Nah, Jigga: Jay-Z Reportedly Has No Chance of Getting His Hands on an NFL Team

After a controversial announcement that he was making a deal with the devil the oft-criticized NFL, word on the street (h/t TMZ) was that Jay-Z was in line to become part-owner of some unnamed football team.

Mr. Beyoncé neither confirmed nor denied the report, but now sources are telling CBS Sports that ain’t no way in hell is that happening:

Multiple people connected to NFL ownership and the league office have told CBS Sports that this TMZ-reported rumor is simply false, that there are no plans in place for the rap legend to become an NFL owner.

After Jay-Z announced his plan for Roc Nation to serve as a consultant to the NFL on entertainment, including halftime at the Super Bowl, many slammed it as a sucka move hypocritical.

The rap mogul had been openly critical of the league (in the wake of the same by many a social activist on the ground) about its blackballing of quarterback Colin Kaepernick for choosing to kneel during the playing of the national anthem in order to bring attention to police brutality and racial injustice in this country.

Then came Jigga’s lauding of his Roc Nation cash-out deal, and he was all, “I think we’re past kneeling. I think it’s time for action.”

When it was reported that Jay-Z was now in line to get part ownership of an NFL team, a light bulb went off for many, as in, “Ah-ha! So that’s why he did it. ...I see you, Jay-Z.”

But according to sources to CBS Sports, Jay-Z’s entertainment deal has no team ownership component:

[...] the deal does not include any ownership stake or parameters of a potential one. That’s not to say that Jay-Z will not at some point get a piece of a team through his work with the league and its owners, but this is nothing like the situation between him and the Brooklyn Nets, where he paid the most nominal of fees to get a portion of the team while he campaigned for their move to that borough and served a particularly public function as the face of the franchise. Carter would have to be fully vetted and approved by membership, and he would have to divest himself of his growing athlete representation empire as well.

“Those kinds of deals don’t exist in the NFL,” as one super-plugged in ownership-level source put it. “There is no ownership component to this arrangement.”

And speaking of that vetting, sources tell Variety that Jay-Z would have a high bar to clear—as an admitted former drug dealer with an assault charge on his record, to boot:

Indeed, an open question remains what kind of welcome the owners would give Jay — who is not just an admitted former drug dealer, as right-wing mouthpiece Tomi Lahren noted in a Tweet criticizing the NFL for the partnership (her voice may be more significant in the world of professional football than society as a whole), but also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge after stabbing record producer Lance Rivera in 1999.

Guess only time will truly tell how things will pan out, but for now, when it comes to NFL team ownership, it’s looking like issa no for Hov.