I hadn’t thought much about Patriots owner Robert Kraft until just recently something happened that made me curious about him, and it wasn’t the massage parlor incident.
On Super Bowl Sunday I noticed him rocking a giant gold rope chain with a hip-hop inspired diamond encrusted blinged out medallion reading CHAMPIONSHIPS.
The only thing I knew about Robert Kraft up until this point was that he owned the Patriots and was friends with Donald Trump.
That’s an eccentric thing for a 77 year old Trump supporting billionaire to do, and, the Trump thing aside, that looks like the type of rogue, doesn’t take himself too seriously, I don’t give a fuck, type of guy I’d like to have a beer or maybe a Goose martini with, I thought.
Then I reflexively thought, man, for a billionaire who owns a football team, in a league that is mostly black and carries with it a long list of constantly discussed questions about race and privilege to be taking a page out of black culture, well, that’s really in poor taste.
I saw him hobnobbing with the players after the Pats won the game, and took notice that the players, both white and black, appeared at a glimpse to genuinely like him, and indeed I remembered hearing a few things to this respect when watching Pardon the Interruption or whatever talking head show it might be.
This only served to back up my theory, which I formed from watching HBO’s Hard Knocks, that some not-trivial percentage of making an NFL team is not telling your overfed overstuffed drill sergeant style line coach not to go fuck himself when he’s demeaning you and screaming spittle into your face.
This in turn backed up my stance on American football, which is that I believe it to be have subtle, yet deep racist undertones. There are plenty of guys with ability, but we’re looking for guys who can swallow their pride.
But then I saw Kraft at the NBA All Star game festivities a few weeks ago, still wearing the medallion, but hanging around on the court, acting a fool, and giving dap to a bunch of elite NBA players, who all seemed to get a real kick out of the guy.
Basketball players are different than football players in general. They will tell you to go fuck yourself. The NBA guys have guaranteed contracts. The league doesn’t control their actions. They have no particular reason to kiss his ass. What gives, I thought.
So I did some research into Robert Kraft.
What I learned is that, far from fitting the Jerry Jones model of the silver spoon fed Republican owner whose political views look down on the families of the players he employs, Kraft is a lifelong Democrat, who comes from a good but not wealthy family, who shrewdly made his fortune in the paper business, and finagled his way into owning both the Patriots and Gillette Stadium when there was relatively little interest.
He bought the team for $172 million in 1994, and Forbes now estimates its value at $3.7 billion.
Along with his wife, Myra, who passed away in 2011, he became a bonafide philanthropist and has donated over $100 million to various causes, including $20 million to build the Kraft Family National Center for Leadership and Training in Community Health, which serves to train healthcare professionals to serve in community health centers.
That sounds like the opposite of something Trump would do, but I get it, they’re both public billionaires (or at least Kraft is while Trump pretends to be on TV), but still, why does this friendship persist, to the point that Kraft still publicly vouches for Trump?
It turns out you can just ask Robert Kraft, as Gary Meyers of the New York Daily News did at a press conference prior to the 2017 Super Bowl.
“When Myra died, Melania and Donald came up to the funeral in our synagogue, then they came for memorial week to visit with me. Then he called me once a week for the whole year, the most depressing year of my life when I was down and out. He called me every week to see how I was doing, invited me to things, tried to lift my spirits.”
That was a good enough answer for me, and it should be for any human being. Robert Kraft is loyal. He doesn’t forget things.
During that same line of questioning, when asked why he had dinner with Trump prior to his inauguration, Kraft explained:
“To be honest, I think we have a real challenge, especially in the inner cities. Working class people and lower income people, we have to help more. They’ve gotten hurt over the last decade a lot. We have to create jobs and a vibrant economy that helps those communities throughout America. I really believe and hope that the new administration is going to do that.”
Apparently these two men share little in common, but you have to remember Trump was a Democrat too, until just recently. Regardless, I would have a hard time criticizing him for remaining loyal to someone who helped him in times of need.
Many of us have friends we don’t agree with. I don’t have much in common with most of the people I grew up with, but I love them, and little could change that.
One time one of my friends from Alaska got drunk and pissed on the floor at some douchey LA party. I left with him.
Although a fervent support of Trump in theses times might test the waters, blood and loyalty trumps everything.
You should not be too quick to judge someone.
That’s what I’ve learned from Robert Kraft.
On that note, I uphold the same sentiment regarding his solicitation for prostitution in a Jupiter, Florida, massage parlor.
Any MSNBC pundit, Eagles fan, or ineffectual husband quick to condemn a lonely old man for getting a happy ending at a massage parlor should look at themselves in the mirror and realize they’ve done worse.
If the purposes of busting the guy is to halt human trafficking, I’d say these bored cops would have had enough evidence if they’d discovered a trove of Cambodian women simply giving massages against their will.
Nonetheless, unless Kraft asked for the “Human Trafficking Special”, where they bring the girls in wearing mock handcuffs, it has nothing to do with him anymore than if he were participating in an illegal underground poker game and was arrested because the dealer was a victim of human trafficking.
I’m still waiting to get that martini with Kraft, I get along well with people who are loyal, even in the face of knowing better.