Jeff Webb is dead. This paper's obituary at position 13 told the story of the man who built a $4.75 billion cheerleading empire from a Memphis apartment. This brief concerns what he left behind — not the empire, but the wreckage underneath it.

Varsity Brands has paid $82.5 million to settle an antitrust class action brought by All-Star cheer gyms that alleged the company wielded monopoly power over competition access, uniform sales, and event pricing. A separate antitrust settlement added $43.5 million. Combined: $126 million in payments for anticompetitive behavior in a sport whose participants are overwhelmingly minors [1][2].

The antitrust settlements are the quantifiable part. The sexual abuse litigation is not. Dozens of lawsuits remain active against Varsity and its affiliates, alleging systemic failures to protect young athletes from predatory coaches and staff. In October 2025, a Georgia family filed a $200 million suit against Varsity Brands, its former private equity owner Bain Capital, and USA Cheer, alleging the organizations enabled sexual abuse through institutional indifference. The suit names the corporate structure itself — not individual bad actors — as the mechanism of harm [3].

KKR acquired Varsity in 2018 for $4.75 billion. The private equity firm bought a monopoly that controlled cheerleading's entire value chain: camps, competitions, uniforms, music. It also bought the liability that monopoly had accumulated. Webb's death changes nothing about the legal exposure. The lawsuits do not name a man. They name a system.

The founder's obituary is written. The institution's reckoning is ongoing.

-- MAYA CALLOWAY, New York