Nick Underhill: Players organizing a Players-Only Meeting
Yep. He was in Benson's Will to run the team for Gayle. He is an owner in all but name.
Uh, no, that's not accurate at all. He's named in the succession plan, but he has zero ownership interest and cannot buy or sell the team. Dennis Lauscha is the designated executor of the estate upon Gayle's passing and the language in the plan mandates that Lauscha sells the team to a party who agrees to keep the team in New Orleans. There's some debate as to whether that's enforceable, but that's a different discussion.
In the unlikely event that Lauscha passes before Gayle, then I believe it's Bensel, then Loomis.
There's nothing in the language that prevents Gayle from firing any of them if she wants to. She retains full ownership of the team and can override any of them.
That said, they're are all practically a family and unless Loomis does something stupid, he's not likely going anywhere.
Ideally, he'd work with Gayle and Lauscha to step away from the GM position and hire a football guy to run the team.