No, the Tampa Bay Bucs owner didn’t pay for the WSJ ad critical of Biden

On Aug. 29, Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted an image of a newspaper advertisement criticizing President Joe Biden. 

"Mr. President," the ad said, "Americans deserve better. Your impulsive actions, bias and indecision in your crisis in Afghanistan have caused Americans eternal shame." 

The ad is signed "Hugh F. Culverhouse, Jr."

Cruz said it was a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal from "the former owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers."  

Jenna Laine, an ESPN reporter who covers the NFL team, quickly tweeted a correction. 

"This is not from former Bucs owner Hugh Culverhouse, who died in 1994" Laine said. "This is from his son, Hugh Culverhouse Jr. — a lawyer, a real estate investor and a philanthropist."

But the claim, or some variation, was already running wild on the internet. 

Featured Fact-check

Threads posts

stated on October 26, 2024 in a Threads post

Four Florida counties had “zero results” Oct. 26, and “something underhanded might be happening.”

One image of the ad that’s being shared on Facebook says: "A full page ad in the Wall Street Journal paid for by the owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers."

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

The Buccaneers team has six owners, and Culverhouse Jr. isn’t one of them. The co-owners are: Bryan Glazer, Darcie Glazer Kassewitz, Edward Glazer, Joel Glazer, Avram Glazer and Kevin Glazer. 

The Glazer family have owned the Buccaneers since its late patriarch, Malcolm Glazer, bought the team in 1995 from the estate of Hugh Culverhouse, who had owned the team until his death in 1994. 

Reporting on his death, the New York Times said at the time that in 1990, Culverhouse relinquished "day-to-day operations of the team" to his daughter, Gay Culverhouse, his law partner, Stephen F. Story, and his son, Hugh Culverhouse Jr.

In 1992, Gay Culverhouse became the team’s president, and in 1993, Hugh Culverhouse Sr. turned over control of the team to three trustees, his children not among them. 

"Perhaps the similarity of my name caused Ted Cruz to call me the owner," Culverhouse Jr. told USA Today. 

He isn’t. We rate this post False.