ASHBURN, Va. — Washington Commanders linebacker Bobby Wagner, who grew up in Los Angeles rooting for Kobe Bryant, needs to additional what the Lakers legend as soon as began on the subject of girls’s sports activities.
Wagner was introduced Wednesday as a minority investor within the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, whose X publish referred to as him the “first energetic NFL participant to have fairness in a WNBA staff.”
Wagner mentioned he spoke with NBA Corridor of Famer Magic Johnson, a minority proprietor with the Commanders, earlier than deciding to speculate.
“He is been a very massive mentor of mine; he helped me out a lot,” Wagner mentioned of Johnson. “I ran this concept throughout [him] earlier than I made the choice, and he was an enormous assist as a result of, clearly, he is completed it. He is completed it at excessive stage. In order that’s undoubtedly any person I lean into.”
Wagner mentioned Bryant’s legacy — he coached his daughter’s basketball groups and helped promote girls’s sports activities — was a driving drive within the choice.
So Excited ! https://t.co/8eskYa8lBs
— Bobby Wagner (@Bwagz) July 23, 2025
Wagner’s former teammate in Seattle, Richard Sherman, as soon as arrange a gathering between Wagner and Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash in 2020.
“I watched what Kobe was doing for ladies’s basketball and the WNBA and what he was attempting to do,” Wagner mentioned. “This was one thing that was essential to me as a result of it is nearly like attempting to choose up the place he left off. Clearly I am not him by any means, however I may do my half. I feel girls’s sports activities is wonderful. I’ve daughters. I’ve sisters.”
Wagner mentioned he has made different investments in girls entrepreneurs and woman-led funds in addition to a fund that’s solely for ladies’s sports activities, however that is his most public enterprise.
He mentioned he began speaking to the Storm about 5 – 6 months in the past. The truth that it was Seattle — his NFL dwelling from 2012 to 2021 and in 2023 — additionally performed a job, as he mentioned the funding helps him keep related to the town. Wagner received a Tremendous Bowl with the Seahawks throughout that point and was named first-team All-Professional six occasions.
He mentioned he typically watched the Storm throughout his time in Seattle.
“They impressed our group quite a bit,” Wagner mentioned, “so I am actually excited to be part of a company that has been inspiring me for a very long time.”
