Estranged family of late New Orleans Saints owner opt not to challenge will

Family of Tom Benson had argued businessman had been manipulated into cutting them out of succession plan

Gayle Benson inherited control of New Orleans's NFL and NBA teams when her husband and the multibillion-dollar organizations' owner, Tom Benson, died five years ago. Ever since then, her ownership of the NFL's Saints and the NBA's Pelicans had been under threat from Tom's daughter and grandchildren from a previous marriage. Until Thursday they had the option of filing a lawsuit challenging the validity of the will that cut them out of his succession plans and installed Gayle as the inheritor of the sports teams.

That deadline passed without Tom Benson's daughter Renee or her children Rita and Ryan LeBlanc apparently having taking any such action, however. The time limit's lapse would mean Gayle Benson has officially consolidated her ownership of the teams, which she has promised will be sold only after her death on the condition that they remain in New Orleans.