FACT CHECK: Did The Owner Of The Tampa Bay Buccaneers Pay For This Anti-Biden Ad In The Wall Street Journal?

Elias Atienza | Senior Reporter

An image shared on Facebook over 2,200 times claims the owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers paid for an anti-Joe Biden advertisement in The Wall Street Journal.

Verdict: False

Hugh Culverhouse Jr., who is listed as paying for the ad, is the son of the former owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and does not own the team. The Buccaneers are currently owned by the Glazer family, according to the team’s website.

Fact Check:

The Taliban took control of Afghanistan amid the U.S. withdrawing all of its troops from the country by Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline, according to Reuters. Biden and his administration have faced heavy criticism for how the withdrawal was handled.

The image shows a full-page advertisement in a print edition of The Wall Street Journal that says, “Mr. President, Americans deserve better. Your impulsive actions, bias and indecision in your crisis in Afghanistan have caused Americans eternal shame.” A line at the bottom of the ad states it was “paid for by Hugh F. Culverhouse, Jr.”

But, contrary to the Facebook post’s claim, the ad was not paid for by the owner of the Buccaneers, the NFL team that won the Super Bowl in February. Culverhouse Jr., a real estate investor, lawyer and philanthropist, is the son of the team’s late former owner, Hugh Culverhouse Sr., according to Sarasota Magazine.

The official Buccaneers website does not list Culverhouse Jr. as an owner of the team. Rather, it lists six members of the Glazer family, including Bryan Glazer and Darcie Glazer Kassewitz, as owners. The Buccaneers were, according to The New York Times, sold to the Glazer family in 1995 by the trustees of the estate of Culverhouse Sr., who passed away in 1994.

ESPN reporter Jenna Laine debunked a similar claim from Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who had alleged in an Aug. 29 tweet that the ad came from the former owner of the Buccaneers.

“This is not from former Bucs owner Hugh Culverhouse, who died in 1994. This is from his son, Hugh Culverhouse Jr. — a lawyer, a real estate investor and a philanthropist,” she tweeted.

Culverhouse Jr. told USA Today that he hasn’t had any leadership role in the football team since his father’s death. (RELATED: Did Donald Trump Release A Statement Calling Tom Brady ‘Shady’?)

“Perhaps the similarity of my name caused Ted Cruz to call me the owner,” Culverhouse Jr. said to USA Today. “However, look in my ad in the WSJ and NY Post. Only my signature appears. My father was 74 when he died. This is not difficult. The Glazers have had over 25 years of publicity as the Buccaneers owners.”

Culverhouse Jr. in 2019 took out an ad in The Wall Street Journal in which he expressed opposition to an Alabama law restricting abortion, local news affiliate CBS 42 reported.

Elias Atienza

Senior Reporter
Follow Elias on Twitter Have a fact check suggestion? Send ideas to [email protected].

Trending