John Stallworth + Part Owner Of The Steelers

John Stallworth + Part Owner Of The Steelers, Stallworth now a Steelers owner. Famed receiver, two others revealed as new investors in NFL franchise. Hall of Fame wide receiver John Stallworth is among the three new partners in the Steelers who were approved yesterday by NFL owners.

Mr. Stallworth, the president and CEO of Genesis II; Bruce V. Rauner, chairman of GTCR Golder Rauner, LLC; and the Varischetti family of Brockway, Jefferson County, bring to six the new partners the NFL has approved under the realignment of Steelers ownership under Dan and Art Rooney II.


Mr. Rauner, Mr. Stallworth and the Varischetti family join James Haslam III, the Paul family and Thomas Tull as new partners to help maintain the Rooney family ownership of the Steelers.

The agreement among the Rooney family for closing the transaction was originally set to take place before March 31, but with the addition of new investors the closing will be postponed until May.

Two or three more partners could be added by then, team president Art Rooney II has said.

The Steelers did not disclose the ownership interest of any of the investors.

The latest deal will bring one of the members of the legendary 1970s Steelers teams back into the fold. Mr. Stallworth, 56, played for the Steelers for 14 years and in the Steelers' first four Super Bowl championships.

He was president and CEO of Madison Research Corp., an engineering and information technology company based in Huntsville, Ala., before selling the company in 2006. He told Inc. magazine in 2006. He and a retired Army engineer he had met at his son's soccer game founded the company in 1986, and it grew into an operation valued at $62 million with 470 employees. Clients included the Army, Air Force and NASA.

The Varischetti family has substantial involvement in many businesses, including Guardian Elder Care Holdings Inc., which has 23 nursing facilities mostly in Pennsylvania, and Varischetti and Sons Inc., which owns and manages commercial real estate in Pennsylvania and New York, according to a statement from the Steelers. The family's business history dates to the 1960s, when the late Frank Varischetti built his sanitation business into one of the largest independently-owned sanitation companies in the state, the statement said.

"We've always been huge Steelers fans, so when this opportunity presented itself, it seemed like a dream come true," Peter Varischetti, 39, said last night on behalf of his family. "There was an opportunity to be able to do something, and it made sense for our family. It was a good fit for the Rooneys and the Varischettis."

Mr. Varischetti declined to say how much his family has invested in the team.

Mr. Rauner, 53, is a native of Chicago and chairman of GTCR Golder Rauner, a venture capital and private equity firm. He told Crain's Chicago Business magazine in 2006 that he was interested in buying the Chicago Cubs, but the Tribune Co. is in the midst of negotiations with another bidder who offered $900 million for the Cubs in January. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Dartmouth College and holds an M.B.A. from Harvard University.

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