloween.
The Denver Broncos were sold to the mega-rich Waltons, the owners of Walmart, for a record $4.65 billion in June, 2022. And the ultra-wealthy owner has been busy in his free time.
Rob Walton donated $16.5M to Republicans over the last 22 months
Today is a crucial day both in the NFL and in America. It’s Election Day, and it’s the NFL trade deadline (2 p.m. MT). So, what topic fits better than the Denver Broncos’ owner donating five times more money to political committees and candidates than any other owner?
According to USA TODAY, Rob Walton donated $16.5M to Republicans since Jan. 1, 2023, which is 500% more than the next highest donation from an NFL owner. That $3.33M came from Arthur Blank of the Falcons, and his money went to Democrats.
Also of note, Greg Penner and his wife Carrie Walton Penner, who run the team on a day-to-day basis, each donated big money, too. Penner donated $171,500 to Republicans, while Walton Penner donated $1.1M to Democrats over the same time period.
There is no limit to how much NFL owners can donate to political candidates and committees, and the spending has skyrocketed since 2020.
According to Schad’s reporting, the collective spending by NFL owners on the 2020 election was $3.6M. That ballooned to $28 million in 2024, with $23M going to Republicans, $2.5M to Democrats, and $2.2M to nonpartisan PACs.
“The analysis showed that, collectively, NFL owners’ donations during the current election cycle leaned right,” explained Schad. “Of the 24 owners with partisan giving, 16 donated primarily or exclusively to Republican candidates, political action committees (PACs) and joint fundraising committees. And in total, about 83% of the money donated by NFL owners has gone to conservative candidates and causes − a figure skewed significantly by Walton, who is a big-money Republican donor. (Though the Walmart heir spearheaded the family’s $4.65 billion purchase of the Broncos in 2022, he stepped back last fall and ceded his role as controlling owner to Greg Penner, his son-in-law.)”
Keep politics out of sports, but put sports money into politics?
Rewind to 2016, and football fans on the right started saying, “keep politics out of sports.”
That coincided with Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the National Anthem to protest police brutality, specifically the killing of Black men.
Then-President and Republican Donald Trump blasted Kaepernick saying, “Get that son of a bitch off the field right now! He’s fired!”
Despite leading his San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2012, Kaepernick was out of the NFL following the 2016 season, blackballed. Republicans cheered.
In the wake of 2020 and the George Floyd protests across the country, in which police brutally assaulted protestors, the NFL decided to add slogans to the back of end zones and helmets. “It Takes All of Us” and “End Racism” have lined the back of end zones since 2021. And players’ helmets can say one of seven slogans including, “End Racism” as well as “Stop Hate,” “It Takes All of Us,” “Black Lives Matter,” “Inspire Change” and “Say Their Stories.”
While some may see the messages as a positive, one can easily find tweets on right-leaning X calling them “woke” and therefore bad.
Only a week ago, Nick Bosa of the same 49ers crashed Brock Purdy’s postgame interview on Sunday NightFootball, wearing a MAGA hat.
Nick Bosa crashes his teammates’ postgame interview on ‘Sunday Night Football’ while wearing a Make America Great Again hat. pic.twitter.com/1bTufDbRpc
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 28, 2024
Bosa actually had to delete insensitive tweets before he was drafted in 2019 because it became clear he was going to the 49ers. And his political hat violated an NFL rule.
And yet, there has been little to no backlash from right-leaning folks yelling, “Keep politics out of sports!”
That’s because they aren’t actually against politics in sports, they are against certain politics in sports. It’s hypocrisy, simple as that.
And those same folks “against” politics in sports are likely celebrating the fact that Rob Walton donated $16.5M to Republicans.
No way to keep politics out of sports, but should owners use fans’ money in politics?
Ultimately, there’s no way to keep politics out of sports. Sports, like politics, are ubiquitous in everyday life. They affect us in many different ways, and they are entwined.
Going back to the 1936 Olympics, Black American Jesse Owens went to Berlin and won four gold medals against Hitler’s Nazis who thought the Arian race was superior. Back home, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball in 1947.
In the 1960s, Muhammad Ali protested the Vietnam War as a conscientious objector. And in 1968, Tommy Smith and John Carlos, two Black Americans, raised their fists in a salute on the medal podium.
That was in the middle of the Civil Rights Era, when Black folks were fighting for the right to vote, the right to marry interracially, and racial desegregation. These were issues that plagued people throughout their lives, whether they played sports professionally or not.
It’s also one thing for a player to voice his opinion about politics. And it’s something completely different when an owner spends millions of dollars on political candidates, especially when some of that money could be earned from fans buying tickets, jerseys, beers, etc.
Some sports fans want athletes to shut up and play.
Do those same fans find and issue with owners using their money to try and sway elections or officials?
Even if owners don’t use NFL money on politics, they do represent the team, and in certain ways, the fans.
Because of that, owners are alienating some of their fan base.